Throckmorton
Land Shark
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2004
- Posts
- 4,635
by Melanie Peters
Friday night was a blast for many revellers as they popped a bottle or two of bubbly and quaffed wine, beer and one too many cocktails to celebrate the new year. It's hours later and a hangover has set in - fuzzy head, liverishness, dehydration, nausea, headache and a queasy feeling in the stomach.
According to a Cape Town dietician, hangovers are brought on by a combination of the toxic by-product of alcohol metabolism (acetaldehyde), dehydration and vitamin A, B (particularly B6) and C depletion caused by the chemical action of alcohol on your system.
So here are some tips from local barmen and a few from popular websites on how to survive the hangover blues.
Most barmen still swear the Bloody Mary is the mother of all hangover cures. The spicier the better. There is also an array of cocktails such as Rossini, which is a concoction of strawberry juice and sparkling wine, or a refreshing mint julep made of whisky, soda and lots of fresh mint.
One barman suggested a cocktail of half tequila and half Tabasco sauce in a shot glass was bound to put hair back on your chest. Another suggested a prairie oyster - made from an unbroken egg yolk with a dash each of Tabasco, Worcestershire and tomato sauce.
Others swear by Berocca, a fizzy vitamin tablet. One suggestion was Berocca, a strong cup of coffee and a hot shower followed by a glass of tomato cocktail with Tabasco, pepper and salt.
A spicy curry, strong enough to make you sweat, is a sure-fire winner. For those who do not like hot food, a "full monty" breakfast or a greasy hamburger and milkshake could also do the trick.
For those party animals who prefer medicinal remedies there is the powerful antioxidant Milk Thistle which helps the liver break down alcohol in the body. Artichoke extract contains cynarin which also breaks down alcohol. It should be taken before you start drinking.
The website www.hangover.net recommends a good dose of fruit juice to leave you feeling peachy. The water in the juice rehydrates your body, the fructose (sugar) it contains helps burn up the alcohol. Another tip is to collect the caps from all the beer you have drunk and put them in your pocket.
When you get home count the caps and drink a glass of water for each one. "It works even better when you're seeing double."
The website also warned that smoking doesn't just kill, it makes hangovers a lot more miserable. Quit smoking and your hangovers will be 50 percent less nasty.
It also recommends a good dose of Vitamin B1, or thiamine, which helps metabolise the grog and stabilises the nervous system. Another good practice is not to mix your drinks.
Another website, www.rupissed.com, says the ultimate cure is a Bloody Mary. But it warns "you will become progressively more useless as you drink more and more of them".
The site says most hangover remedies simply attend to one or more of the symptoms and don't really provide a cure. The hangover won't stop until the alcohol is out of your system.
Remedies include Coke, the fizz for the nausea, liquid for the dehydration and a caffeine and sugar hit to make you feel a bit more lively. Coffee is the same as Coke but without the bubbles to help ease the nausea. Try it with honey instead of sugar as the fructose is absorbed quicker than the sucrose in normal sugar and it's better for you.
The website also suggests Marmite on toast. This gets something in your stomach that is good, and salty. Plus you get a Vitamin B top-up. Bananas give you sugar in the form of fructose and potassium, which is one of the things you lose lots of when you drink.
Bananas are also a natural antacid to help the nausea and are high in magnesium which could help relax those pounding blood vessels that cause a hangover headache.
For a variety of reasons try a peanut butter, honey and a banana sandwich on white bread. Another thing the alcohol takes out is Vitamin C, so down some orange juice, tomato and a 600mg vitamin C tablet. A hot bath will also help you sweat out the toxins.
As a last resort you can always have some hair of the dog that bit you - an ice cold beer or tequila shooter will do.
Friday night was a blast for many revellers as they popped a bottle or two of bubbly and quaffed wine, beer and one too many cocktails to celebrate the new year. It's hours later and a hangover has set in - fuzzy head, liverishness, dehydration, nausea, headache and a queasy feeling in the stomach.
According to a Cape Town dietician, hangovers are brought on by a combination of the toxic by-product of alcohol metabolism (acetaldehyde), dehydration and vitamin A, B (particularly B6) and C depletion caused by the chemical action of alcohol on your system.
So here are some tips from local barmen and a few from popular websites on how to survive the hangover blues.
Most barmen still swear the Bloody Mary is the mother of all hangover cures. The spicier the better. There is also an array of cocktails such as Rossini, which is a concoction of strawberry juice and sparkling wine, or a refreshing mint julep made of whisky, soda and lots of fresh mint.
One barman suggested a cocktail of half tequila and half Tabasco sauce in a shot glass was bound to put hair back on your chest. Another suggested a prairie oyster - made from an unbroken egg yolk with a dash each of Tabasco, Worcestershire and tomato sauce.
Others swear by Berocca, a fizzy vitamin tablet. One suggestion was Berocca, a strong cup of coffee and a hot shower followed by a glass of tomato cocktail with Tabasco, pepper and salt.
A spicy curry, strong enough to make you sweat, is a sure-fire winner. For those who do not like hot food, a "full monty" breakfast or a greasy hamburger and milkshake could also do the trick.
For those party animals who prefer medicinal remedies there is the powerful antioxidant Milk Thistle which helps the liver break down alcohol in the body. Artichoke extract contains cynarin which also breaks down alcohol. It should be taken before you start drinking.
The website www.hangover.net recommends a good dose of fruit juice to leave you feeling peachy. The water in the juice rehydrates your body, the fructose (sugar) it contains helps burn up the alcohol. Another tip is to collect the caps from all the beer you have drunk and put them in your pocket.
When you get home count the caps and drink a glass of water for each one. "It works even better when you're seeing double."
The website also warned that smoking doesn't just kill, it makes hangovers a lot more miserable. Quit smoking and your hangovers will be 50 percent less nasty.
It also recommends a good dose of Vitamin B1, or thiamine, which helps metabolise the grog and stabilises the nervous system. Another good practice is not to mix your drinks.
Another website, www.rupissed.com, says the ultimate cure is a Bloody Mary. But it warns "you will become progressively more useless as you drink more and more of them".
The site says most hangover remedies simply attend to one or more of the symptoms and don't really provide a cure. The hangover won't stop until the alcohol is out of your system.
Remedies include Coke, the fizz for the nausea, liquid for the dehydration and a caffeine and sugar hit to make you feel a bit more lively. Coffee is the same as Coke but without the bubbles to help ease the nausea. Try it with honey instead of sugar as the fructose is absorbed quicker than the sucrose in normal sugar and it's better for you.
The website also suggests Marmite on toast. This gets something in your stomach that is good, and salty. Plus you get a Vitamin B top-up. Bananas give you sugar in the form of fructose and potassium, which is one of the things you lose lots of when you drink.
Bananas are also a natural antacid to help the nausea and are high in magnesium which could help relax those pounding blood vessels that cause a hangover headache.
For a variety of reasons try a peanut butter, honey and a banana sandwich on white bread. Another thing the alcohol takes out is Vitamin C, so down some orange juice, tomato and a 600mg vitamin C tablet. A hot bath will also help you sweat out the toxins.
As a last resort you can always have some hair of the dog that bit you - an ice cold beer or tequila shooter will do.
