How To Cure a Hangover: 8 Things You Can Try


how to cure a hangover

And alcohol is a diuretic, which means it makes you pee a lot and lose a lot of liquid. Dehydration causes symptoms like a dry mouth and headache. With that in mind, you may want to think about eating before a night of drinking. There are good and bad food options, but generally, a good mix of protein, fats, and carbohydrates will decrease the time it takes for alcohol to be eliminated, according to Johns Hopkins University.

how to cure a hangover

Take an over-the-counter painkiller.

  • Meghan Holohan is a digital health reporter for TODAY.com and covers patient-centered stories, women’s health, disability and rare diseases.
  • The study also suggested that heart rate increases as you drink more alcohol, and these increases can raise your risk of arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat.
  • Downing a full glass may feel great at first, but it can lead to some unpleasant … reactions from an already-upset stomach.

Use caution before taking hangover supplements and vitamins. An over-the-counter (OTC) pain reliever will calm a pounding headache. You can find extracts made from this herb online and in health food stores. Some of these products go by the name “stone breaker” herb. That’s because it may help lower your chances of getting kidney stones. You should plan to make this time as restful as possible.

how to cure a hangover

Eat a big breakfast

Hang in there and follow these guidelines to survive the day. Scientists have to rely on people’s self-reported hangover symptoms, which may vary between people and depend on day-to-day factors, and these are very difficult to control scientifically. Despite the prevalence of hangovers, there has been little research into developing effective treatments. Of the studies that are available, most are of low quality and remain inconclusive. Coffee and other caffeinated drinks act as stimulants, which may improve the feelings of fatigue that come with a hangover.

What Does a Hangover Feel Like?

how to cure a hangover

If that’s the case, tiny sips of water—or even just ice chips if how long does a hangover last that’s all that can be tolerated—can help start to restore the body’s equilibrium. Keep in mind, though, that research in humans is lacking and that most available studies are outdated. Therefore, further studies are needed to evaluate how effectively supplements may reduce hangover symptoms. Although there’s no shortage of purported hangover cures — such as chugging a glass of pickle juice or rubbing a lemon in your armpit before drinking — only a few are backed by science. What you want is a quick-and-easy hangover cure to feel like your normal self. The internet — the helpful place that it is — offers numerous theories on how you can ease the pain after drinking too much beer, wine or liquor.

how to cure a hangover

  • All of this makes it very difficult to pin down an actual standardized hangover level.
  • The more you drink, the more pronounced these issues become, too.
  • The next day, heads throb, stomachs rumble and everything feels fuzzy.

If hangover symptoms are severe — during or after a bout of drinking — the person may have alcohol poisoning. Some people have a headache a few hours after drinking wine — especially red wine. But it’s different from a hangover, which may or may not include a headache. It’s possible that some chemicals in wine and how the body responds to them could result in a headache after drinking wine. More research is needed to find the exact cause of wine headache. The replacement fluids Pedialyte provides could help relieve hangover symptoms — even if it’s a placebo effect, some doctors say — and may be a good option for people too nauseous to eat.

  • People should use anti-inflammatories with caution when hungover, as the medication can further irritate the stomach lining.
  • If you drank too much alcohol and feel sick, try at-home hangover remedies like drinking plenty of water, eating some carbs and sleeping.
  • According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), alcohol can cause an irritated stomach lining and increased stomach acid release.
  • But your body generally eliminates all the alcohol from your system after five to six hours, yet still remains adjusted to the presence of alcohol.
  • Some people have a headache a few hours after drinking wine — especially red wine.