One Hangover Cure, on the Rocks
We’ve all been there, waking up the morning after you’ve had a few too many drinks feeling like you’ve just been run over my stampede. Your head is pounding, every sound is amplified, and as you turn on the light you might as well have stuck needles in your eyes. If you’re lucky you have the day off to try and recover, but chances are you’ll find yourself desperately looking for a hangover cure to get on with all the things you have to do. Luckily there are some tips you can take with you to help both prevent a hangover from happening, and deal with them when they do.
So what causes a hangover? There are a few different factors involved that give you the dreaded hangover. One of the major reasons is that your body is severely dehydrated from the alcohol. It’s no coincidence that drinking will have you running to the bathroom more times in a few hours than you would normally do all week. More specifically the ethanol contained in alcoholic drinks will dehydrate you causing the headaches, fatigue and dry mouth commonly associated with a night of heavy drinking. One simple hangover cure is to drink water in between alcoholic beverages, as well as drink a large glass before you go to sleep.
So you’ve messed up. You drank more than you should have and forgot to drink plenty of water the night before, so what are you supposed to do now? Let’s start with a few things that you should not do that may be your first reaction. One of the common myths in curing a hangover is to drink a strong cup of coffee. This is only going to make things worse however since caffeine has the same dehydrating effect as the alcohol that got you into this mess. Focus on water and juices instead. You’re going to want to replenish what was lost the night before. The second thing you want to avoid is taking a pain killer such as Tylenol or Ibuprofen for example. Chances are you still have alcohol in your system and taking them can actually magnify the negative side effects. Last thing you want to do to an already overworked liver is cause it more problems.
Taking a long shower after replenishing your body with plenty of water and vitamins is a good first step in a hangover cure. Some even recommend doing some physical exercise to work through a hangover. If the thought of that is making your stomach turn you might want to try taking medicine such as Alka Seltzer which is very effective at relieving an upset stomach. Unfortunately it’s going to take time for the hangover to pass, but at least there are things you can do to help speed things up.
While the only real hangover cure is to try and not drink like it’s going out of style next time, there are a few steps you can take to protect yourself. Give your body plenty of what it needs, that means water. Avoid the traps the morning after that will keep it going strong throughout the day. Most importantly however, hang in there.
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