You know the drill—one seemingly harmless after-work cocktail turns into an all-night drinking championship and the next thing you know, you’re waking up to what sounds like a Cypress Hill concert in your head, snakes swimming in your stomach, acid at the back of your throat and an inability to see straight. Ah, the blessed hangover. So what do you do the morning after? You fight that sonofabitch. Here’s how.
Pop Some Pills
Plenty of people swear by the Berocca Performance tube of multivitamins. Drop one tablet chockfull of vitamin B (brain food) and C (the ultimate virus fighter) into a glass of water, and drink it all up. It’s best consumed before you head out for the night, but that might require more forward planning than you can manage. Australians in particular seem to love the stuff (perhaps because they also created it). We like it because of its refreshing taste (which helps eliminate that sickly-sweet morning-after taste in our mouths) and its alleged ability to fire up the few brain cells we’ve got left. It also makes your pee look golden (because of the excess B vitamins it contains), if you need further proof that it works. Also try consuming cysteine tablets, an amino acid that appears to help combat the toxic effects of acetaldehyde (the culprit for all your morning-after woes). With any luck, it will shorten the duration of your hangover.
Eat It Up
Then there are those days when you’re so hung over you just want to do something, anything, to take your mind off how bad you feel. What better way than with a good ol’ greasy fry-up? Many repeat drinking offenders swear by the restorative properties of such a meal, and they may be on to something. According to nutritionist Yeo, after a night of heavy drinking, you may suffer from an upset stomach and intense migraines because alcohol lowers the body’s production of anti-inflammatory hormones and the protective mucus in the stomach. “Grease or fat actually reduces this effect by coating the stomach lining which prevents inflammation,” she says. If there’s one thing we know as much about as we do about drinking, it’s eating after we’ve been drinking. We highly recommend eating eggs – they are, in fact, a good natural source of cysteine, so put your game face on and head out to settle your mind and stomach with some egg-based breakfasts.
Break a Sweat
Ever wondered why you need to pee so much even after just one or two drinks? Sadly, it’s not your body detoxifying; it’s due to the fact that alcohol is one of the worst of all diuretics, meaning you’re expelling water, but not much else. To get rid of the toxin build up, you’re going to have to take extra measures. It’s recommended to sweat out all the toxins from the night before by going for a run or merely walking around in the sun. You need to get rid of all the nasty stuff that’s making your body go into overdrive and causing you pain. Of course, you’ll need to then replenish lost fluids with water or sports drinks that have plenty of sugar or electrolytes. If you can’t bear the thought of pounding the streets, try hot yoga to sweat out all the toxins. At the very least, all that stretching might take your mind of just how awful you feel.
Here’s a list of other hangover cures
