Cures for a Hangover
A neighbor asked me to research this topic on the web. Since I already have the text, why not submit it as a contribution to the well-being of fellow noders? I wish I had this
information in my drinking days. I would have stopped much later.
Take two Advil to get rid of that throbbing head. Aspirin will mask the pain, but only take it when you wake up in the morning. Painkillers work if you take them before bed, but the results will fade by the time you wake up. Never pop aspirin before you go out drinking, it hinders your ability to attain a buzz and may make you hangover worse.
To break out of your hangover funk take large quantities of caffeine. It constricts blood vessels in the brain, it reduces the cerebral blood pressure that makes a headache worse.
While drinking the night before you probably took 15 trips to the bathroom and the body became dehydrated in the process. When the brain cells are dehydrated, they shrink, stretching nerve endings and causing headache pain. This is possibly the best hangover cure.
The advice is based on the theory that sweating gets rid of alcohol and toxins. However, while you may get rid of trace amounts of alcohol through sweating, many hangover symptoms are due to dehydration. So losing even more water through sweating is not going to help.
This technique will probably reduce the shakes, sickness, and a bad mood, but it has a down side. Alcohol will ease the symptoms until you stop drinking. So plan to drink all day, and don't forget to reserve your mat in the mission downtown.
To take you brain off the pain, sex is good distraction. You'll feel instant relief because your brain releases low-level endorphins (the body's natural painkillers). If you don't produce endorphins, the activity should distract you for a while.
Give you body nourishment and settle your stomach. Eating gresay food during a beer bender or just before going to bed will minimize the hangover because it lets you process the alcohol over a longer period of time. But the morning after is too late and won't make a bit of difference.
The idea behind this remedy is to shock the body out of its terrible condition. More "pain is gain" nonsense! Major sensory changes like a cold shower make a hangover worse. Alcohol withdrawal actually causes hypersensitivity to any stimulus.
Gatorade and Vitamin B
Quench your thirst and at the same time replace fluid, minerals and vitamins you lost the night before. A sports drink replaces salts and minerals while a multi-vitamin wouldn't hurt. Hospitals regularly give people with extremely high blood alcohol levels a dose of vitamin B1 thiamine, which helps your body process alcohol and gets it out of you system. By injection is fastest acting and makes you feel good all over.
Reference: http://www.beergeer.com/hangover3.html