How To Quickly End A Hangover In 8 Easy Steps | Addiction & Recovery slideshows | Emotional & Mental Health center

Drinking Water Can Help Rehydrate You After A Night's Drinking, Reducing Hangover Symptoms

The principle cause of most hangover symptoms is dehydration. Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it tells the kidneys to extract water from the blood, leaving you with head pains, joint stiffness, fatigue, dry eyes... sound familiar? If you can, drink water before you go to sleep. If not, try to drink water when you wake up. On days when you're hung over, drink more water throughout the day. It will work and be absorbed better if you take it with food, because the salts will aid absorption. But the main thing is to get some fluids inside yourself!

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Eat Fatty Foods For Slow-Release Energy To Help Reduce Hangover Symptoms

Alcohol reduces blood sugar. A fatty fry-up is a traditional hangover cure for good reason: the fats provide long-term, slow-breakdown fuel to sustain you for longer, and they often come with salts and protein in tow: the perfect combination! It's a mistake to think, too, that the body doesn't need fats: we need somewhere around 30g of fats a day as a minimum and if we're low on fuel because of a protracted drinking session the night before, more might be in order. The main use for fatty foods, though, is to prevent, rather than cure, hangover. The idea that fatty foods 'line your stomach' is technically wrong, but it's right in principle. Because fat is broken down slowly it protects you against absorbing alcohol too fast (both jobs are done by the liver) and offers long-term sustenance. If you're craving fatty foods the morning after a drink or too many, it could be the result of a brain chemical called galanin, thought to cause cravings for fats and produced in response to eating fat - or drinking alcohol!

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Take An Aspirin Or Three To Reduce The Pain And Inflammation, Controlling Hangover Symptoms

Aspirin isn't everyone's painkiller of choice, and it can irritate the stomach. But paracetamol will increase the load on the liver, and ibuprofen is more useful against inflammatory joint pain. Aspirin will help by easing tension and swelling in the cranial arteries' walls, often a result of dehydration and tension. Pain in the front of the head is often a result of this. But for some people who have overindulged, or who are more sensitive to it that average, an alcohol breakdown product called acetate can be the cause of headaches, and aspirin is uniquely effective against this chemical - along with caffeine!

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Eat Burnt Toast To Help Your Body Cope And Control Your Hangover

Carbon can act as a filter in the body, mopping up harmful chemicals. In fact, people who go to emergency rooms with alcohol poisoning are dosed with charcoal too! Actually, however, activated charcoal is the more effective version that's used by medical professionals, and it's best to use home-made charcoal remedies before drinking rather than afterwards. The carbohydrates in toast can be absorbed by the mucus membranes in the cheeks, and burned toast, as odd as it sounds, is less likely to trigger the nausea some people associate with hangovers. It's also likely that, if you're seriously hung over, you'll burn the toast anyway!

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Cook Yourself A Bouillon Soup For The Trace Elements, Protein - And Comfort When You're Hungover!

Sometimes when you have a bad hangover, solid food doesn't seem like such a good idea. But soup can still be tempting. It's also a good way to get some fluids, a little fat and some protein into yourself. The real benefits, however, come with the salts in the meat stock that goes to make a bouillon soup. Diuretics make us excrete salts as well as water, and one of the ones we lose most and miss worst is potassium, which we eat in its various salts. Red meat stock is a great source of this element which is vital for cell function; lack of potassium can make us feel weak and dizzy, amongst other problems. Higher potassium intake will also help with fluid absorption.

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Fruits, Or Drinks Which Contains Fructose, Can Help You Control Your Hangover

Fructose and glucose have been implicated in improving symptoms of hangovers. It's thought to be the result of the liver perceiving fructose as a dangerous toxin and switching to metabolizing that instead of alcohol. As a result, the production of 'hangover' chemicals like acetaldehyde is slowed down. While the evidence is inconclusive, with some research indicating a useful role while other studies suggest little or no effect in improving alcohol metabolism, one thing is for sure: hangovers are mostly dehydration, and the rest is mostly low blood sugar. Fructose is fruit sugar, though it's also found in honey and other foods. So fruits, with their high water content and fructose, are a perfect helping hand.

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Chew Some Gum To Help Reduce Your Hangover Symptoms

Chewing gum is said to increase blood flow to the blood vessels in the head and face, potentially helping to relieve pain caused by tight blood vessels there. It's also thought to help make you feel more alert. Some professional sports people chew gum before events because it's thought to increase aggression, which might be a benefit for you - or not! Gum could also help with the tenacious morning-after taste, though of course it's possible to chew too much and cause yourself a fresh headache from strained jaw muscles. It's also a good idea to wait til after breakfast before you chew, unless you want the minty flavor to make everything taste awful!

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Take A Cold Shower When You're Hungover, To Get Feel More Awake And Alert

Taking a cold shower will cause your blood vessels to contract. Ever noticed that when you come in from the cold, you need the toilet? That's a phenomenon known as 'cold diuresis' - the low temperature causes blood vessels to contract and the kidneys remove more water from the blood. If you're already dehydrated, though, contracting blood vessels will help! Cold water will also help increase adrenaline production. This will also cause vascular contraction but it will increase your tolerance for the hangover effects. Watch out, though: adrenaline is diuretic itself and the temporarily increased blood sugar comes from your body's own, already depleted stores. Use the extra energy to cook breakfast!