Hangover Remedy??

[MARK123]

What works for you??...I'm 39 years old...Been drinking beer and such since 13.....Have not found a successful remedy yet!!! What works for you???

[Tweek]

Tequila and Vicodin!

LOL just kidding. I try not to get too tore up but it occasionally happens. I notice with homebrew that I can get good and tossed and not suffer the next day. Usually if I end up with a hangover I just suffer through it.

[fretlessman71]

Vitamin B is a pretty good deterrent... take some every day, and take one before you begin to imbibe. That's what's in the yeast at the bottom of a bottle of homebrew, isn't it? :)

[Richard English]

I haven't had a hangover since I stopped drinking chemical fizz beer. I can drink six pints (Imperial) of good English cask-conditioned ale and will have a perfectly clear hea in the morning.

[Caffinehog]

Hangovers are better prevented than remedied. Back in college, I drank 3 glasses of water and took two alleve before bed. It left me tired and didn't cure nausea, but I got no headache. Nausea could be cured 100% of the time by consuming and regurgitating mcdonalds fries.

Now I use something called RU-21. It's a pill that you take one with each drink you consume. It actually works great, though you might be a little tired when you wake up. Otherwise, you wouldn't know that you'd been trashed the night before.

[Tweek]

Originally posted by Caffinehog
Hangovers are better prevented than remedied. Back in college, I drank 3 glasses of water and took two alleve before bed. It left me tired and didn't cure nausea, but I got no headache. Nausea could be cured 100% of the time by consuming and regurgitating mcdonalds fries.

Now I use something called RU-21. It's a pill that you take one with each drink you consume. It actually works great, though you might be a little tired when you wake up. Otherwise, you wouldn't know that you'd been trashed the night before.

Those pills scare me. There is something that is ot right about them. I would imagine that they are just killing your liver. Something wierd is happening there anyway.

[Tweek]

Originally posted by Richard English
I haven't had a hangover since I stopped drinking chemical fizz beer. I can drink six pints (Imperial) of good English cask-conditioned ale and will have a perfectly clear hea in the morning.

Pretty much the only time I ever get hung over is when I have consumed too much wine. I know you are a wine fan Richard, does this never happen to you?

[newportstorm]

I try to drink responsibly, but if I know I'm in for a long night of pub-crawling (literally) or poker night, for instance, I usually do this:

*drink a glass of water with every other beer (every beer is better but hard to do)
*before bed, I'll take a multivitamin high in B-vitamins, eat a PB&J sandwich and wash it down with a Gatorade

Works pretty well for me. Migraine scrips work in a pinch, too :p

Cheers!

[Richard English]

Quote "...I know you are a wine fan Richard, does this never happen to you..."

Not if it's decent wine. I am convinced that it is certain of the additives, in wine or beer, that cause much of the problem.

If I have had a substantial session on wine or spirits (but not beer) I do make sure I drink a pint of water before bed as I can otherwise get dehydrated (birdcage mouth syndrome)

[Tweek]

Originally posted by Richard English
Quote "...I know you are a wine fan Richard, does this never happen to you..."

Not if it's decent wine. I am convinced that it is certain of the additives, in wine or beer, that cause much of the problem.

If I have had a substantial session on wine or spirits (but not beer) I do make sure I drink a pint of water before bed as I can otherwise get dehydrated (birdcage mouth syndrome)

Interesting. It happens to me with the finest of wines. Perhaps you are just not prone to get them.

[Theakston]

Wine hangovers vary widely from person to person. The headaches are generally caused by reaction to the tannins and other chemicals in the wine skins rather than the alcohol (which is why red wine gives the worst hangovers). Also some people have a reaction to the sulphur that is used to filter most wines. Some people can have a very bad reaction to the sulphur and will only drink those advertised as sulphur free ( a small but increasing number).

Similarly with other drinks, it's often not the alcohol itself but other chemicals such as congeners and impurities. That probably explains that, while I can hoist a few single malt scotches, Bourbon gives me a terrible hangover. I've been told it's the congeners.

BTW the only thing that works for me is water (or gatorade) and fresh air. If I'm not too wrecked a 5 mile run usually puts me back together again - and it burns all those excess calories as well!!.

[chazwicke]

Originally posted by Richard English
I haven't had a hangover since I stopped drinking chemical fizz beer. I can drink six pints (Imperial) of good English cask-conditioned ale and will have a perfectly clear hea in the morning.

Same goes for me!

[DreamWeaver]

I saw a t-shirt advertised on Ebay a while back... "Avoid Hangovers, Stay Drunk!" Maybe my goal in college but I have a little more control these days, 30+ years later. However if/when I do overdo it, I may take an aspirin or two before bed but I dunno if I could load up on water. My luck I'd pee a stream down momma's back in the middle of the night & then a hangover would be the least of my problems! :eek:

-DRWeaver-

[unkle bik]

Time.
That krap about "you should drink only the best" is load of bull, too.
It is the ALCOHOL that gives you symptoms of a hangover. It doesn't matter if it was a 12-pack of Genny light or a single malt scotch. If enough alcohol was in your system for a given period of time, you will have a hangover. Cogeners simply add to the effect when people are more susceptible to such chemicals. Even if cogeners aren't present & enough alcohol is present, you WILL have a hangover no matter how much you paid for that swill.

[unkle bik]

So far, I like Tweeks & brownbeard's remedies the best.

[Richard English]

Quote, "...That krap about "you should drink only the best" is load of bull, too..."

It is not a load of bull. Alcohol will give rise to some of the symptoms of a hangover since it is a diuretic. This means you will tend to get dehydrated and dehydration leads to some of the common feelings of malaise associated with a hangover.

However, the hangover associated with drinking pure alcohol will be far less severe than drinking the same amount of alcohol in a complex drink (which is why straight vodka has the reputation for not creating severe hangovers).

There tends to be more additives in highly processed drinks such as fizz beers and alcopops.

I know from my own experience that I will get a headache if I drink just two pints of fizz beer - although I will be almost completely sober. Double or even treble that quantity of decent ale and I will be reasonably pickled but will have a clear head in the morning.

Incidentally, price is not a factor, at least insofar as beer in the UK is concerned. Good beers here generally cost less than rubbish ones.

[Fast_Eddy]

Yeah I have to agree with Richard(imagine that :p)....additives and impurities worsen hangovers - I know from experience, too. High quality brews oz per oz(often higher alc. to lower alc.) will leave you in much better shape in the morning.

[Tweek]

While I agree that there are some things in the "cheaper" drinks that may help to accentuate a hangover, I think what we have going on here is that when a fine beverage is laid before you, you take the time to enjoy it. The whole mission is not to get drunk. This can continue all night long and over several drinks, but when you are savoring your drinks you are far less likely to get to the point of danger.
Now same scenario with a "cheap" drink. You are probabally drinking it to get hammered. You will probabally end up drinking way more in a way shorter period of time, leaving you more inebriated than with the quality drinks.

I cant claim that it is this way for all of you, but it is this way for me. (though I cant remember the last time I drank "cheap" drinks) Occasionally I will get a pounder in the morning but that is usually after a particular friend and I hook up and drink wine, where the night may go on for a while but by the end there will be a minimum of three bottles a piece consumed and often times many more. I dont know what it is about his company but it always happens. As a side note, not that this makes it any better, we are both very serious about the wines we drink and they are all very high quality. We also do our best to critique each and every glass drank, though as Im sure you can imagine that gets harder and harder to do as the night goes on.

[brewmonkey]

I would agree with Richard as well. In addition to not having additives, real ale has residual yeast which is full of B complex vitamins which are known for their ability to lessen the effects of alcohol hangovers.

[brewmonkey]

In reference to brownbeards post-

I deleted it and will continue to delete any post/thread that has reference to illegal substances.

[Caffinehog]

Originally posted by Tweek
Those pills scare me. There is something that is ot right about them. I would imagine that they are just killing your liver. Something wierd is happening there anyway.
Actually, everything in those pills is in your body already. The problem is, the body does not have a metabolic feedback loop that controls the metabolism of alcohol. The ingredients in these pills overload the correct pathways to slow the metabolism. Problem solved? Naw... they don't do anything for other compounds that can mess you up. But they sure help out.

[Sunriver]

1. Become hypersensitive to acid, A friend of mine and I are both hypersensitive to acids, No ketchup, mustard, vinagar, ETC. Over consuption of alcohol I assume creates these acids. Both he and I have NEVER have a hangover even when we have drank the same as other friend who ended up trashed in the morning. We both do become dehydrated like everone else so drinking water the night of helps alot.

2. V-8 is the prefered hangover drink around here for my wife. I figure the veg juice contains vitamins and minerals she lost the night before. It also is a good source of quick energy.

3. HOMEBREW. Someone else stated it earlier but homebrew yeast is a great source od complexe vitamin B-12. Turn the bottle upside down on a english ale to suspend the yeast or roll it on a counter. It is a traditional way to drink some english beers.

4. Hmmmm....... Dont drink. Yep this one pretty much is easy to understand.

[Caffinehog]

V8.... it's full of vitamins. It's full of water. It's full of electrolytes. All of these are things you lose due to dehydration. Such a beverege is a really good idea.

[skahtboi]

I tend to agree with Richard as well. Since I began a "steady diet" of real beer, I haven't had a hangover.

[69HawkI]

Water and Alleve work best for me also.

Now if I could have only found a cure for some of the hangovers I got from drinking that stuff they try to pass as beer in the Orient.

[Beerconnoisseur]

I'm almost certain that the amount of fusel alcohol(s) in beer has a lot to do with the resulting hangover. For instance, I can drink nearly 20 "good" beers (i.e. homebrew, or premium beers from the local tavern), and not have nearly the hangover I would get from drinking 10 "bad" beers (i.e. commercial swill). When it comes to single malt scotch, I've had more mixed results; sometimes a really bad hangover, other times nothing at all.

I recently heard an interview with a rock band, and their recommendation for hangover cures was Pediasure. Take it for what it's worth, but if anyone should know how to cure/avoid hangovers, hard rockers would be my bet. :D

[Richard English]

Quote, "...minimum of three bottles a piece consumed and often times many more..."

Subject to possible confusion over US/UK quantities, I can only say that, if you drink three bottles of table wine, then I'm not surprised you get a hangover! That's equivalent to about nine pints (Imperial) of normal strength beer!

And that's saying nothing about the "often times many more!"

[Richard English]

Quote "...Turn the bottle upside down on a english ale to suspend the yeast or roll it on a counter. It is a traditional way to drink some english beers..."

Not in my experience. Bottle-conditoned beers (and remember the present plethora of BCAs is a new phenomenon - when I started drinking only Guinness, Thomas Hardy's, Gale's Prize Old Ale and Worthington White Shield were bottle-conditioned.

Worthington White Shield was the only commonly available pale ale and White Shield drinkers used to ask to pour their own so as to avoid yeast clouding.

Whereas many people (including this writer) don't mind the yeast, it's certainly not the custom to agitate the beer, not now nor at any time in the past half century.

Are you getting confused, maybe, with Australia? The best beers in Australia are brewed by Coopers and their Sparkling Ale is probably the most common. It throws a very heavy sediment and I have often seen Australians agitate the bottle before pouring. The sediment is so profuse that the drink is very cloudy when served this way, and I have heard that this affectation is undertaken to prove to other drinkers that your are drinking the "real stuff". I prefer to decant it myself and I don't particularly care what my fellow drinker think.

Incidentally, before anyone picks me up on Guinness, let me say that normal bottled Guinness is not longer bottle-conditioned. That was stopped about twenty years ago.

[Tweek]

Originally posted by Richard English
Quote, "...minimum of three bottles a piece consumed and often times many more..."

Subject to possible confusion over US/UK quantities, I can only say that, if you drink three bottles of table wine, then I'm not surprised you get a hangover! That's equivalent to about nine pints (Imperial) of normal strength beer!

And that's saying nothing about the "often times many more!"

There is no diference in our wine bottle sizes to yours.

And there is no doubt that after consumption like that that I deserve a little punishment. It is a good time while it is going down though :)

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by Richard English
.... let me say that normal bottled Guinness is not longer bottle-conditioned. That was stopped about twenty years ago.


Which is a damn shame too - I'd love to try a BCA Guinness. Happy Saint Patrick's Day !!!

[Lamprey]

What works for me to avoid hangovers is plenty of water prior (from when I get up for the day), some water during if I have more than a few, and pacing myself.

If I do need something afterward, drinking plenty of water and no-caffine soda seems to do the trick.

I know from my own experience that I will get a headache if I drink just two pints of fizz beer - although I will be almost completely sober.

I am not a doctor, and I might be reaching here, but I suspect you were coming down with something prior to drinking the two pints of "fizz" beer...or you wouldn't have had them to begin with. The headache was coming regardless. (Just kidding...lol)

[rook]

try this stuff http://www.germangrocery.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=GG&Product_Code=UND2760&Category_Code=GS. It is called underberg and it is german bitters. I gave it a shot after a vicious hangover on st. pat's and it worked wonders. A warning is in order though, this stuff will put some hair on your chest. It has got a SSSSTRRROOONG taste. The good news is that the taste will burn off that shitty alcohol taste that lingers in the mouth the next day. If you can muscle this stuff down, i would highly recommend it.

Also, in college i asked a doctor once what he recommends and he said that he takes a few hits off an oxygen tank throughout the day whenever he is hungover. Thanks for nothing, doc. Who (other than the elderly) just happens to have regular access to an oxygen tank? Actually, he probably figured it would be better for my liver NOT to give me an ansewr i could use.

BTW -- I heard someone mention pediasure -- it makes sense that it would help since it is loaded with electrolytes (which enable your cells to slurp up liquid faster). However, i had the misfortune of trying the stuff (I was cutting weight for wrestling in high school and someone recommended it for rehydrating) and whoooaa, it is like drinking seawater. even though i was totally dehydrated, i could not handle the stuff. I can't imagine muscling it down with a severe hangover -- no way

[unkle bik]

The oxygen remedy would be for the headache side of the hangover. Headaches, migraine or cluster, are caused by vasodialation of the head's blood vessels. Breathing pure oxygen tends to constrict these vessels. Caffiene does the same to constrict.
From your local migraine sufferer,
unkle bik

[kgaugler]

I too use the method of drinking plenty of liquid (preferably Gatorade or the like, but water works very well too) and a multivitamin before retiring. If you remember, drinking water during the night's session helps too.

I was told by a biochem prof that acetaldehyde is what causes most of the sypmtoms of a hangover. Your body breaks alcohol down in several steps. One of the steps results in the production of acetaldehyde. Now we use the old addage that "dilution is the solution to pollution" and water or other fluids help reduce the effect.

But, I also find WHAT I drink has a bigger affect on whether I will get a hangover or not. Maybe it is because of the quality Vs. quantity thing but I'm not sold on that....

[barley ben]

But, I also find WHAT I drink has a bigger affect on whether I will get a hangover or not. Maybe it is because of the quality Vs. quantity thing but I'm not sold on that....

I really have to second that one. Found this out over the past weekend. I went to see a friend's band play Saturday and the best they had at the place was Yuengling. Had about 8 of them and when i woke up the next morning, Man what a headache! That damn thing lasted till at least 6:00 PM. Granted, it's not often I drink in quantity, but when I do it is still good beer and I never get hangovers. Next time I'll try to sneak in some homebrew or be the designated driver!!!

[unkle bik]

Anybody know what the effective ingredients are in these RU-21 (and simliar) pills are?
How do they work?

[kgaugler]

Originally posted by unkle bik
Anybody know what the effective ingredients are in these RU-21 (and simliar) pills are?
How do they work?

Try this website http://www.ru-21.com/ . they say it blocks the enzyme that breaks alcohol down into acetaldehyde (see my earlier post.) Not sure how true it is... never tried it.