While there are countless ways to welcome in the new year, many of them involve imbibing copious amounts of delightfully spirited libations. If you're anything like me, I know you're fearing the monster hangover on New Year's Day.
The good news is, you don't have to. If you want to party on New Year's Eve without the worry, there are a few things you can do to prevent that predictable self-loathing. After all, wouldn't it be nice to start the new year without the feeling of regret?
To ease the process, we've collected the following inventive ways to avoid or, if unavoidable, cure your killer hangover.
The Rundown
Here's a list some of the more well known ways to preventing a hangover. Most of these are pretty obvious, but the more tips the merrier.
Know Your Limit
Size, weight, height, age, and frequency of drinking should all be taken into account. Every person's alcohol tolerance is different, so it's your job to gauge your own. To ease the process without leaving yourself dry, try sticking to lower alcohol drinks like 3.2 beers, "hard" lemon-aids, and mixes that involve more juice than higher proof liquors.
Food
Eat before you drink and during. Drinking on an empty stomach puts alcohol absorption in overdrive. Food is yummy, so get some into your tummy. Greasy foods, in particular, can coat the lining in your stomach, slowing down the absorption of the alcohol. Keep eating throughout the night to raise your tolerance.
Drink Squared
Drink water as you drink. Follow every drink with a glass of water and your hangover will be way less severe. The headache portion of a hangover is almost always the result of dehydration. Alcohol is a diuretic. Staying hydrated by drinking plenty of water is the absolute best way to avoid the headache all together.
Vitamins Are Your Friends
Take multi-vitamins. They may taste like chalk, but they will help you the morning after a night's hard drinking.
The Hair of the Dog
Drinking after a hard's night drinking may seem counter-intuitive, but it does work to a certain extent. Drinking while you have a hangover will quiet the symptoms, but this is only temporary. You will feel better initially, but sooner or later the drinking you have been doing will catch up with you.
Stay Bland My Friends
Stick to one drink type. I know this may be boring, but switching from vodka, to beer, and then to whiskey just makes your body hate you even more.
Sleep
Well, I guess the title says it all. Get your rest, and you will feel a lot better.
Tips You Probably Didn't Know
Here are some other tips that are a little more nuanced.
Avoid the Champagne & Carbonated Mixers
I know, I know... New Year's is probably one of the few nights where champagne is the drink of choice. But if you want to avoid a massive hangover, have a couple glasses and switch to beer or liquor. The carbonation and the sugars make champagne a hangover nightmare. Same goes for those mixers. Opt for the juice instead of the soda.
Avoid the Dark Side
I always thought that Darth Vader and the Dark Side was much cooler than Luke and his buddies, and the same goes for my taste in drinks. I am not a huge fan of vodka or gin, so I always opt for whiskey. But whiskey and other dark drinks contain more congeners, which contribute to those hangover symptoms. So, if you are going to drink a lot, just make sure to stick to the lighter drinks. You'll be happier about it in the morning.
Top Shelf
If you have the cash to spend, try sticking to the more expensive brands. These brands usually have a more stringent filtration process and contain less of those congeners that we just discussed. Most bars will only charge a dollar or two more for a top shelf brand than their well drinks.
Don't Be a Baby
Whining about your hangover is not going to cure anything. But drinking this baby solution will make you feel a lot better.
When we drink, we are pretty much poisoning our bodies and dehydrating ourselves. (Totally worth it though) Drinks like Pedialyte, other sports drinks like Gatorade, are packed with electrolytes like sodium and potassium which all help cure dehydration. Pedialyte may be for babies, but it has two to three times the amount of sodium and potassium that Gatorade has, which makes it a great drink to have before you sleep or right when you wake up. The strange looks you might get at the register will be worth the trouble.
Green Eggs & Ham
Eat! You might feel like you've been punched in the stomach by Captain Falcon, but you need to force yourself to eat. Have a meal with carbs, some veggies or fruits (bananas for potassium) and some eggs. Eggs contain cysteine, which can help remove toxins from your body.
Now of course, you can avoid all of this by just drinking less or not drinking at all, but you wouldn't be reading this if that was an option you'd consider, would you?
Have any other off-the wall hangover cures? Let us know in the comments below.
Cover image via Shutterstock
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