A Cure for Hangovers?

Drinkers of the world unite! No longer will we have to suffer the retching sickness, the pounding headaches, bothersome fatigue and epic dry mouth that comes after a night on the town. Move aside penicillin, the light bulb and my Xbox, we have a new contender for world’s greatest invention: the hangover patch!

Similar to a nicotine patch the ‘Bytox Hangover Prevention Patch’ is applied 45 minutes before you begin your drinking session and replenishes most of the vitamins apparently lost with the consumption of alcohol. By having the cocktail of ingredients that make up a ‘Vitamin B complex’ their patch claims to restore the essential vitamins for “the body’s natural balance” throughout the evening thus waylaying the onset of a hangover the next day. Good times for all, both on the night and the morning after.

Unfortunately this invention comes after our student days but then again now we’re getting a bit older we’ve noticed our hangovers are lasting longer and generally feel more and more like that wake up scene from the hangover. Who knows maybe this could be the answer to our problems?

Of course, as cool as it sounds whether it really works remains to be seen. Professor David Nutt, the former chief drugs adviser to the government, commented to the Metro yesterday: ‘I’d be very surprised if this product did what it says it does. It’s hard to imagine how those ingredients would stop a hangover. And I have never seen any published material on this at all.’ Plus even if it does do what it says dare we risk the repercussions? Namely the inherent health risks of excessively consuming even more alcohol in a society already much criticised for its binge drinking culture - In short will our livers be able to cope?

In the name of quality journalism we’ll go out on the lash to put the patch through its paces (it’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it) and see if it does work. If it doesn’t we’ll be in for one heck of a hangover at work the next day but hey that’s just how dedicated we are. If you fancy some yourself they are currently on sale from Firebox.com at £12.99 a box.

Where the heck does your hangover come from?
Basically the key factor that will have you feeling worse for wears is dehydration. Combine this with the series of enzymatic breakdown processes goin down in that liver of yours and wham that’s your hangover right there. We could get all scientific but rather give you a headache similar to one you might get with a hangover we instead found this nice video, filled with some doodles and pretty colours to explain:

Hangover cures?
There are lots of ‘cures’ and popular myths that are supposed to get you over you’re hangover, some of them may be bang on the mark, others way off. The problem is there isn’t any sure fire way to cure it, aside from prevention in the first place...but let’s be honest that’s not going to happen. Everyone’s got their own hangover cure, years of hangovers has led me to finding a bottle of sprite and packet of Salt and Vinegar Mcoys to work fairly well, but here are some other remedies:

Hair of the dog
Good god no! Downing another drink can only postpone the inevitable, you’ve come this far you might as well see it through.

Water
Your saviour, having a drink of water before you go out, in between rounds and before you go to bed will help. Alcohol is a diuretic meaning it causes your body to loose water in its bid to get it out of your system, i.e. once you break the seal and take more trips to the toilet. Less water in the body is the cause of your headaches the next day so having a glass on standby is essential.

Eating before you go out
A definite help, foods with fat and carbs can slow alcohol absorption rates giving the body more time to process and breakdown alcohol. Remember though this will only help on the night BEFORE you go out, not after.

Exercise
You’re gonna be dehydrated and tired so if you can actually bring yourself to actually doing any exercise (first of all hats off to ye crazy person) it’s only going to heighten these problems. It won’t really help the hangover per se but might wake you up a bit, some fresh air might alleviate any nausea and as long as you drink plenty of fluids will help towards burning off some of those beer calories you took on the night before.
A shower
Commonly misunderstood, many take the shower in a quick bid to ‘rehydrate’ themselves. Showers can only really do two things: Cold shower: get you a bit more alert. Hot shower: raise body temp to prep you for sleep and sleep through the worst part of hangover.

The fry up

 

Another myth, the only thing this is going to do is distract your stomach and has little beneficial effect on helping your hangover as it doesn’t contain any of the nutrients that might. The only foods that arguably help are eggs (not fried!) as they contain cysteine which the body can use in alcohol breakdown and fresh juice, its fructose sugars giving some energy and increasing the body’s rate of getting rid of toxins.

Glass of milk before you head out
‘Lining the stomach’ thus slowing the absorption of alcohol. A nice idea and might help a little, but the reality of the situation is most of the alcohol will actually be absorbed in the small intestine. Also alcohol is more readily absorbed by the body over other nutrients, including the ones in milk, so even if you do drink a glass before you head out the alcohol drunk later will be absorbed first.

Coffee
Bit of a tough call this one, some people swear by it but typically the advice is that coffee just gives you a caffeine boost making you feel more alert and ‘over’ the hangover. Infact some claim coffee has a dehydrating effect which could make the headache worse, although some studies claim this not to be true and coffee as beneficial. This one is down to personal preference.

Happy drinking and recovery everyone!!

Angelic Rogue
Image from Google Images and Video from Youtube. All image rights to their respective owners.