Hang-over
suggestions
So, you had a really good time yesterday and
now you are regretting it?. No problem! You are not alone, and if you want a
cure you came to the right place to learn that THERE ISN'T ONE!!.
I'll try to give you some suggestions that have
worked for me, but chances are they won't work as well on everybody.:
- Thiamin.- Vitamin B1.
After you drink your liver starts transforming Ethanol into para -
formaldehyde and then it burns it down to CO2 and
water. If you drink too much, your liver can't finish what it began and you
get intoxicated. It isn't the alcohol that gives you the hangover, it's the
by-product. So if you want to help your liver help you then B1
is the number-one choice for an overworked liver. I prefer Roche's Benerva
® 500 mg., but almost any half a gram of B1 will do
fine. It's not a bad idea to also take a B complex t give your liver some B6
and B12 to work with.
- Buffer solution.- During heavy drinking
(>2 lt.) your gut's pH drops down radically. That is what makes you feel
heartburn. A good idea is to take a good buffer solution before you start
drinking, before you pass out, and as soon as you come out of coma. I prefer
Andrews Salt ® (Sterling Products Intl.);, but if you can't find it in your
country, all you need is a mild base and a mild acid, e.g. sodium
bicarbonate 2.18g and citric acid 1.84 g with magnesium sulfate 0.88g and
sodium carbonate 0.1g. If you have problems with chemistry you can take an
Alka Seltzer ®, it would work fine and the aspirin that it contains may
even help you with your headache.
- Food.- Not any food but The Right Food.
The food will depend on you because it has psychological implications.
Seafood is the No. 1 choice. I prefer Encebollado,
that's a Yellow Fin Tuna (Thunnus albacares) soup with Yucca. Or
Ceviche, that's raw mollusks or fish
in lemon (but don't forget the buffer). I prefer black clam (Anadara
tuberculosa) or Oysters (Crassostrea sp.). A soup of Pig
intestines filled with rice and blood (Caldo de
Manguera or hose soup) is a good pick-me-up! too. If you don't like that
try whatever you feel like having (see my Hangover
Food recipes).
- Rehydratation.- Alcohol has diuretic
properties (this is the reason you pee so much when you drink).
Usually
when
you stop drinking your body will be dehydrated. Water is the most frequent
choice for rehydratation, but it's not the best one, you also need to
replenish some electrolytes lost during the drinking. A good habit is to
drink Gatorade®, or any oral rehydratation salt sold in drug stores (like
Pedialite®). A more classic approach is tomato juice or V-8®, which are
both high in Potassium.
- More Alcohol.- One of the problems of a
hangover is that your body gets used to alcohol, so when the levels go down
you can bring them up again and forget about the pain. The problem with this
method is that sooner or later you must stop drinking, and the hangover will
be even worst. This method is recommended for vacations or weekends. The
choice of what to drink depends on you but I recommend one of the following:
Ice-cold beer, Bloody Mary (it has potassium), Tom Collins, Rum and
Pineapple or Screwdriver. Try to avoid drinking the same drink you were
drinking the night before.
- Throwing up.- Puking is a another
great way to get better from your hangover. When you throw up, you get rid
of a lot of the alcohol you still have in your stomach, and that way it's as
if you would have drunk less (some may say it's cheating, but Bah!). Also,
you get rid of a lot of stomach acid and anything you may have eaten without
noticing that may be rotten or poisonous. I also recommend having a bowel
movement, which enables the insides can be cleansed from both ends.