Avoiding a Hangover

There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that 95% of a hangover is due to dehydration. Based on way too much personal experience, I offer the following tips to help minimize the effects of a hangover:

  1. If you know you’re going to be drinking later in the day, drink lots and lots of water throughout the day. 12 oz. every hour is a minimum.

  2. Eat before drinking.

  3. Immediately before drinking, force down at least 16 oz. of water. This will not only hydrate you, but will give you a “full” feeling, which (usually) means you won’t drink as much alcohol.

  4. Here’s the most important tip: before going to bed at night, drink as much water as your stomach can hold. Keep downing water - glass after glass - until you can’t take in one more ounce.

  5. Put a full glass of water beside the bed in case you feel thirsty in the middle of the night.

Yea, sure, you’ll pee a lot if you follow the above steps. But so what? I’d much rather pee a lot than wake up holding my head. Just think of it as a small price to pay for feeling a hell of a lot better in the morning…

I was going to reply to this article too. (I’ll leave the lecture to somone else.)
I know drinking dehydrates you, but I have been mighty dehydrated and not even gotten a headache, so I’m guessing theres more to it than just dehydration. I was surprised there was no mention in the article about the idea of a hangover being ‘withdrawl’ from alcohol. I’ve heard this so many times, that I thought it would at least be mentioned. Is the idea so absurd that no one outside of middle school believes it?

I’m surprised that no one has mentioned the only 100% effective way to avoid a hangover.

Don’t drink…

:shrug: Dunno what to say. Headaches from dehydration are very common.

Well, yes, it is. What do you mean by “withdrawal?” Usually, that term is only used in reference to addicts (or at least heavy regular use).

Why would you be surprised? It’s obvious and irrelevant. Drinking is pretty much implied.

Yeah, you’re on the right track.

My regimen (and it works really well) is to drink a full pint of water every couple of beers (more like every other if I’m drinking liquor.) Right before bed I pound about 32 oz. more of water, along with a multivitamin and a couple of ibuprofen. I also try to each some kind of starchy food while I’m drinking, to give my stomach some solid food to work on.

It works like a charm - I rarely have a hangover at all, and if I wake up the slightest bit off, a good jolt of caffeine and sugar (like a Red Bull or a Mountain Dew) does me just right.

In a long-ago article in Esquire (perhaps the same one Cecil referred to,) there were two statements about the oxidation of alcohol:

It takes 4 molecules of water to oxidize 1 molecule of alcohol, and that’s why drinking causes dehydration. And…

Fructose (fruit sugar) speeds up the oxidation. The author suggested eating raisins before a bender.

Disclaimer!! I have never been mistaken for a chemist, even in bad light.

My ninth grade homeroom teacher told us the following as an example of faulty reasoning: On Monday, Harvey got sloshed on scotch and club soda; next morning, he was hungover. On Tuesday, he drank a lot of bourbon and club soda; next day, a bad hangaround. On Wednesday, he got tanked on gin, lime juice, and club soda; when he woke up, the Anvil Chorus was happening in his skull. On Thursday, he switched to wine spritzers (wine and club soda; ) Friday morning found dragons dueling in Harvey’s head. He finally figured it out. “I gotta lay off the club soda.”

From this site, along with others:

emphasis added

I doubt you’re trying to say that a hangover is just dehydration, but :shrug: might have been a good place to stop… dunno.
I found other sites referring to acute withdrawal or something similar especially in comments about why, “A hair of the dog” makes you feel better. I suspect the applying of anesthisia is what is helping, but I have heard more than once that the body is in withdrawal-- which supposedly occurs without chronic exposure-- and that drinking whatever caused the hangover is really just supplying the object of the withdrawal.
I understand that substantial withdrawal might include hallucination and seizure and the like and that what we are talking about is not the DT’s, but, I’m pretty sure simple dehydration is not the whole story.

“You actually are in alcohol withdrawal during a hangover,” says Aaron White, a research psychologist at Duke University Medical Center.

or don’t stop. :slight_smile:

Taken together these make no sense. If oxidation causes the hangover why would you want to speed it up?

95% is a bit high. Hangovers are also due to high blood acidity (known as hyperacidosis). Having something high in sugar after you start feeling bad will help flush the acids from your blood.

Gatorade works extremely well for both purposes.

I guess that’s why I often crave ice cream after drinking beer.

I agree 100% with the dehydration hypothesis… the only time I get hung over is when I don’t remember to drink water.

Muscle relaxants always helped with my hangovers. Unfortunately, they’re not available OTC any more.

My theory was that alcohol constricts muscles. Of course, it could also be that I always smoked when I drank. If you smoke enough in one night, you’ll need to recover from that, too.

The water is very important, but moreso as you’re drinking than before and after (though those are important too).

Vitamin B12 is a biggie too. You should take a total of maybe 2000% of the RDA. Take part just before and then just after drinking, then more in the morning if you still don’t feel so hot.

Even better than B12 alone is something like Source Natural’s Hangover Formula. It’s got the B12 and other B vitamins, plus a lot of C, some liver-cleansing agents, and other fun stuff too! Works every time. Too well, actually. Makes you think you can drink a bunch every night with impugnity.

You can’t.

Alcohol is also a diuretic, meaning it makes you piss more. I suspect that this is the more relevant consideration. In fact, if I remember my chemistry correctly, oxidation of an alcohol molecule should produce water molecules (three of them), not use them.

Likewise, I also crave ice cream after beer, but I have never felt that way after drinking wine or distilled spirits. I suspect that it is my palate trying to balance the bitterness of the ale that I am drinking.

I can vouch for the water theory; if I know I will be drinking a lot at night, I will spend the day drinking water to prepare. I have no idea why it works, but I’m not about to question it.

Another way to avoid the worst feelings is to try to sober up before going to bed. If you hit the sack and can feel the Earth orbiting the sun, it bodes ill for the next morning.

best to all,

plynck

After many years of using my Miracle Cure (taught to me by a Pfizer salesman), I’m surprised it is not better known. Here it is (no charge):

The morning after:
Lots of Water (of course)
2 tables Analgesic (naproxin sodium, Alieve)
1 tablet (1/2 dose) nasal decongestant (Phenylephrine HCI, Sudafed)

Upon waking in the middle of the night with a major headthrob, only 1/2 tablet of Sudafed since it is a stimulant.

It takes about an hour for the decongestant to kick in.

I learned about this on a trip to Russia, where we had many opportunities to test it. Originally we used Sinutab. Fortunately, the Acetametophin warning came out shortly afterwards, and I poisoned my liver only a few times.

I thought I was the only one! In fact, I gave up my occasional beer (and even more seldom wine) because that reaction made dieting harder. I just assumed wine would have the same effect. I’ll have to try it.

I don’t know about the palate idea. I found if I had ice cream before the beer, I wouldn’t crave it aferwards. So in my case at least, it’s connected to appetite, and I always thought it was just a version of the munchies.

Hangovers are not just about dehydration. Alcohol metabolites are toxins. Never take aleve, advil, or tylenol before or after drinking. They all have their own toxicities, which are often made worse by a hangover. Avoid stimulants as well; alcohol withdrawal causes damage via excitotoxicity( http://www.eurosiva.org/Archive/Vienna/abstracts/Speakers/SUREDA.htm ). Caffeine should definitely be included in the stimulant category. Don’t take any. In fact, caffeine withdrawal may reduce the damage that alcohol withdrawal does. The reason for that is that when you wake up in the morning, tired and caffeine deprived, your brain is flooded with the inhibitory chemical adenosine, which is blocked by caffeine. No caffeine == less excitability… thus, less damage and possibly some protection from the toxicity of alcohol withdrawal, compared to someone without caffeine addiction.

The best thing for hangovers: antioxidants. Which means, lots of fruits and vegetables. I prefer processed tomato juice. It’s practically a cure. 24 ounces while you are drinking, or before you go to bed, plus at least 24 ounces the morning after. If you don’t like tomato juice, then any fruit or vegatable will do. Avoid isolated vitamins, they aren’t very effective, even if they are legitimate antioxidants. I switch to 100% grape juice when I can’t stand the taste of tomatoes any more.

The “drink a ton of water before you go to sleep” method has never worked for me. Beer has plenty of water, why would you need more? The anti-diureses effect of sleep only goes so far…