Favorite Hangover Cures...

[SigmaChiGuy]

#3 value meal from Taco Bell and a 6 pack of Bud Light.

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Originally posted by lilsnakeyk
After I a weekend of just a "bit" too much fun, I want the esteemed opinion of my fellow GC'ers cures and/or prevention of hangovers.

-Lil Snakey K

[DWAlphaGam]

I don't remember who mentioned this before, but I agree that Gatorade works like a charm. Get a large bottle and nurse it all day, and you should be fine. I also recommend pairing the Gatorade with a WaWa hoagie.

[maggieaxid]

Water before I go to bed always makes me puke...i have no idea why.

In the morning, water, McDonalds French Fries, and a huge Coke. Followed by green tea (the kind you make at home, not the iced tea version) and then gatorade, followed by more water and the a bowel of pasta with either butter or just a little bit of sauce.

oh, and Spicy v-8 will shock your system into getting back to normal too.

[ZTAngel]

I am bumping this up because I wanted to inform everyone of a great thing that stops the early morning hangover nausea/vomitting.

After a very fun social last night, I woke up this morning feeling like I was about to die. Not fun. And I drank a lot of water last night too which is weird because usually that helps!

I had this over-the-counter medication left over from when I had a stomach virus a few months ago. It's called Emetrol. It's expensive ($12) and can be found at drug stores. I used it the first time a few years ago. My doctor recommended it after I had been in bed for two days with an awful stomach virus. Cleared up the symptoms really fast.

The medication says right on the bottle that it can be used for drink indiscretions (that's me!!!!!). After two tablespoons, I was finally able to walk two feet without running to the bathroom. I was then able to drink a glass of water, take a multi-vitamin (which is very good to take when you're hungover), and have a piece of toast without getting sick.

The stuff is very expensive but it works real well. Doctors will usually tell you to pick some up when you have a stomach flu but it will work real well for hangovers also.

[Optimist Prime]

Pickels. It sounds gross but pickle juice will cure anything. Eat pickles before bed with DOUBLE EXTRA WATER. Drink pickle juice. Also, if you can force yourself to throw up, you will have less of a hangover.

[AXOLiz]

Time to share something I learned:

We had a "Talking about Alcohol" program come to talk to our chapter - our nationals sends speakers around and you're supposed to hear from them once every four years. Anyhow, these are some things I managed to remember (it was from 10am-6pm on a Saturday and I have little to no attention span, so bear with me):

1) Water can be bad to drink if you're drunk. If you're hungover or just trying to avoid one, it's good so you don't get dehydrated. However, if you're still drunk, and have drank to the point where your body has temporarily stopped metabolizing the alcohol, it's bad. It has something to do with the concentration of alcohol in your stomach - after you've hit a certain point, your body says, "NO MORE," and the alcohol kind of chills in your stomach until your body can get to it (or you puke it up). This is not a very good place to be. If you start drinking water, it dilutes the alcohol that's sitting there waiting, and your body is tricked into thinking it can handle it again since the concentration is way down to where it was when you started drinking. More alcohol enters your system and you only get drunker. Like I said though, you have to get REALLY drunk to be at that point.

2) Hangovers are basically symptoms of alcohol withdrawal. That's why drinking more works to cure a hangover, or at least the headache/general crappy feeling of it. Won't do much for nausea. Since your body was all about metabolizing alcohol, all of a sudden it isn't there and you get a hangover. If you add some more alcohol, your body has that bit of alcohol it's looking to metabolize and you have time to readjust.

Like I said, I have a short attention span, so I could be completely wrong here, but I think this is what they said. I thought it was interesting, if nothing else.

My personal favorite cure is to stay awake until you're relatively sober. It's REALLY hard to do, but if I stay up, I'm usually ok in the morning. It's when I pass out cold that I'm hurting.

[Fewdfreak]

When you are drunk, what is most important is to keep yourself hydrated, and make sure that your blood sugar is okay. A friend of mine made herself throw it all up, refused to drink, and hadn't eaten anything all day prior to getting smashed. She was so weak that she ended up going to the hospital and getting an IV to get rehydrated.

My roomates all say to drink water, and I agree, but after two or three bottles of water, it's kind of hard to keep drinking it without feeling gross. The only time I've ever thrown up was when I had drank three bottles of water, I was just too full. I prefer Gatorade/Powerade myself because it tastes good and also has carbs and electrolytes to restore what you might have lost, and then perhaps you might not have to drink such a crazy amount. OJ is also good. I also have heard that you don't want to drink too much water/Gatorade, etc... because you can dilute your blood too much, and actually get water intoxication. I think it has something to do with getting to much water and not enough salt, and your cells eventually are in a hypertonic solution, your blood? and they crenate. I think it also has something to do with specific gravity, because I remember hearing a rumor that you could "flush" your system for drug tests with tons of water, and that it really is dangerous. You have to keep that ole' osmotic balance right!

My all time hangover cure/preventer is to eat tons of Taco Bell Mucho Grande Nachos with extra hot peppers or a whole bag of Baked Tostitos with salsa, before you drink, and then continue to eat while you drink. I've talked with people that are like "I can't eat while I drink," and the reverse is true for me, drinking makes me so hungry, and I ate like 30 tamales and wasn't sick. I never get sick though, so it could just be me.

What I don't get though is the people who deliberately make themselves throw up, thinking it will make them feel better. If you are that drunk that you need to puke, the damage has been done, and throwing up isn't going to sober you up miraculously. My roommate stuck her fingers down my other roommates throat last night (gross I know) and told her that she had to throw it up. To me, it's just a waste of alcohol. I understand if you throw up just from being drunk, because you can't control that, but inducing the vomiting seems a little pointless to me. Any explaination for why people do this.

[sororitygirl2]

Originally posted by AXOLiz:
My personal favorite cure is to stay awake until you're relatively sober. It's REALLY hard to do, but if I stay up, I'm usually ok in the morning. It's when I pass out cold that I'm hurting.

I so agree! I always stay up until I feel sober, or at least until the room stops spinning, and I barely ever get hangovers.

Originally posted by Fewdfreak:
What I don't get though is the people who deliberately make themselves throw up, thinking it will make them feel better. If you are that drunk that you need to puke, the damage has been done, and throwing up isn't going to sober you up miraculously. My roommate stuck her fingers down my other roommates throat last night (gross I know) and told her that she had to throw it up. To me, it's just a waste of alcohol. I understand if you throw up just from being drunk, because you can't control that, but inducing the vomiting seems a little pointless to me. Any explaination for why people do this.

When you are sick, don't you feel better after you throw up? Well, when I am drunk, I feel better after I throw up. If I have to stick my finger down my throat to make my headache go away, I will.

[KappaKittyCat]

Yes, I know that in some circles making oneself throw up is just considered a waste of good alcohol (or bad alcohol if you're in college). But I had an experience last weekend where I was really really drunk but (stupid me) kept on drinking. So there was a ton of alcohol in my stomach, hanging out 'til my body could handle metabolizing more. I realized that there was really no reason to stay drunk as a skunk if I was just planning to go to bed right away anyway, and as I was feeling woozy in the first place, I just leaned over and threw up in a flower bed. Then I drank a bunch of juice when I got home. I was fine the next morning.

So to sum up what I've seen on this thread so far and what I've read in the Doctors' Book of Home Remedies:

• If you've imbibed to the point where you're already throwing up, then it's too late. But if you're just really drunk and you know that there's more in your tummy that's not even been metabolized yet, purging the rest of it out of your stomach can do some good.
• Keep yourself hydrated. Water's okay, but juice or Gatorade is better because it maintains the electrolyte balance.
• Vitamin C helps your body metabolize the alcohol.
• Bread soaks it up.
• One or two Advil won't hurt your liver as long as you take them with a bunch of nonalcoholic liquid. However, Tylenol and aspirin can cause your stomach lining to bleed.
• "Hair of the dog," while it might make you feel better, is really not that good for your body.
• Sleep is good. Lots of sleep is better.
• Prevention is even better than any of these remedies, but who are we kidding? We're college students!

[juniorgrrl]

I'm a big proponent of the throwing up bit. I usually would get more drunk than I wanted to and by the time it was time to go to sleep, the room was spinning and the nausea came on. I figured it would just be best to force myself to puke it up, get it out of my system, and let me sleep. It doesn't always work though - a few weeks ago, I drank seriously for the first time in months. I got smashed and making myself throw up only made all the food I'd eaten all day come up. I couldn't get the liqour out - it finally came up about 9AM the next day, after drinking mass quantities of water - to act as a "carrier" of sorts.

[dutchgirl]

after a night of drinking i usually have a very queezy feeling in my stomach, like i don't know whether i'm hungry or just sick. i drink a big mug of chamomile tea which helps sooth your stomach and -since it's all herbal- does not contain any caffeine or stuff like that, so it's good for hydration. after that i generally feel much better.
i also used to have a roommate who would take alka-selzer when he had a hangover, he swore it helped. i've never tried it though, basically because i get sick of even thinking about drinking a glass of hot water with powder in it, even when i'm sober/not hungover!

but the chamomile tea thing really works!