Hangover Cure/Prevention

The best way to deal with this is to prepare ahead of time for your night out or big event. It all starts with prevention...

Eat healthy the day of...and never drink on an empty stomach. (For many reasons, especially the munchies induced cravings of eating just about anything at the end of the night)...it could make you vomit and therefore, you may risk never eating what it is you just ate ever again! And...what if it was pizza or something delicious like that! Can you sacrifice never eating pizza ever again?

Hydrate your body! I can't stress this point enough. When you get yourself a drink or if you're out in a bar, order yourself a glass of water to sip along with your alcoholic beverage. This has helped me more times than not. And the times it didn't help me, it's due to the fact that I forgot to drink my water!

Before heading off to bed...you still with me? This is important! At the end of the night, I don't care if you end up in the backseat of a car half dressed or at a strange house or better yet somewhere in Mexico with a kidney missing (that's another blog entry altogether) :-) Drink a tall glass of water before you call it a night. You will thank yourself in the morning. Also bring a puke bucket, a box of Kleenex and a glass of water with you to bed...just in case!

If and when you go to bed, and it feels as though the bed is spinning, it's alright to touch the wall or put a foot down on the floor to brace yourself...it may even stop the spinning! I've done this and it's worked sometimes. Now if the spinning is making you nauseous, then perhaps it's a sign that you've drunk too much and too fast and it needs to come back out. At this point, I'd induce vomiting. You'll feel great afterwards. Sucks having to do this...and I"m sure you know how (stick finger in back of throat...yuck...wash your hands first...). This will make you gag and well, I'm sure you know the rest. This should only be used as a last resort. For the love of gawd...if you remember, please brush your teeth afterwards! You don't want the acids from your stomach fluids to play havoc on your enamel...I mean it's bad enough that you've got a hangover...don't make it worse by putting your teeth in danger too!

Morning After...

Sleep it off. Try to sleep in as late and as much as you possibly can. If you have to get up and go to work, keep your fingers and toes crossed that you're in fact actually sober enough to go to work. If you work somewhere that requires coordination and concentration (crap that out...any job for that matter), you may want to consider calling in sick with a stomach flu or something. I would also like to add that this is very irresponsible (I've done it!) of you and when you consume that first drink the night before, you're doing it fully aware of your responsibilities. You better be prepared for whatever consequences your actions brought as a result. (Ya...I know it sucks to hear it...but ya know it's true).

Drink a tall glass of water as soon as you can bring it to your lips...the earlier the better. At this point, you may feel sensitive to hot/cold, so I suggest room temperature water for this.

If and only if...you really need to grab that cup of coffee should you do it. I'm well aware that some people if given the choice would have a permanent IV going into their vein with the good brew...so sacrificing it is outta the question! However, we all know it's a diuretic and causes dehydration. So unless you are willing to chase your coffee with water, I'd say the coffee is off limits!

If you've puked the night before, you're running on an empty stomach. I suggest you rectify that situation and make yourself a healthy breakfast. Have some fruit and pop in a few Vitamin C and Vitamin B-Complex and drink some Gatorade or Powerade. I've done this in the past and it works like a charm.

I hope you feel better and can get over your nasty hangover quickly! Have a speedy recovery and remember...DON'T drink and drive!

In love and light,
Jennifer Boudreau

http://www.organizedbrainclutter.com
http://www.allinclusivetraveltips.com


Here are some great resources I've found to complement what I've written:

http://www.rupissed.com/hangovercures.html (Hangover Cocktails)
http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/hangover/hangover3.html (Mixing drinks..what to drink, what to avoid, etc)