Ah yes you wake up and it’s 2009 Happy New Year!! However with all of the fun and festivities you find yourself afraid to move. You slowly open your eyes. So far so good, so you continue on your way by pulling back the covers and getting out of bed. You stand up and suddenly you feel like you’ve been struck by a bolt of lightening. Wave after wave of nausea come crashing in. You sit back down or fall down on the bed and lower your head. You can feel your pulse inside your skull. Your cold but you begin to sweat. Suddenly you dash off to the lou, take a seat and grab a bucket. You may begin to pray, begging forgivness or asking to meet your maker right then and there.
A hangover is the pain and greif that we suffer after an evening of debauchery. The symptoms vary but range from a dull headache to erratic body motor function. The multiple casualties caused by over-consumption of alcohol on are body are somewhat scietific in nature. It impairs the liver from producing glucose. Glucose is food for our brain. Ethanol consumed in your favourite cocktails acts as a diuretic, which lead to dehydration, causing our brains to shrink. Over consumption of ethanol can lead to a Vitamin B12 deficiancy also effecting brain function. Fuesel oil also known as congeners are a by-product produced in fermented alcohols which can exaggerate the effects of a hangover. Congeners are often added to sweetend liquers in the form of zinc or other metals. These are rarley found in distilled spirits but are rampant in wine, especially red wines.
I’ve heard many a remedy for easing a hangover. Whatever you do, do not consume anything that contains acetominaphin (asprin) as this will thin your blood more than the alcohol already has, and caffienne will only dehydrate you further. The one that works best for me is to get up and get moving and push your way through the day with the same fierceness that got me here in the first place.
While helping me celebrate my wedding my long time friend and sous-chef Devin Peterson turned me on to drinking Pedialyte® the morning after a night of play. Pedialyte is formulated to quickly replace lost fluids with a balance of electrolytes. A litre of Pedialyte and some cold leftover- greasy- take-out that we squirreled away the night before quickly got us back on our feet.
A review in British Medical Journal on hangover cures by Max Pittler of the PeninsulaMedicalSchool at ExeterUniversity and colleagues concludes: “No compelling evidence exists to suggest that any conventional or complementary intervention is effective for preventing or treating alcohol hangover. The most effective way to avoid the symptoms of alcohol induced hangover is to practise moderation.”
Veisalgia for breakfast
1 litre of Pedialyte
One – two cups leftovers of your favourite comfort food
One big comfy couch
Lay back, relax and start rehydrating yourself as only this and the passing of time will get you back on your feet. Keep the remote and the phone close by just in case you need them.
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