Hangover is a term used to refer to feelings of discomfort after drinking alcohol in excess..
Symptoms include:
Headache.
Irritability.
Dry Mouth, Thirst.
Fatigue.
Muscle Aches.
Dizziness.
Tremor (in severe cases).
Nausea.
Recognize these symptoms? While there is great sympathy for those who suffer unintentionally from drinking wine, the
symptoms of taking in too much alcohol are well known, even celebrated, and avoidable. For this part I've decided to speak to
you from experience and to do that I've induced a hangover, well just a little one. Since I'm not allergic to wine this is the only
part I can speak to from personal experience. Getting a hangover doesn't really mean getting drunk although a really "good"
hangover requires getting really drunk.
In contrast to someone's allergies to wine, real or imagined, misery from drinking too much is accompanied with a good
amount of humor and sage advice, because a hangover is voluntary and manageable, even predictable. When drinking too much
one still gets all the benefits of enjoyment here before the suffering in contrast to wine allergies where the suffering and the
pleasure collide immediately and man being a reasonable person is willing to endure pain for pleasures sake, but few will choose
considerable pain for fleeting pleasure or none at all.
So what does one do about this type of wine misery? Well, obviously, the best thing is to know one's limits. Gained by
personal experience, you sooner rather than later figure out what your tolerance is and have the wisdom to know when to stop.
There are several things which can be done while drinking to reduce your chances of getting a hangover.
Eat food, wine is best with food and around the world usually drunk that way. I once belonged to a drinking and dining
club where we started at about 10 p.m. with Champagne and proceeded into the early hours of the next morning with
course after course of food accompanied by course after course of excellent wine. Long story short, all ended up going
home at sunrise feeling terrific and no hangover because we combined drinking with eating.
Drinking plenty of water is another way of forestalling a hangover. I try to drink a glass of water for every glass of wine
and the dilution works.
The quickest way to feel the effects of drinking is to sit down to a bottle of wine when you're thirsty which means you
drink the wine to quench your thirst and finally to enjoy the wine. If you drink enough water first to quench that thirst
you'll be able to enjoy sipping your wine instead of guzzling it down to staunch the thirst.
Drink slowly. The more slowly you drink, the less alcohol actually reaches the brain-even though you may actually drink
more over the long haul. Your body burns alcohol at about one ounce per hour. Give it more time to burn the alcohol and
less reaches the brain.
Slow down on the bubbly. Anything with bubbles in it puts the alcohol into your bloodstream much more quickly. Your
liver tries to keep up but the rest spills over into your bloodstream and into the brain.
Be aware of your size. If you're 110 pounds, you're able to drink about half the amount of someone 250 pounds.
Last, before going to bed take aspirin and vitamin B complex. This works very well when you think your drinking is in the
league to produce a hangover. Apparently as your body metabolizes the alcohol it uses vitamin B, so helping to replenish
the supply staves off the pain of using up your limited supply.
So much for prevention, how about a cure?
Again water and aspirin work wonders. Rehydrate your body cells with water and limit the pain with aspirin.
Drink fruit juice which contains a form of sugar called fructose, which helps the body burn alcohol faster, helping to
accelerate removal of the alcohol.
Eating honey, which is a very concentrated source of fructose will help flush out the alcohol.
Drink bullion broth which helps replace the salt and potassium your body loses when you drink.
Eat amino acids which are the building blocks of proteins with a little carbohydrate to quickly replenish the amino acid
pool in your body.
Have two cups of coffee. The coffee acts as a vasoconstrictor, reducing the swelling of blood vessels that cause
headaches.
Replenishing the vitamin B still works somewhat which may explain why a good steak (it's loaded with vitamin B) works
so well to turn things around.
The "hair of the dog" remedy is always worthwhile as it apparently puts a little alcohol back in your body. Your body at
this point is craving the alcohol and causing you pain.
Naturally all this will ameliorate the pain but in the end time is the only thing that relieves it as your body finally gets over
the abuse.
Beyond that think of it as a test of character, as Hemingway said, 'the test of a man is one who can work through a
hangover'.
Much has been said on this subject elsewhere, some of it sage and some of it quite funny, all of it very human. So let's
leave this subject on a relatively bright note with some thoughts by famous people on the subject.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. --Ambrose Bierce
Reality is an illusion that occurs due to the lack of alcohol.
I never drink anything stronger than gin before breakfast.
A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her.
What contemptible scoundrel has stolen the cork to my lunch? --W.C. Fields
Sir, if you were my husband, I would poison your drink. --Lady Astor to Winston Churchill
Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it. --His reply
Work is the curse of the drinking classes. --Oscar Wilde
When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. --Henny Youngman
An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools. --For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. --Ernest Hemingway
There is no greater joy than in being a drinker... except for the joy in the wine in the women and being drunk. So I'm for
drinking honestly and dying in my boots. --Lord Byron
Man, being reasonable, must get drunk. --Don Juan, by Lord Byron
There are more old drunkards than old doctors. --Benjamin Franklin
Extensive interviews show that not one alcoholic has ever actually seen a pink elephant. --Yale University, Center of Alcohol Studies
To dispute with a drunkard is to debate with an empty house. --Publilius Syrus
Drunkedness is simply voluntary insanity. --Seneca
An alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as much as you do. --Dylan Thomas
Just as it is shameful to be drunk among the sober, so is it shameful to be sober among the drunk.
The Heineken Uncertainty Principle: You can never be sure how many beers you had last night.
Quotes are courtesy of the Madbrewers
