left Natural Health Lifestyles: Home Remedies for a Hangover

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Home Remedies for a Hangover



With St. Patricks Day right around the corner, and with many beer mugs about to be raised, it's time to plan ahead for that hangover.

While a hangover is not a health condition, it is still good to know that there are home remedies for a hangover, and natural cures for hangover prevention.

The most common symptoms of a hangover include a headache, an upset stomach, nausea, bloodshot eyes, and a general lethargic feeling, otherwise known as “brain fog”. Obviously, the best way to avoid the symptoms of a hangover is to avoid the alcohol that causes them.

Alas, some of us just can’t help but indulge. There is always a party, a birthday, or a holiday to celebrate. For some, having to tolerate your own family may be enough to take you down the whiskey river! Now you need hangover relief!

The good news is that there are home remedies for a hangover that do not require over the counter drugs. Here is a short list:


  • Water! That’s right, water. Simple enough huh? Drink water in-between your cocktails and again before you go to bed. Hangovers are really just dehydration, so water alleviates the problem by rehydrating and flushing the excess toxins.


  • Avoid Tylenol and any pain killer with acetaminophen. It has been revealed that this may lengthen the time alcohol is in your system and can play havoc with your liver, causing you much greater problems than a hangover.


  • Take a multivitamin prior to drinking. Since alcohol is a diuretic, it makes you pee, which flushes vitamins out of the body. It also helps to flush out and process the acetaldehyde, which is alcohol's primary toxin.


  • A simple home remedy for a hangover, drink a glass of milk before going to bed. It has been known to calm the stomach and ease the nasea associated with a hangover.


  • Try taking some bifidus before bedtime. Bifidus is simply good bacteria that may help the intestines detoxify themselves. A teaspoon should be sufficient.


  • Never drink on an empty stomach. Food helps to absorb the alcohol and may help to digest it faster. More specifically, eat starchy foods like bread, or a favorite of mine, pizza prior to drinking.

    The only complete cure for a hangover is time. No matter what a drinker does, the body still has to clean up all the toxic byproducts left over from the evening before.
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