Hungover? Fuzzy? Head aching?

[Tess]

Poppy Z. Brite's characters in Liquor drink strawberry snowballs (like shave ice). Unfortunately we don't have a snowball stand nearby.

I have heard that you especially lose potassium when drinking so I have some V-8 and a banana if there are any.

[elixirofthetropics]

The list has been pretty much covered. I would strongly recommend a combination of the the food, olive oil, hydrate, and analgesic cures. Two more things I would recommend is sipping strong mint tea and 1000+ mg of ginger (either in tablet, cookie, or ginger beer form).

[LycheeLover]

Lots of water and two aspirin before you go to sleep.

[lexy]

The 'glass of water per unit of alcohol' is key: I may still get drunk, but I've yet to get a hangover if I follow this guideline. Of course the downside is that you spend the whole night running to the toilet because of all the liquid you're drinking It helps to put a big glass of water on your nightstand if you're planning to go out and get lashed.

I also find a run in the morning to be very helpful. Yes, the first ten minutes you just want to die, but if I'm shipshape enough to run (ie not too queasy), I feel more or less back to normal once I've finished a run.

And finally: avoid boxed red wine and cheap sherry at all costs.

[Sneakeater]

Lots of water along with the alcohol REALLY is key.

[BTR]

Lots of water and two aspirin before you go to sleep.

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DO NOT take aspirin, if you like your liver.

[Adiabatic]

This topic has been pretty well covered but in case anyone is taking a poll...Yes, the B vitamins definitely seem to help. Plenty of water of course.

But that is all prevention. Once you are hung, the only thing that will take the edge off is a belly full of grease. Bacon, greasy eggs, that sort of thing.

By the way, I read recently something like half of the serious liver damage cases in the U.S. were caused by Tylenol O.D., to the point where some doctors think it should be prescription only. If you drink, do not take Tylenol, even when you are not drinking.

[highchef]

Well, my favorite wine master in the world told me a couple of weeks ago that liver cirrossis is the least prominent in the Irish and the French, with Spain next... The most are Mexican and Native Americans.....

Which leads me to beleive, that it too is an evolutionary thing, we've been at it longer perhaps.

as far as remidies go, do avoid the tylenol as it does not act well with people who drink often. And mind the asprin as well, as it has effects on the stomach. So eat, sleep, drink water and take asprin when you have something in your stomach. You don't want a bleed, so do take the asprin with food.

[M.X.Hassett]

A NY egg cream was my salvation the other morning.

[Snowy is dead]

coffee, sugar, salt, grease, pedialyte, and water. Repeat. Throw in a bunch of vitamins and you're off.

A friend of mine used to be in the Army as a medic. He would give himself a saline drip when he had a really bad hangover. Said it worked within 45 minutes...

Tried it once, but I don't like needles. Triggered a trip to the goddess....

[Carlovski]

I'm normally good enough to remember to get a big pint glass full of water before I go to bed. Unfortunately I usually wake up with it still full by the side of my bed (Or worse, empty with a lot of soggy clothes).

Things that help :-

1 - ribena and worcester sauce wheat crunchies (Bit of a UK one this)

2 - Anything spicy and very salty (Along with lots of liquid) I have found salt and pepper squid from a chinese place works well. Leftover curry obviously fits the bill too.

3 - My top secret (I'm sure this isn't actually good for you though...) Run a bath - slightly too hot to stand but get in it anyway. Have 3 or 4 pints of iced water with you too. Drink the water - occasionally pouring some over your head (this is important). You will feel a little dizzy when you get out but have a little lie down and then do number 1 or 2 above. Then go to the pub.

4 - Bacon.

[lexy]

1 - ribena and worcester sauce wheat crunchies (Bit of a UK one this)

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*stomach churns a little*

I can see the salt might help, but personally I can't take anything too strongly-flavoured the morning after - even watery Ribena would be a struggle I think.

[bacchant036]

for christs sake have a frickin beer!

[M.X.Hassett]

coffee, sugar, salt, grease, pedialyte, and water.  Repeat.  Throw in a bunch of vitamins and you're off. 

A friend of mine used to be in the Army as a medic.  He would give himself a saline drip when he had a really bad hangover.  Said it worked within 45 minutes...

Tried it once, but I don't like needles.  Triggered a trip to the goddess....

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Gotta love pedialyte. Funny you mention the medic, all of my EMT and fire department friends swear by the oxygen mask.

[Snowy is dead]

Give yourself a pedialyte drip with an oxygen mask while covering yourself in grease, salt, and fat while floating on a pool of water with a beer in one hand and a worchestershire cracker in the other and you should be good to go...or dead

[dockhl]

I get a newsletter called "gettrio" that gives me a trio of interesting 'things' daily. Here is a blurb from this morning's:

"Could you keep it down a little? And do you mind if we turn off that light? Much better. Now. If you're reading this the morning after the night before, we share your pain.

So does the website HUNGOVER. Tap on your keys -- quietly -- and check out their cures, helpfully categorized as Classics, Healthy, or Freaky. There are various ways to kill some time until one of those cures kicks in, such as a memory test or 'guess-what-our-drunk-of-the-month is saying'. If the background color of the site is too bright for you, there's a knob to turn it down. "

Pretty funny and interesting......

[srhcb]

.... check out their cures, helpfully categorized as Classics, Healthy, or Freaky.

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I notice one of the "Classic" cures is:

BURNT TOAST - "I've never tried it, but I heard eating burnt toast will cure you hang over. Even if it doesnt, the terrible taste will take your mind off it for a while." There you have it, set yer toasters to 11.

Many years ago I purchased the contents of an old neighborhood grocery store in my home town that had already been closed for some 10-20 years. Among the obscure and obsolete inventory still on the shelves was a display rack of small envelopes purporting to be a world famous hangover cure.

According to the instructions, the "cure" could be taken either before or after imbibing, and the sign on the rack provided testimonials from both medical authorities and satisfied customers attesting to the products effectiveness.

At that point in my life I was a lot more inclined than I am at the present to be interested in such a thing, even though it was obviously suspicious, so I opened one of the envelopes.

It contained maybe a couple tablespoons of fine black powder which was supposed to be mixed with water and drunk. It looked, felt, and smelled a lot like .... ashes. Sure enough, listed under the heading of ingredients was but one item; crushed charcoal.

We didn't bother to try it, but I suppose it would work as well as burnt toast?

SB (and you wouldn't waste a perfectly good piece of bread in the process )

[dockhl]

Well, heck yeah ! good thought!

(Can you tell me why you would buy the contents of a store closed for that long ? )

K

[jmfangio]

I'd like to try out RU-21. From Wikipedia:

"RU-21 (also known as Antipokhmelin in Russia) was developed by Prof. Eugene Mayevski at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics (division of the Russian Academy of Sciences), where the product was also clinically tested. Further tests were conducted at the Russian Ministry of Public Health. The tests confirmed the effects of RU-21 on the body's ability to metabolize alcohol. The legend behind the product's history attributes the development of RU-21 to the KGB. An urban legend surrounding RU-21 is that KGB operatives sought a chemical compound that would allow them to drink heavily with suspected Western intelligence agents, in the Soviet Union or the West, and not get drunk. At the same time, according to the legend, the Western agent would become intoxicated and (hopefully) reveal secrets to the KGB agent, who would simply be pretending to be drunk and in fact be perfectly lucid. The legend states that while this did not work, KGB agents discovered that the tablet did have an unpredicted side-effect; the apparent ability to lessen a hangover. While there is some truth to this legend (the KGB did conduct some alcohol-related tests involving key ingredients in RU-21, most notably the Succinic Acid), KGB has no role in commercializing this product."

Urban legend or not, I love the idea of KGB Cold War spy technology coming to the aid of drinkers everywhere!

[srhcb]

The legend behind the product's history attributes the development of RU-21 to the KGB. An urban legend surrounding RU-21 is that KGB operatives sought a chemical compound that would allow them to drink heavily with suspected Western intelligence agents, in the Soviet Union or the West, and not get drunk.

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Sound to me like the KGB's spooks put one over on the Kremlin beauracrats?

"Yes Comrade, the RU-21 secret project is coming along well. Just a little more research, and ... um, have you remembered to order more vodka yet?" wink wink nudge nudge

SB

[MaxH]

A couple more years on this thread, a couple more years of colorful, sincere, often harmless folk therapy. Might be time to repeat the one important, potentially lifesaving advice. It's repeated at every opportunity* but still doesn't always "take."

Avoid taking acetaminophen (in pain relievers or other medications, under various brand names) with alcohol.

See Post 16 of this thread. Or Web-search on the word pair acetaminophen + alcohol and read for yourself.

Wrote one biochemistry professor and textbook author: "The lethal dose of a drug divided by its effective dose is the Therapeutic Index (formerly Therapeutic Ratio). We are happy if that number is something like 1000. We are not happy if it's 2 or less, a narrow T.R. means people are going to get hurt. With Acetaminophen, if someone has a bit of liver impairment, the T.R. can approach 1. Drinking uses up certain cofactors in the liver and makes the problem worse."

-- Max

* Believe it or not, otherwise sharp editors fill their periodicals' inevitable pre-new-year issue with witty folk remedies but omit this famous public-health warning. It's important, because (same biochemist again): There are still "people around who haven't heard of this." Proof in this thread.

[Blether]

Drinking water is good advice, but once you've *got* a hangover, I think miso soup is one of the best things you can take to make you feel better quickly - especially now you can get miso paste with the 'dashi' or stock mixed right in.

[DCP]

Drinking water is good advice, but once you've *got* a hangover, I think miso soup is one of the best things you can take to make you feel better quickly - especially now you can get miso paste with the 'dashi' or stock mixed right in.

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Any chance of finding this stateside? I've never seen any such thing at the local Korean mega-mart (Han Ah Reum) and it would make things even easier. OTOH, I really like the taste of homemade dashi with kombu and katsuo...

[jmfangio]

I think miso soup is one of the best things you can take to make you feel better quickly - especially now you can get miso paste with the 'dashi' or stock mixed right in.

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Any chance of finding this stateside? I've never seen any such thing at the local Korean mega-mart (Han Ah Reum) and it would make things even easier. OTOH, I really like the taste of homemade dashi with kombu and katsuo...

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Very easy to find in Los Angeles, but I've only seen it at the Japanese markets (Mitsuwa, Marukai, Nijiya), and haven't noticed if the Korean markets that I go to carry it. Here's an online source that I found.

[ACM3]

Take a bong hit and drink a warm beer. Works every time!

Edited May 5, 2007 by ACM3 (log)