Party Too Much? Here Are The Best Hangover Cures
Did you wake up with a hangover this morning? I don't know about you, but the older I get, the worse hangovers seem to be. In my early twenties, a shower and a greasy burger cured even the worst of hangovers, now, not so much.
Luckily, I found some proven ways to help cure that New Years hangover.
- Water: Why is it that drinking 8 glasses of water is so hard to drink, but drinking 20 beers seems like no small feet? Add in a couple of shots and all thoughts of drinking water probably went by the wayside the night prior. The hangover is your body's way of tell you, "Dude, I need some freaking water." Listen to your body, and drink some water.
- Sprite: It's not loaded with caffeine like coffee, but the carbonated sugar water has a calming effect on your stomach and better helps your body metabolize alcohol by speeding up our ability to process aldehyde dehydrogenase, believed to be the culprit for hangover symptoms.
- Sex: "There is no research that shows that sex will make a hangover go away, but maybe it will make the time go faster," says Joris C. Verster, Ph.D., assistant professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. "If it makes you happy, go for it."
- Bananas and Pretzels: Salt and potassium are key for killing a hangover. The alcohol has depleted your body of both. Alyssa Cellini, nutritionist in Bridgewater, N.J., suggests eating these two foods because they are good sources to prevent further dehydration. “Both salt and potassium are electrolytes that hold onto water to decrease dehydration,” she told Medical Daily in an email. “Adding in natural electrolytes that ALSO come with carbohydrates (which are depleted during the liver-detoxing) will make for one less step to feeling better.”
- Asparagus: Asparagus may actually protect your body from booze. A 2009 study published in the Journal of Food Science found the amino acids in asparagus improves the speed of how human cells break down alcohol, which can prevent some of the long-term damage from alcohol’s toxic byproducts, such as hydrogen peroxide. It is the biological functions of asparagus that can help alleviate alcohol hangover, while protecting liver cells.
- More Alcohol: They don't call it the "Hair of the Dog" for nothing. Why suffer a hangover when you can start partying all over again? Soon you won't care or remember that you woke up hungover. They call that "The Shampoo Effect."
Read more at Men's Health and Medical Daily.