do they really work?
i’m sitting here at work with a mild hangover and i’m thinking maybe i should buy some of these things before i drink next. i’m feeling sick mornings after i drink a very small amount of alcohol these days. last week i had maybe 5 beers over a 4 hour span and woke up with a horrible hangover. seems like dark beer gets me every time. guess i’m getting old…
Don’t know which ones you are specifically referring to, but in my experience they do nothing. I’ve tried X0 factor (cant remember specific name) and Chaser. I just sleep it off 
I love those commercials.
Hung-over guy: “I feel like hell. You look great, and you had more to drink last night than I did! . . . By the way, who are you?”
man, that guy looks like CRAP in those commercials. talk about good casting.
I think he’s sick from looking at that chick’s blouse. Pattern induced vertigo.
Yuck!
TheFaerie
I find it interesting that people would spend money on something that probably doesn’t work (e.g. Chaser[sup]TM[/sup]) and ignore a free product that does work (water). Drinking lots of water before drinking alcohol and lots of water afterwards (before going to bed) is probably the best way to minimize the intensity of a hangover.
I tend to get really, really awful hangovers that last all day. However, on New Years I thought I would splurge and try Chasers. I had to take them every few hours while drinking, but I woke up the next morning feeling much less hungover than usual. It seemed I was in the later, groggy, disconnected, and tired stages instead of the miserable, barfy and dry-heave stages. By 10 or 11, I felt fine. I don’t know if it was psychological or that my hangovers are better after getting in much better shape, but I know they helped much better than massive amounts of water (which I’ve also tried and didn’t help my horrible hangovers much).
Exactly. Hangovers are primarily dehydration (alcohol does dry you out), so the first cure is to drink plenty of water.
Water is good, Gatorade is better.
It’s not just dehydration. There’s also metabolic acidosis:
Personally, drinking water slightly lessens but doesn’t do away with my hangover symptoms. A friend of mine who’s completing his PhD in alchohol research says it’s probably my reaction to metabolic acidosis that makes me such a lightweight and is the reason I recover so poorly.
There is some limited research that suggests prickly pear extract may help hangovers but nothing’s proven.
No one is claiming that drinking lots of water beforehand and afterwards will eliminate a hangover. But a strong argument can be made that drinking lots of water beforehand and afterwards is cheapest and most effective way of minimizing the intensity & duration of a hangover (other than drinking less alcohol).
Hey, I’m not arguing that water isn’t an important and cheap way to help a hangover, but I get tired of people saying things like “it’s all dehydration” and smugly telling me to drink water when hangover are not just dehydration. No matter how much water I drink (and believe me, I drink lots. On an average day I drink 7 or 8 liters), I still feel like death warmed over if I’ve had more than 3 or 4 beers and have to call in sick after just two margaritas.
right before NewYearsDay the tv station here had 2 suggestions from someone who supposedly knows. One was to eat burnt toast, can’t rememeber the other. Seriously. Have no idea if it works, haven’t had a hangover in many years. I usually quit after 1 or 2. I’m no fun.
The best way to not get hung over is simply to not sober up!
Okay, okay, I’m kidding. Yeah, water works wonders. I’ve also found that I avoid a lot of stomach pains by having a little bit of milk (or, better yet, a White Russian) before drinking. I’ve heard that the milk helps coat the stomach lining… this true? Or have I simply been placebo’d?
personally, im a fan of H2G2’s article on hangover cures.
Personally, if I’m going to go boozin’, I drink a fair bit of water along with a vitamin B complex tablet. Then in the morning, I drink Gatorade (or equivalent), to replace both water and electrolytes.
I don’t think I’ve had a hangover in over 12 years following this practice. YMMV.
BEFORE GOING TO BED
Large amount of water (I have a pint beer mug I use for this), two aspirins, and a “Berocca” (effervescent B complex tablet [I believe not available in the US except over the internet, but a miracle drug for boozers]
IN BED
Refill that large glass of water, and have it at your bedside for when you wake up through the night thinking somebody has filled your mouth with feathers. Middle-of-the-night bathroom dashes will be the price you pay.
IN THE MORNING
Repeat the night time routine. And yes, I am a great believer in the “hair of the dog” due to that ethanol versus-methanol-thing*, so if you are not driving or going to work, go and grab a can of beer out of the fridge, and have that too (this makes the water doubly important). Eat something healthy.
*This has been discussed befoe on these boards, and others may be able to explain more scientifically than me, but if you are unfamiliar with it, it goes like this: the alcohol in most beverages is mostly ethanol with some methanol. The liver processes the ethanol quite readily, and it does this while you’re still drunk. The methanol is harder for the liver to process, so the liver takes the path of least resistance and does the ethanol first, then only does the methanol when there is nothing else left for it to do. By this time, it is usually next morning, and the harsher methanol is what makes you feel ill. If you drink another alcoholic beverage, you are introducing more ethanol, so the liver switches to that again. It will still need to proces the methanol (in fact a little more of it now), but you have given it more time to stretch this over, so it will be easier on your sore head. Of course, this all could be total baloney, but it seems to work for me.
I also think its interesting how most of the Chaser like products tell you to drink a LARGE glass of water when you take it. They’re probably just banking on the dumb people who never tried drinking water before or after.