Going out for drinks is one of the most common social pastimes we participate in. Whether it is a dinner party, frat party, happy hour with friends, or sitting with a friend on your couch talking for hours with a bottle (or two) of wine by your side, alcohol is almost always involved. When there is drinking there is bound to be a hangover, especially if it was celebratory night. Waking up with a hangover is painful. Symptoms such as nausea, headache, sensitivity to light and sound, and dehydration, are just a few of what make a hangover miserable.
Luckily, there are ways you can cure that pounding in your head, and here are a few:
Hydrate.
Alcohol is a diuretic and spent the night drying your body out of its precious resources. The first thing you should do upon waking up is drink a tall glass of water. If you remember to drink water BEFORE going to bed that night, all the better!
If what you normally do in the morning is head straight for the coffee pot, then continue to do so. Take an Advil and drink some coffee, it has been proven to help alleviate headaches.
Eat.
If you are anything like me, eating is the last thing you want to do when you wake up with a hangover. However, eating is also one of the best things to do to make that hangover go away. Eggs are a great option as they contain amino acids such as taurine and cysteine. Taurine enhances liver function (which is good since alcohol makes it work overtime), and cysteine disintegrates acetaldehyde, the chemical that was left in your system once the alcohol was processed.
Another good food choice would be bananas and yogurt, both of which are full of potassium, an electrolyte that alcohol tapers from the body when dehydrating your body. Additional options would be soup and oatmeal – easy on the stomach and does the job of refueling your body.
There are those who say a greasy breakfast is the way to go when it comes to getting that hangover over and done with. I’m talking bacon, egg and cheese sandwich or something along those lines. While that sounds delicious right about now (when I’m not hungover) I couldn’t imagine eating that much food when I wake up feeling like I may not even keep the water down.
All hangovers are not created equal; they are without a doubt on a spectrum. Hydrating is the most important part of making sure your hangover is kept at a couple hour minimum and doesn’t debilitate the rest of your day.