Helpful Hangover Cures to Ring in the New Year
By
Dr. Scott Olson, ND
Posted December 31, 2023
Perhaps you enjoy a glass of wine with dinner from time to time or a beer during the game. Or maybe you’re primarily a teetotaler.
Either way, if you’re like many folks, you’ll choose to indulge in a couple of cocktails or glasses of champagne for New Year’s Eve.
But if you DO let your hair down a bit tonight, you certainly don’t want to be paying for it with a sickening hangover all day tomorrow.
And you don’t have to.
Because the best hangover cures are the kind that prevents you from getting one in the first place.
Keep reading to discover how to avoid that next-day hangover BEFORE you ever take your first sip.
Obviously, the easiest way to AVOID a hangover is to skip the drink in the first place.
But when your celebration calls for a toast or two, apply these four easy-to-remember tips, and you should sail through tomorrow hangover-free.
- Win with water:
Alcohol is dehydrating, and your level of dehydration is directly responsible for how severe your hangover is the next day. Which is why staying hydrated is critical.
But it’s easy to forget to drink enough water at a party. So, give yourself a simple rule to follow. For every alcoholic beverage, you must drink a full glass (or, even better, two) of water.
Stick to it, and you’ll avoid the next day’s hangover altogether.
- Eat first:
Staying hydrated tops our hangover cures list for a reason. It’s the most important thing you can do to avoid feeling sick tomorrow. But building a base with some food before you indulge comes in a close second.
Be sure you eat before you start celebrating. Tonight is NOT the night to skip a meal. Drinking on an empty stomach causes your body to absorb alcohol faster. While food will slow down the absorption rate of whatever alcohol you’re drinking.
Include some high-protein foods and whole grains in your meal, too. Both will help slow down alcohol absorption even further.
- Skip the diet:
If you aim to help balance out your indulgences tonight by using diet soda in your drinks, don’t. Research conducted at Northern Kentucky University found that diet soda mixers make people drunker than sugary ones!
In the study, volunteers who mixed their alcohol with regular soda or fruit juice had a breath alcohol concentration of .077. But folks who mixed the same amount of alcohol with diet sodas had a measured a .091.
In other words, the diet drink drove up the alcohol’s impact by a startling 18 percent. And that could have you heading for a hangover fast.
- Be booze smart:
All alcohol contains chemicals called congeners, byproducts of the fermentation process. But some varieties have more than others do, and that’s key when you’re talking about hangover cures.
Two separate studies—one published in the Journal of the National Medical Association and the other in the journal Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research—found that drinks with lots of congeners lead to worse hangovers.
To avoid too many congeners, skip the darker booze. Liquors such as bourbon and scotch are heavy in the chemicals, while clear liquors such as rum, gin and vodka have fewer.
Whatever your plans are tonight, have fun and be safe. And if you decide to have a drink or two, these hangover cures can help you ring in the New Year hangover-free.
P.S. Cozy winter favorite SAVES your vision.
Source:
Swift R, Davidson D. “Alcohol hangover: mechanisms and mediators.” Alcohol Health Res World. 1998;22(1):54-60. PMID: 15706734; PMCID: PMC6761819.
Written By Dr. Scott Olson, ND
Nearly 25 years ago, failed mainstream medical treatments left Dr. Olson in constant pain – and his health in ruins. And that’s when he did something REVOLUTIONARY. He began his career in medicine – and dedicated his life to uncovering the true, underlying causes of disease.
Through his innovative medical practices in Tennessee and Colorado, Dr. Olson has helped cure countless seniors from across America of arthritis… heart disease… diabetes… and even cancer. All without risky prescription drugs or painful surgeries.
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