I'm NEVER gonna drink again...... (Hangover Prevention, Cures & Advice)

Member Name: jo1l

Product:	Hangover Prevention, Cures & Advice
Date:	29/11/03 (96 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The night out

Disadvantages: plenty!

You stumble out of bed, muttering NEVER AGAIN, with a head that feels like the entire English Footie team is dancing on it, a stomach that feels just ever so queasy - that late night kebab was probably not a good idea.You need coffee just in the vain hope it'll unstuck your furred up tongue from the roof of your mouth. The slightest noise goes throw your body like a knife.As you pass the mirror in the hall way you notice this vision of deathly paleness, with hair that appears to have been styled by a 3 year old and why oh why didn't you remove last nights make up? On reaching the kitchen you find the remains of last nights kebab - even the cat turned it's nose up at it! After trying to work out how to put the kettle on you realize you're out of milk.....Lightening up a cigarette you inhale deeply to realize that perhaps smoking 40 B&H last night wasn't a good idea! Yup your in the land of the living dead or in plain English you've got a hangover! Hopefully other surprises like "Who the F*** is that in my bed?" won't be added to your obvious pain and distress. Unfortunately hangovers don't give you amnesia so you may well be able to recall all the events of last night!


~~What is a hangover~~
Ok there might be a few of you out there who can honestly say you are clueless to what a hangover is. Nothing personal but I hate you ok? Alcohol is basically a poison,which your body fights to get rid of. The toxins in Alcohol along with it's diuretic effect (- we've all suffered that once you start weeing you end up going ever 30 minutes or so syndrome haven't we?) basically cause your body to dehydrate, irritate the stomach lining, cause problems to your sensory nerves and deplemish your store of glucose and other important nutrients.


~~Signs&Symptoms~~
Headache, fatigue,nausea, irritability and dehydration. It is also possible to have: vomiting and dizziness. This is obviously not a
n extensive list and I'm sure you'll be able to add more of your own symptoms!

Ok so you've got one hellva hangover and life would be good if you were no longer suffering this miserable existence that is unfortunately your life right this second. You're vowing to never ever do it again well until the next time.....


Lets be a bit sadistical here and look at what you should have done to avoid looking like Frankenstein this morning.As they say prevention is better than a cure! Don't you just hate those smug self satisfied gits that come out with stuff like that??


~~Preventing a hangover~~

1 -The most obvious preventative measure is not to drink!

2 - Don't drink on an empty stomach.
The myth that food absorbs alcohol is untrue but what food does is delays the alcohol's journey into the small intestine where it is more readily absorbed then in your stomach. Also you prevent the alcohol irritating the stomach lining if there is food there as well. If you are unable to eat prior to drinking then try at least to down a glass as milk as this thought to line the stomach and help stop the alcohol irritating it!

3- Remain hydrated
Alcohol dehydrates the body due to the toxins and it's diuretic effect Drink plenty of water.The best time to actually do this is prior to drinking but who's really going to down glass after glass of water when the beer monster in your head is shouting lemme at the beer? So prior to retiring for the night in an elegant heap about 2 feet away from your bed try to drink water, it's thought that for every glass of alcohol you've drank you should drink a glass of water - looks as if you're in for a long night guzzling water now doesn't it!! Try to actually drink a soft drink whilst you're out. Orange juice should be avoided as that can irritate the stomach. The best way is one alcoholic drink one soft drink etc. Ok so that reg
ime is pretty hard to as your brain and your drinking arm is screaming more booze but you'll suffer for it in the morning you know....

4 - Mixing your drinks
The body doesn't like it as it needs time to recognize all the toxins your happily pouring into it. That old saying about not mixing the grain and the grape is actually very true.

5 - Pacing your drinks
It takes you liver an hour to process one unit of alcohol. One unit being a standard pub measure of spirits, a glass of wine or half a pint of average strength beer. So drinking 2 pints in an hour is like asking your liver to go into over drive and do four hours work in an hour. Obviously you're not going to stop at those two pints are you, so basically your liver can't cope as you pour toxin after toxin into your body! So instead ofdrinking the bar dry in the shortest period it might just be advisable to take a bit longer in your race to drink every drink in the place!

6- Know your poison
The rule here is the darker the spirit or the wine the worse your going to feel in the morning should you over indulge. Fizzy drinks like Champagne or Cava slide down really well but unfortunately the alcohol content is easily absorbed in them!


Ok your probably saying "Will you just pleeeeeeeeeease tell me how to stop this suffering!"


~~The morning after the night before~~

~Rehydrate thy self~
What's the first thing you do most mornings? Put the kettle on for a nice cup of caffeine, forget it this morning the caffeine will irritate your stomach and it can actually cause you to dehydrate even further, so give it a miss. If you should need a hot drink a cup of hot sweet tea might be an idea as this will not irritate your stomach as much and also all that sugar might just help replenish your now diminished glucose stores - the body needs glucose for energy. Fluids are needed desperately by your wreck of a body. Personally
I find Diet Coke the drink of choice, normally waiting for it to go a wee bit flat before drinking it in large amounts.You can always tell how bad a hangover I've got by the amounts of Diet Coke downed. Should you find that your stomach is a wee bit delicate shall we say, then it might be safest to stick to good old water for the time being.


~My head hurts~
Time for the pain relief. It's not recommended that you actually commence pain relief the night before due to the fact that drugs like aspirin and brufen are metabolized by your over worked liver, this can actually be very dangerous. So leave any pain killers till the morning. As Aspirin is known to irritate your already delicate stomach it is advisable to pop something else like paracetomol.


~I feel sick....~
With an irritated stomach it's not surprising your poor old tum feels a bit gippy this morning. Antacids like Magnesium trisilicate or Gaviscon might just help soothe your ickle tum. Some suggest a glass of milk but in my experience all that does is make me want to actually be sick!If you do actually feel as if your going to be sick then actually be sick, this way your body can expel the last of the toxins in your stomach.


~Food glorious food.....~
There are the sadists amongst us who swear by a nice big greasy fry up I just tend to swear at it. One particular sadist of my acquaintance who shall remain nameless but he knows who he is once thought that the ideal way to perk the rather hung over me was to take me out for a nice Pizza. All I can say is the toilets in that particular North London Pizza Hut were very clean as for the pizza unfortunately I couldn't do an op on it as I took only the smallest of nibbles before retiring to the ladies for the duration.

The best bet here is to go for small easily digestible meals.At first plain food might be better such as buttered toast Soup when you can finally face the thought of food i
s easily digestible Some people recommend bananas due to their high vitamin contents. Another way to help replenish your lack of glucose and other nutrients is to try dairy products or fruit with honey


~The Hair of the dog~
Now this might seem like a good idea but unfortunately you're just adding to the toxin levels in your wrecked body. Also I have found due to bitter experience that if you should be brave enough to venture in to one of those evil establishments that sells alcohol you end up staying there.

As that saying goes prevention is better than a cure.....

Summary: