Sometimes on a night out you overdo it, and wake up the next morning with a brain the consistency of mush, a parched mouth, and a series of mysterious bruises on your legs. No judgment here, mates – we’ve all done it. Well done for making it home.
Every time this happens you think, ‘Next time, I’ll do things differently.’ You’re hopeful. You believe that you will never let yourself feel this way again – until next Friday night.
Well, what if, instead of setting unreasonable expectations – we both know you’re not going to “just have the one”, Shirley – we found ways to counteract your impending hangover? Oh yes, there are preventative measures that you can take to avoid feeling like someone has attached a jackhammer to your noggin tomorrow morning.
You could just skip the whole rolling around miserable in bed thing and go to the beach instead.
Eat!!!
And we don’t mean the way you used to eat before drinking when you were younger – just eating an entire loaf of bread so there was something in your stomach. There’s no need to carbo-load before all those carb-heavy beeros.
Still, don’t ditch carbs entirely – eat a meal rich in carbs, protein and fat before you head out, because fat slows the rate at which your body absorbs alcohol. Science says I’m having burgers tonight.
If you want to get out ahead of your hangover, you could also pop multivitamins or drink acai or pomegranate juice before you get on the bevs – all of which have an anti-inflammatory effect. And it’s partly inflammation that’s making you feel this way.
Having A Good Sleep Can’t Hurt
Yep, not only is sleep something you really crave – and actually need – after a booze-up, but you should also try to get some good shut-eye the night before.
Your immunity improves if you get a full seven to nine hours sleep, so some good kip puts your body in good nick ahead of a night out. Did you really need an excuse to languish in bed an extra hour?
Try Olive Oil
Okay, okay, hear us out. Apparently this is a big thing in the Mediterranean, you know, the part of the world where a cheeky glass of vino with dinner is just something you do before you’re old enough to buy the vino yourself.
But in the same way fatty foods help limit the rate at which your body processes booze, so too does a cheeky a spoonful of olive oil. If you’re a wuss, dip bread in olive oil (yum, especially with a little bit of vinegar), or drizzle it over salad. Easy.
Get Yourself Comfortable
Before you go out you wanna get rid of any discomfort you might be experiencing – let’s say you have a UTI, what you don’t want is to wake up the morning after a night out with a UTI and a hangover. And you definitely don’t want to need to piss razorblades all the time when you’re just trying to have a big night out.
So may we recommend sorting out your burn-y symptoms before you leave the house, by necking a glass of Ural? And you can take it up to four times a day if your cystitis is really troubling you – so it’s probably not a bad idea to sling one back when you get home too.
You Could Drink Milk?
This might seem strange at first, and could just be entirely anecdotal, but some people we know swear by it to ward off a hangover, so we may as well give it a go: drink milk before you start drinking. The theory is that milk forms a coat on the lining of the stomach, thus helping restrict the amount of booze that makes its way into you bloodstream. Is it probably rubbish? The scientific jury is out on that one.
Still, milk’s good for you – it’s chockers with calcium and vitamin B for strong bones like those ’90s ads used to say, so why not?
