Post #17085 by thejab on Mon, Dec 23, 2002 12:26 PM

Sleep, sleep, sleep.

Water before bed helps prevent dehydration that is one cause of a hangover but won't prevent hangover by cogeners, which are byproducts in alchoholic beverages and are more concentrated in darker booze (clear booze has fewer). Water also won't prevent the effects of vitamin deficiencies (B-vitamins mostly) and the contraction of blood vessels that can cause the headache.

B-vitamins can help prevent hangovers (brewers yeast is a good source) but I find that taking too many pills at bedtime causes stomach distress during the night. Same with popping advil or aspirin at bedtime. Also, I heard that ibuprofen was just as bad for your liver as Tylenol when drinking.

My preventive measures are getting my daily B vitamins by taking them in the day before drinking and by drinking plenty of water while drinking.

My morning cure is aspirin with small sips of water and sleeping as long as possible. At least 10-12 hours of sleep. They have this new "enteric" aspirin that is coated and doesn't upset your stomach. Occasionally I'll have the really bad hangover that requires "driving the porcelain bus" and I usually feel better after getting rid of it!

I also heard that the stomach is paralyzed by too much alchohol and that's why sometimes spicy food or drink on the day after actually helps by waking up the stomach. When you're ready too eat that is.

Mixing different boozes seems to cause me to have bad hangovers, but some of my friends don't have this problem. Having a nightcap when I get home has done me in on numerous occasions! I'm not sure why mixing would cause worse hangovers - it's all alchohol right?