I've had my first couple of alcoholic beverages this last week –– never more than a single tall can of hard lemonade a night, spaced several days apart form each other.

Is a hangover just severe dehydration with an accompanying headache? Alcohol only takes 3 -5 hours for the body to filer from your blood stream, right? Any thing else I should know?

I believe the conventional wisdom is dehydration.

However, I'm not an expert on hangovers because I do not get them. Not because I don't occasionally partake in enough of the falling down juice to justify a hangover, just because I don't seem to get them.

I have had the spectrum of hangovers. From the light headache, the migraine from hell, to the can't keep breakfastn, hell even lunch, down and let my emt roommate practice giving me an IV as I choke down dry toast.

For most folks sugary drinks compound the problem because the high fluctuation in blood glucose levels. Back in college this was what gave me the worst wones and why now I never drink a cocktail mixed in a bucket.

Avoid common pain relievers as they may cause liver damage. Read labels first. Hydrate and eat light preferably high protien. Take a stomach med (pepto etc. I never did but I have seen it done) if needed to help get and keep food down again read labels.

Yes. Its dehydration. Drinking lots of plain water along with your alcohol helps prevent hangovers. I've personally tested this piece of wisdom and it has worked for me.

Something in some wines gives me a gut twisting - don't eat or I'll regret it - hangover. I can drink 3 glasses of some wines without a problem but recently drank 2 glasses of a local petit verdot, one before supper and one during supper along with a glass of water, and puked about lunchtime the next day. My current theory is that plain vodka, since it's filtered 5 or 6 times, should be pretty pure and mix ok with juice and soda. So far, so good.

I think the water is essential to dodging a hangover, but hasn't worked consistently for me.

Barefoot Sweet Red (but not other Barefoot wines) also caused a hangover.

Typically it's too much alcohol combined with dehydration (alcoholic beverages are dehydrating.) But practically speaking, some drinks will hit you the wrong way even if you have just one of them.

I would suggest trying some different types of beverages including beer and wine. Drink a tall glass of water or juice before you go to sleep. If you've had a lot to drink you can also take a couple of aspirin before bed (*not* Tylenol, which can damage your liver) but I wouldn't recommend doing this routinely. You have to experiment until you find what's right for you.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2015 01:14PM by summer.

Many times it's what you drink (and quantity) and what your are sensitive to and if you've conditioned your body to handle the stuff. Some people can knock down the equivalent of a case of beer and it hardly phases them, but to others, a couple of beers can do them in.

Some people can't drink red wine because of the nitrates.

I would strongly recommend you having at least 2 pints of water and something to eat before you go to bed after a night of drinking.

The dehydration is the killer!

Water before, during, and after drinking alcohol is good.

Be sure to eat food while you're drinking.

Don't mix drinks. If you start with beer, drink the same beer all night. If you start with rum&cokes, stay with rum&cokes.

Coors beer gives me a headache, but Bud does not. I'm a Fat Tire fan, myself, being from Fort Collins

High protein breakfast in the morning is good too.

I too have run the gambit with hang-overs, from a slight headache to calling God on the big white telephone. However I have never been so drunk that I can't remember what happened, nor have I blacked out.

I don't drink nearly as much any more....too old. Not nearly as fun as it was in my 20s. applesaucse

Dehydration, acetaldehyde and methonol all contrubute to hangover. You can partially help the first by drinking water along with your booze of choice.

The second and third are by products of the fermentationa and distillation processes. Generally, the darker the booze, the higher concentration of these substances. Therefore, as a general rule, dark rum and other dark liquors, as well as red wine, will lead to a greater hangover than, say, vodka.

Choose your poison wisely. Consume wisely.

Sterling

Posters on this thread seem to be ignoring one of the prime causes of hangover. S2 in Chandler is pointing in the right direction.

Methanol and acetaldehyde are toxins, which must be de-toxified by the liver. Too many toxins, and the liver is overwhelmed, and the toxins continue to circulate freely in the blood, and into the brain, causing pains. ANd not only these chemical by-products of fermentation cause this, other added pollutants also cause this. So if you eat foods that overload the liver, toxin buildup will be worse. If you drink whiskey or other booze cured in a barrel leaching tannins and other crap into the booze, you will have more pain than a "clean" distillation like vodka. And wines distilled from high-tannin grape skins, like red wine, will cause more pain than less tannic grapes.

So you can ease hangovers by doing liver cleansing and supporting practices. Drinking more water is not just to ease dehydration, but also helps in flushing the toxins out of the liver and blood, and out of the body.

Remember to bless the beer before consuming, that will most likely help..

Hahahaa!

Over consumption of beverages that have a slight alcohol content

Dehydration and a mild form of withdrawal.

Drink lots of water and get a sports drink. I tried the pickle juice shot and that seemed to help somewhat.

I've read all sorts of stuff that supposed to prevent a hangover, but if you drink too much, you'll probably still wake up with one. Eating a big meal before drinking is supposed to help and drinking water between each drink is the typical advice, but your liver and body can only tolerate so much alcohol.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2015 01:57PM by Itzpapalotl.

During my brief stint of wild living in my youth, I would end each night with several aspirin, a couple of multivitamins, and as much water as I could comfortably drink. I would awake in the morning with deep regrets, but seldom any physical pain.

Ok, seriously y'all this is hysterically funny to me this morning, well, afternoon really.

Not that hangovers are funny at all, it's just that this has to be the ONLY place on earth where grown adults have to ask such questions.

Talk about a clueless bunch ---- we exmormons fit the bill.

Before I realized that there is a direct correlation between quantity consumed and the next mornings condition I had developed a system. At night I would take two Alka-Seltzer and a couple of glasses of water. In the morning chocolate milk was a lifesaver.

Be thankfull you get hangovers, I never get sick from drinking, ie never vomit and I never suffered from headaches after drinking. I just used to feel sluggish the following day. Now i don't suffer at all the following day. Not good at all. consequently I drink way too much.

Going commando and zipper failure...happens every time.

I remember my first hangover. I was almost 28 and all my coworkers had finally got me to start drinking... a few months in I got my first real hangover. I showed up to work feeling like crap and could not concentrate for the life of me. I ended up barfing at about 10:30 and I kept telling my coworker that I thought I had the flu... Those were the days.

I've raged hard over the past 3-4 years and have had only 10 hangovers. The best advice I have is to eat really greasy food before you drink and during. For some reason if I eat fast food beforehand I don't really get hungover.

I usually pound a glass of water every 2-3 drinks and I try not to mix beer/liquor. When I get home I chug water or kombucha... some have told me the antioxidants in kombucha help with hangovers. Sometimes I'll even pound kefir.

Despite the source, this is actually a pretty good summary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangover

Haven't had a hangover for about 25 years.

The key is to make sure you keep drinking.

It's the stopping that causes the hangovers.

:rimshot:

Perfection !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with not mixing drinks. If you start the evening drinking beer, wine, scotch and vodka, make sure to continue drinking only beer, wine, scotch and vodka for the rest of the night.

Not a "cure," but certainly a big help for me:
Cranberry juice.

It's mostly water. It has natural sugars (low blood sugar is often a hangover symptom). It has anti-oxidants (which some research shows reduces hangover symptoms). It tastes good.

I rarely drink to the point I get hungover. When I do, I hit the cranberry juice, before going to bed. For me, it helps :)

Cranberry juice also helps flush the toxins out of the kidneys faster.

too much alcohol
Drink a glass of water if you are fucked up
eat a little protein.
Sleep it off.
Wake up and take 4 ibuprofen.
Rinse, lather, Repeat



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2015 09:58PM by sonofperdition.

Exactly !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Too much.... give you a hangover.

It doesn't get better than a good solid buzz. If you're there, you've arrived. Drink some water, then baby sit your next few drinks if you need to keep going at a social event. Rarely does this strat have lingering effects the next day. But of course, everyone is different.

satan causes hangovers.
they are totally evil.

I often have four drinks in the evening after work which are normally rum, vodka, various types of whiskey, or tequila. I don't get drunk and I'm almost always completely sober by bedtime. I've made it a habit to drink a tall glass of water (450 mL or 15 fl oz) along with my normal multivitamin before bed.

I used to get low-level hangovers (headache, lethargy, etc.) the next day, but since I added that glass of water, the hangovers are a thing of the past. I'm convinced that most of what causes a lower-level hangover is due to dehydration.

High-level hangovers (the debilitating kind) are more likely caused by the byproduct of metabolizing alcohol: acetaldehyde. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetaldehyde

The better the booze, the less of a hangover you'll have.

Of course drinking too much of any booze with give you one.

You just need to know your capacity.