We’ve all been there. A friend’s birthday or themed bar crawl gets a little out of hand and you start thinking you can mix beer, wine and liquor like an invincible superhero.
Before you know it, you’re waking up in the middle of the night with your clothes thrown everywhere, not a water bottle in sight while thinking to yourself, “Dear God can this bathroom floor be any colder.”
There are a slew of situations that are recipes for a hangover from hell. But, thankfully, there are hangover remedies and prevention methods you can use to help come back to life.
Prevention of Hangovers
“I’m not going to drink that much.”
That’s usually the lie we all tell ourselves hours before getting three sheets to the wind (and well before searching for any bathroom to save our lives).
However, with a few life hacks, we can both get loose with our friends and not waste the next day slowly dying in bed.
- Drink water between alcoholic drinks – some people drink water when they want to sober up before driving, but since your body can only process about one drink/shot in a hour, remembering to chug water throughout the night will help to keep your body feeling replenished.
- Eat after drinking – while eating at the only places open at 2 am will wreck your waistline , it will help to absorb the beer and Fireball.
- Party Smart Vitamins – I’m no expert (and certainly not a doctor), but I have used these Party Smart pills on a Vegas trip, and they seemed to work extremely well. As with anything, you can’t binge drink and expect to avoid a hangover, but if you plan a reasonably fun night and don’t want to feel the side effects, give these a try. They’re only about $2 for a pill and available at most health food stores.
Remedies for Hangovers
“I’m never drinking again.”
Everyone has said this at least once in their lifetime. And it’s in that instance that you wish for any kind of medicine or voodoo magic to get rid of the pounding in your head.
But while there’s no instant remedy to a hangover, there are some tricks of the trade to help ease the pain.
OTC Pain Meds
This is an easy one. Take a couple aspirin and chug a glass of water when you wake up. This will get rid of your headache. Once the headache is gone, you can at least think properly getting food.
H2O
Now that you’ve chugged one glass of water, go ahead and chug some more. And then drink a Gatorade or Powerade to help replenish some of those lost electrolytes.
Toast and Crackers
Remember how, when you were sick as a kid, mom usually gave you the only thing that wouldn’t upset your stomach: toast and crackers. Now that you’re an adult and make terrible drinking decisions, revert back to those motherly ways and eat those crackers one by one until it makes you want to chug more water.
World’s First Hangover Cure?
The product Berocca has been available in places like Australia for decades, but in August of 2014, it was finally allowed to come stateside. Berocca specializes in replenishing the body’s B-vitamins, which are blocked during alcohol consumption, thus giving you the tired feeling of being hungover. It’s essentially a tablet you place in a glass of water and, after chugging it, will feel relief.
Pickle Juice
After you’ve done a few rounds of Pickle Backs, you can switch to drinking pickle juice in the morning to restore those electrolytes lost during your alcohol consumption.
The juice from a jar naturally contains these sodium-rich electrolytes so if you’re a fan of pickles already, take a couple gulps the morning after and you’ll be one step closer to ridding yourself of a hangover.
Myths for Curing Hangovers
“My sister’s roommate’s cousin totally tried this concoction one time and swears it works.”
Hair of the Dog
Drinking more to get rid of a night of too much drinking will only delay your hangover, not avoid it.
Greasy Food
If you’re going to eat greasy food, do it before you drink, not after. Foods high in proteins help to slow ethanol in alcohol from absorbing into your blood stream.
Coffee
Caffeine after drinking is one of those things that’s more of a personal preference. Sure, it will give you a much-needed energy kick, but when you crash from drinking coffee, you’ll likely crash pretty hard.
Image source via We Heart It: 1, 2, 3.
This article originally appeared on Gamedayr
