Side effects - Hangover Cures

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by Expat98

Now that you mention it, yes, SWIM has found that piracetam does help him feel better and cut through the brain fog that sometimes persists for a day or two (or longer) after drinking too much. But he has not tried it in a situation where he was really physically ill from a hangover...puking, bad headache, etc. (I hope my buddy SWIM is never in that situation again!

'cutting through the brain fog' is exactly how swim would describe it (he almost used that exact wording). Even without a hangover, swim finds that piracetam ameliorates any lingering effects of drinking from the night before.

Otherwise, swim and several of his friends found that piracetam was a godsend when dealing with terrible migraines the day after drinking. Worked quicker and more effectively than anything else swim would think to use. As mentioned before though, not sure about its effect on 'puking hangovers'.

Originally Posted by Expat98

Speaking of types of alcohol, vodka is the purest form of alcohol available and is supposed to be the least likely to give you a hangover (factoring in the different percentages of alcohol in different beverages). Obviously, anything will give you a hangover if you drink too much though.

Vodka is swim's favourite alcohol. He prefers to drink it straight, sometimes chugging it straight out of the bottle, sans chase. Those were mostly the old days though, swim doesn't overindulge in liquor anymore due to excessive blackouts back in the day. He still enjoys straight vodka from time to time, but not in the quantities of the past. Perhaps his fondness of vodka over other liquors is a reason for his relative lack of experience with hangovers.

Regarding your last point, swim can certainly confirm that. While he almost never gets hangovers, and certainly not with vodka alone, there is one occasion that serves to warn of overindulging in any form of alcohol!

Swim actually posted about this occurrence in this thread. Quote is below.

Due to retarded circumstances swim ended up drinking a liter bottle of Absolut Citron in close to 30-40 minutes by himself minus a sip or two by another person. He didn't really realize what he had done until he stood up as he was almost about to get into a fight with another guy in the room. His head started kicking back and he had no balance so his roommates noticed quickly that something was wrong. Everyone else got out and swim proceded to puke six or more times all around the room. His roommates stripped him and put him in the shower where he puked more, and when he came out he was still crying and incoherent and simply fucked is the best way to put it. Swim ended up with a two day hangover that absolutely killed him on the six hour or so train ride he had to go on the next day! It was probably the worst drinking experience of swim's life, and swim isn't sure if he can ever repeat it.

Oh and I forgot to mention, this whole experience took place at somewhere between 2800 - 3000 meters altitude! So swim was absolutely fucked! Ugh he feels sick even thinking about it.

[0utrider]

gh. Vodka is swim's favourite alcohol. He prefers to drink it straight, sometimes chugging it straight out of the bottle, sans chase. Those were mostly the old days though, swim doesn't overindulge in liquor anymore due to excessive blackouts back in the day. He still enjoys straight vodka from time to time, but not in the quantities of the past. Perhaps his fondness of vodka over other liquors is a reason for his relative lack of experience with hangovers.

exactly the same for SWIM !! but he still gets the hangovers from time to time, but the times when he drank a straight glass of vodka are over.. but vodka is his favorite, he doesnt like beer, wine makes him feel strange, rum & whiskey gives him a bad "high" and hangover and most other stuff is for girls (or alcoholics) anyways..

[Geeza]

Swim cures his hangovers thus:

1. Water; as much as you can drink, the more the better!
2. Weed to make you not care as much. and to decrease nausea and help keep food down.
3. Light snack, summin healthy I guess.
4. More water.
5. Some asparin for any lingering headache.

Never hair of the Dog. Bad idea.

Geeza added 1 Minutes and 41 Seconds later...

Also swim heard that the darker the drink the worse the hangover. Scientifically backed up. Something to do with the pigments/chemicals that make it that colour.

Reputation Comments on this post:

congtats, and thanx

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by Geeza

Also swim heard that the darker the drink the worse the hangover. Scientifically backed up. Something to do with the pigments/chemicals that make it that colour.

Look up cogeners.

[Geeza]

Originally Posted by Bajeda

Look up cogeners.

Ahhh, well there you go.

[Expat98]

Here is a good list of purported hangover remedies, with evaluations of the efficacy of each one. From Howstuffworks:

Food and Drink Remedies - Fact or Fiction?

Hangover remedies include everything from "a hair of the dog that bit you" (drinking a little more alcohol the next morning), to burnt toast and black coffee to an over-the-counter product like Chaser. Which of all the endless theoretical remedies actually have truth behind them?

Hair of the Dog

Contrary to popular belief, more of the "hair of the dog that bit you" only delays the inevitable. One of the reasons hangovers are so unpleasant is the liver is still processing the toxins left over from alcohol metabolism. Drinking more alcohol can make the symptoms seem to lessen at first but will only make the situation worse once the liver breaks the alcohol down, because it will have even more toxins to deal with.

Conclusion:

* FICTION - Remedy


Burnt Toast

At first, the burnt toast remedy may seem that it is actually based on scientific fact. The culprit behind this fictional cure is the carbon in the charred bread. Carbon can act like a filter in the body. While it is true that activated charcoal (which is a treated form of carbon) is used to treat some types of poisonings, it is not currently used to treat alcohol poisoning (something that is vastly different from a regular hangover).

Reportedly, the filtering effect of charcoal is behind the success of over-the-counter remedies such as Chaser and Sob'r-K HangoverStopper, which claim carbon as their main ingredient. These over-the-counter remedies are taken prior to drinking. Manufacturers claim that the activated charcoal in the pills "attracts" congeners (more on over-the-counter remedies on the following page).

The carbon/charcoal found on burnt toast is not the same as activated charcoal, nor is it the equivalent of taking an OTC hangover remedy.

Conclusion:

* FICTION - Prevention and Remedy


Black Coffee

Coffee contains a high amount of caffeine, which is a stimulant and therefore helps fight fatigue. But when the caffeine wears off, a drinker may be even more tired than before. It can help alleviate a pounding head because caffeine is a vasoconstrictor, meaning it reduces the size of blood vessels. This counteracts the effect of the alcohol, which makes them swell, making the head hurt in the first place. Unfortunately, caffeine is also a diuretic like alcohol and can make a drinker even more dehydrated than before, thereby increasing the severity of the hangover. Overall, coffee is not a good hangover cure.

Conclusion:

* FICTION - Remedy


Fried or Fatty Foods

Although eating fried or fatty foods the morning after will probably only irritate a drinker's stomach further, eating them before drinking can actually be helpful. Putting anything in the stomach prior to indulging in alcohol helps prevent a hangover, but fatty foods in particular stick to the stomach lining longer and therefore slow down the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream. While that might make it take longer to feel the alcohol's effects, it also gives the body more time to process the byproducts and will increase a drinker's chances of feeling decent in the morning. So much so, in fact, that a Mediterranean folk tactic is to take a spoonful of olive oil before drinking alcohol. Eating lighter food such as a fruit smoothie will provide energy and alleviate some symptoms by replenishing the electrolytes the body lost from dehydration.

Conclusion:

* FACT - Prevention
* FICTION - Remedy


Eggs

Eating eggs the morning after provides energy like any other food, which is the primary benefit. But eggs do also contain large amounts of cysteine, the substance that breaks down the hangover-causing toxin acetaldehyde in the liver's easily depleted glutathione. Therefore, eggs can potentially help mop up the left-over toxins.

Conclusion:

* FACT - Remedy


Bananas

Eating bananas the morning after a night of heavy drinking provides lost electrolytes like any food would, but it also specifically replenishes the potassium lost to alcohol's diuretic effect. Other potassium-rich foods such as kiwi fruit or sports drinks work just as well.

Conclusion:

* FACT - Remedy


Water

Replenishing the body's water supply after a night of drinking combats dehydration, and it also helps dilute the leftover byproducts in the stomach. Adding salt and sugar to water helps replace the sodium and glycogen lost the night before. Non-caffeinated, non-carbonated sports drinks can achieve the same effect.

As a prevention method, drinking a glass of water for every alcoholic beverage slows down drinking, providing more time for the body to deal with the alcohol (the body can only process about three-quarters of an ounce of alcohol in an hour). Drinking a few glasses of water before going to bed helps fight dehydration after the body finishes breaking down the alcohol.

Conclusion:

* FACT - Prevention and Remedy


Fruit Juice

The fructose -- fruit sugar -- in fruit juice helps to naturally increase the body's energy. Studies have proven that it also increases the rate at which the body gets rid of toxins such as those left over from alcohol metabolism. Fruit juice is also a good idea the morning after because it is high in vitamins and nutrients that were depleted the night before because of alcohol's diuretic effect. Vitamin supplements high in vitamins C and B are also effective.

Conclusion:

* FACT - Remedy


Painkillers

Certain painkillers are more effective at combating a hangover than others. For instance, Excedrin can be helpful for a headache because it combines acetaminophen for the pain and caffeine to reduce the size of the pounding blood vessels; however, prolonged combination of alcohol and acetaminophen has been shown to cause liver damage, and caffeine is a diuretic.

Aspirin is a non-caffeinated pain reliever and is also in a class of anti-inflammatory drugs known as prostaglandin inhibitors. High levels of prostaglandin have been associated with increased hangover severity. In one study, participants who took a prostaglandin inhibitor before bed reported less of a headache and less nausea and thirst than those who had drank the same amount of alcohol but did not take the prostaglandin inhibitor before bed. If you have a sensitive stomach, though, beware -- taking aspirin after drinking can make your stomach hurt even worse.

Conclusion:

* FACT - Prevention and Remedy if non-caffeinated and acetaminophen-free


Over-the-counter Remedies

Hangover remedies such as Chaser, Sob'r-K Hangover Stopper, RU-21, Berocca and Rebound are highly varied both in price and ingredients, so their effectiveness varies accordingly. They are classified as dietary supplements, meaning:

* They contain vitamins and minerals.
* They do not require a prescription.
* They are usually taken in pill form.

According to Hangover Review, which did a study covering many of over-the-counter hangover cures on the market, the only "medically provable" supplements are Sob'r-K Hangover Stopper, Chaser and Uncle Rummie's Hangover Helper because they make use of the effective filtering qualities of carbon to reduce the number of impurities the body has to process (see "Burnt Toast" in the last section). Sob'r-K Hangover Stopper is inexpensive compared to the others, uses the highest-grade carbon and the concoction is patented; therefore, Hangover Review deemed it the smartest choice. As for RU-21, marketed as a secret KGB pill, the manufacturer says specifically that it is not an anti-hangover pill but a supplement for detoxification. (By the way, its main ingredients -- dextrose, L-Glutamine and vitamin C -- can be found in high amounts in everyday foods). Rebound has the same ingredients as RU-21 plus a few other vitamins and oddities such as "young barley grass juice powder," but it is still basically a multivitamin. Berocca, again, is not a hangover cure -- it's simply a multivitamin that claims to increase energy naturally (through vitamins).

The secret to most of these purported "miracle cures" may in fact be the amount of water a drinker ingests when taking them. Many require taking a pill (or two) with a glass (or two) of water before drinking alcohol, and then continuing to take the pills over the course of the evening with full glasses of water, before bed with a full glass of water, and upon waking with a full glass of water. The hydration alone greatly improves the chances of having little-to-no hangover, and the vitamins in the pills just give it a little, albeit expensive, boost.

Conclusion:

* FACT - Prevention and Remedy for the carbon-based products
* FICTION - Prevention and Remedy for the non-carbon based products


Time

The only complete cure for a hangover is time. No matter what a drinker does, the body still has to clean up all the toxic byproducts left over from the evening before. But the above factual remedies can help speed up the process.

Conclusion:

* FACT - Remedy

[dave-o]

Salt and sugar.

It doesn't have to be plain salt and sugar though.

A couple of sugary teas and slices of marmite on toast do the trick too.

[gunnaknow]

Ontop of all of the advice already offered, eat or drink something salty. The salt allows your body to hold onto water more effectively, rather than it being urinated out. Do not just drink water. Either add a pinch of salt to the water, or eat something salty with the water. Believe SWIM when he says that it makes a significant difference to hydration levels. Studies, including those of Dr. Hiroshi Nose have proven this.

[gunnaknow]

In simple terms, an electrolyte is a material that dissolves in water to give a solution that conducts an electric current. A simple but effective electrolyte/rehydration drink can be made by adding salt and sugar (optional) to water. Not too much salt, just enough so that one can detect a slight saltiness. About one pinch of salt per glass. When table salt (sodium chloride) is placed in water, the sodium and chloride dissociate, due to the thermodynamic interactions between solvent and solute molecules, to form sodium and chloride ions (electrolytes). The following reaction occurs:

NaCl + H20 → Na+ + Cl− + H20

Adding sugar with the salt improves the absorbtion of the salt because they are cotransported by the SGLT transporters. If you have glucose powder then great but table sugar (sucrose) will do the job aswel, although sucrose is only 50% glucose, so more is needed. A simple homemade recipe is:

1/2 a teaspoon of salt
4-8 teaspoons of table sugar (or 2-4 tsp glucose powder)
1 litre of water

The sugar helps but is optional and salt works perfectly well on it's own in water. Unless one is dehydrated through diarrhoea, in which case the sugar is required for the salt to become absorbed through cotransporation, rather than it being excreted.

[Apostasy]

The way I avoid a terrible hangover is by drinking beverages that are pure, such as good quality Vodka and down atleast a few glasses of water about 30 minutes before sleeping/passing out.

Best "cure" possible, I reckon!

[HorseBucket]

I drink about a liter of water before going to bed and that seems to even work against those shitty cider hangovers or the hangovers you get when you'd been drinking beer+wine the night before.

[TestDummy]

The fuckin b-complex before, and the alka-seltzer for the extreme aftermath.

[Hakkera]

I actually quite like to sit out in the garden with a pint of Orange Juice. (ya know those old fashioned glass pint bottles you get milk in, yeah well get your milkman to deliver a few pints of OJ too)

It's quite nice to do in a drunken state. It works for me, but it doesn't for everyone. I heard something about the vitamin C in OJ being good for hangovers too...

[crazeerayzee]

The best cure for a hangover...is to stay drunk. haha

[cra$h]

until you run out... swim has a bottle of B12 vitamines. the dose per day is supposed to be one, but swim might take one in the morning, right before drinking, before sleep, and right in the morning. Also a lot of water. after doing this, the worst you can expect to feel the next day is a little foggy.

[PKunit]

I dont need actually any hangover cures.. I just dont have them..Even if I drink whole sea..They are just gone by the morning. One thing that I advice DO NOT TAKE VITAMINS ON HANGOVERS. They will make hangover less atomic but the hangover will be much longer. Just make a great portion of baked eggs in the morning and eat them. See the difference.

[doggy_hat]

SWIM Has two cures that he assures work %100 of the time.

1.) drinking more alcohol after you make up.
2.) snorting amphetamine.

SWIM tells me he swears by this, and always does one of the two on Saturday mornings.

[KomodoMK]

Studies always seem to say that hangover cures don't work because there is nothing to back them up but that's bullsh*t I think.

1) Preventative measure - after a night out drink a pint or two of water.
2) Sleep - try to get at least 6 hours.
3) Food - nice greasy full English breakfast to line your stomach. (Works like a charm).
4) Fluid - get some more fluids in you.

That works pretty much all the time for myself and hangover will be gone in less than a couple of hours. If that fails the fool proof way is to carry on drinking again. The 'hair of the dog'.

[readyforthefloor]

Hangovers are so painful and ruin your day, swim is wondering if anyone has a magical cure?

[Jatelka]

Threads merged

[Pope Albacore]

SWIM says that he learned from living in the Southwest that the magical hangover cure consisted of:

1. Menudo(the soup not the band)

2. Pedialyte

Or if you are lucky:

1. An IV bag of normal saline

2. Pedialyte

Or if you have to:

1. More alcohol...

SWIM says he hopes he helped but he is sorry to say that there is no sure fire way to rid oneself of hangovers except abstaining from drinking.

-Pope Albacore

[Bajeda]

My penguin still finds that taking some choline powder (or eggs also can work if you don't have choline) eliminates any headache he has from drinking the night before. He usually throws some piracetam in as well as it also helps him to feel better. He hasn't found anything else that works with this sort of consistency.

If you have a puking hangover you are just screwed, but if your head is pounding my penguin would recommend trying some choline and maybe piracetam combined with adequate hydration.

Reputation Comments on this post:

That sounds good.

[vinylmesh]

http://banderasnews.com/0506/rr-congeners.htm

[Dickon]

Just in case I let something slip out the following is simply some lyrics to a song I'm trying to write....

Hangover Prevention:
1) Drink clear alcohol (Vodka not Cognac and/or Whisky)
2) Drink to excess prior to date of possible hangover (very stupid advice, but in a literal sense it will work. If you drink 8 pints of beer every day you wake up fine. But if you've not drunk for a month you'll get a BAD hangover.)
3) RU-21. It's a product that you can buy that is allegedly based on a KGB product allowing agents to drink a lot and remain effective. [Ingredients B2 B6 C vitamins, L Glutamic acid HCl, Succinic Acid, Fumaric Acid (I think these two are the really active ingredients) L-cysteine and alpha-lipoic acid] I have found it works pretty well.
4) Megavitamins (seem to reduce the desire to drink, in me at least if used for a few days (because of B-vitamins?) , which might help)
5) Stomach lining first, and water drinking with and after.

and the totally obvious

6) drink sensibly.

Hangover "Cure"

2 x 100mg Dr J Collis Browne's Mixture if UK based (available in most high-street chemists so I can mention it) : The active ingredient in two bottles is 40mg morphine. (Heroin or other strong opiate will work equally well) - I have shaken big big hangovers with this method. But be warned opiate addiction is worse than a hangover. Proceed with caution. But if your life absolutely depends on getting through the day, this will work. You might get away with one bottle. Taking 2 in one go can provide too high a morphine dose for some sensitive people. Check your tolerance first.

Or better still know your limits and stick to them unless you're just completely lacking self-control, in which case abstain.

Dr D.

[G_nome]

A bottle of irn bru and a roll and sausage.

or

Hair of the dog.