Enjoyed and indulged at the party and woke up with typical symptoms – fatigue, weakness, thirst, headache, muscle aches, nausea, stomach pain, vertigo, sensitivity to light and sound, irritability, and more? It is just your hangover. While alcohol is the primary culprit, it is its diuretic or dehydrating effect that makes your visits to the toilet more frequent. There’s no fool-proof way to make a hangover disappear. There are, however, some effective hangover remedies that help you feel a lot better.
Best Remedies for Hangover
Experts recommend several practical hangover remedies that can mitigate the symptoms. Some of them are listed below:
1. Hydration
Hangover remedies at home start with drinking plenty of water. Hydrating your body helps reduce some of the main symptoms of hangovers, including thirst and headache. Fresh juice also helps to bypass carbohydrates to the body along with the fluid. This is a known, tested hangover remedy. Sports drinks enriched with electrolytes like sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium are extremely effective fluid hangover remedies.
2. Rest
Getting plenty of sleep helps eliminate the common symptoms of hangover. Ensure you have plenty of time to sleep and take it easy the day after. Sleep with plenty of water intake tackles disturbed sleep associated with hangovers. Sleep is a proven hangover remedy.
4. A Hearty Meal
Hangovers are often associated with hypoglycemia, low blood sugar levels. Hypoglycemia contributes to hangover symptoms like headache and weakness. A good, hearty breakfast is a catalyst for curing a hangover.
5. Ginger
Munching a few shreds of ginger while drinking and under hangover symptoms act both as hangover prevention as well as remedy.
6. Medicines
Antacids and anti-inflammatory medicines (ibuprofen, aspirin) are handy hangover medicines for relief. Acetaminophen medication is to be carefully avoided.
7. Exercise
As per experts, exercise works the best among hangover remedies. Low-to-moderate intensity exercise increases oxygen flow to the brain, enhances secretion of mood-boosting hormones, boosts energy levels, increases toxin clearance from the body, and decreases inflammation. However, getting yourself to exercise with a hangover is a hurdle that you need to overcome.
Hangover Prevention
Remember the age-old ‘prevention is better than cure’ adage? So, it is with hangovers too. Taking some simple measures while you are out there enjoying yourself, goes a long way in hangover prevention and helps you wake your usual, normal self up the next morning.
1. Hangover prevention starts with your choice of drink. Stick to those clear liquors like vodka and gin that have little or no congeners. The lighter the colour of your drink, the lower is the possibility for a hangover.
2. Hydration is another way. Remember to drink a good amount of water before retiring to bed. It is a time-tested hangover prevention.
3. Consuming carbohydrates is another hangover prevention. Most forget to eat when they drink, leading to lowering of blood sugar. Some simple toast and juice help gently nudge blood sugar levels towards normalcy. Remember, carbohydrates are the main fuel for the brain. Keeping it fuelled diminishes the chances of that dullness and aching in the head.
4. Space out your drinks. One drink spread over an hour or so, interspersed with food, helps in no small measure towards hangover prevention.
Conclusion
Abstinence or moderation while drinking is the best practice as one of the hangover remedies. Every individual has their own unique body mechanism. Thus, there is no fixed standard for getting a hangover. Water, food, and shreds of ginger munched while drinking will help you truly enjoy, minimising chances of that dreadful hangover. Having got a hangover, be careful of two things – avoid the temptation of more alcohol to wipe off the effect of the earlier binge and restrict coffee intake to a single cup as caffeine adds to dehydration – a root cause of a hangover.
