Hangover Blues

A cocktail-filled evening with friends can wreak havoc the next morning when you wake up… It’s 9am, you wake up with a perpetual ache in your temples; pulsing, pounding-- tormenting every single cell of your brain. You use every muscle in your body just to pull yourself up, to sit upright on your bed. You barely open your eyes, and the room is still spinning. Just merely pulling your body up, your head starts pounding even more, reminding you that it’s going to be one hell of a morning for ya buddy! You walk towards the bathroom, bumping into walls and doing that little ‘swifty-loopy-I almost fell on my ass’ step, as if you were trying to do a dance move, but failed… You’re now staggering down the hall to find that bathroom they once put up in your home. “I know it’s here somewhere!”

You look in the mirror; your eyes are puffy, red and glassy. Some people will pop a few Tylenols and hope for the best. NO!!!! First of all, do not reach for your Tylenol---please do not even think about it. Tylenol is acetaminophen... Acetaminophen can damage your liver if taken over periods of time, and if you take the painkiller when you have been drinking. They warn people not to take Tylenol if you consume three alcoholic beverages per day. It increases the chances of damaging your liver---when in fact---you may have done a good job of doing that the night before!

So what does one do?

I am going to give you a home remedy tip that I found to be useful, and effective.

First of all, as soon as you wake up, drink a full 8oz glass of water. If you can tolerate it, please drink two. When you drink alcohol, your body is losing massive amounts of potassium, vitamin C, electrolytes, and it’s extremely dehydrated—which only water can replenish. After you drank the water, eat one banana. Bananas are loaded with potassium. Now that you have a little something in your stomach, throw down 1,000 mg of vitamin C. Wait approximately fifteen minutes so it all absorbs. Your stomach may be weak depending on how much you drank the evening before. The next step to do is to drink a full 8oz glass of Gatorade. This sports drink supplies your body with efficient amounts of potassium, electrolytes and sodium---which your body is craving big time right now. Within about thirty minutes, your hangover should subside. If it hasn’t, keep drinking water---you can never drink enough water when your dehydrated. If by chance (which is rare) –your headache is still there, after a complete hour, you may take two Motrins. Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory that reduces the hormones in your body that cause inflammation in your muscles. Although any medication has its own warnings, anti-inflammatory medications have a risk of stomach bleeding without warning *if* taken long periods of time or taken in mass amounts. Everything in moderation, right? Should have thought of that last night!

Okay, so enough of the “healthy way” of kicking this nasty little hangover! Let’s get to the fun side of it, shall we?

Warning: People who attend AA please do not read this part….or the entire blog for that matter.

The age-old cure for a nice throbbing hangover is a delicious bloody mary. First of all, the acid in the tomato juice neutralizes the left over alcohol, which makes for a quicker departure for your awful hangover. The second wonderful ‘helper’ is of course, the new alcohol entering your body. Not only will this bloody mary release the old alcohol, but it will produce a wonderful ‘feel good’ energy that will get you through your Sunday morning.

I hope that your head isn’t pounding after reading this blog. I wanted to give you the ‘healthy way out’ as well as my personal favorite, but ~not so healthy~ effective release of the hangover monster! Sickened

Salute!