With the festive season just behind us now, I'm sure some of us are feeling like we've already had enough hangovers to last us the entirety of 2019. Let's be real, though: give it just a little bit of time and you'll be celebrating something else with no regard for how you're going to feel the next morning.
Thankfully, there are a number of ways you can avoid the dreaded morning after wooziness - and saying goodbye to alcohol is only one of them.
Speaking to BBC Three, junior doctor Emeka Okorocha shared some trusted hangover treatments and remedies he swears by.
"Using my medical background, I was able to figure out which remedies were likely to be the most effective," he said. "After I had picked the best ones, I tested them when I was feeling rough."
Some of them sound a little dubious, for sure, but they're all certainly better than doing nothing and risking an entire day of feeling like you've suddenly come down with the worst flu ever.
You may have heard that 'hair of the dog' is the best way to get rid of a foggy hangover brain, but Dr. Okorocha says this is actually one of the worst things you can do. If you feel like you need something strong to kickstart your body back into action, however, a Virgin Mary is likely to help you out.
To make it, you'll need 1/2 glass of tomato juice, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 dash of Worcestershire sauce, 1 dash of hot pepper sauce, and a celery stick.
"Tomatoes contain fructose, which is a sugar that can help the alcohol in your body metabolise faster," the doctor explained. "It also contains vitamins and minerals, which help fight inflammation and rehydrate your body and brain."
If you're not feeling quite that daring, however, a cup of ginger tea might sort you out.
For this, you'll need 12 large ginger slices, 4 cups of boiling water, a dash of lemon, 1/2 cup of honey, and fresh orange juice. Mix it all together et voila - you should start to feel the benefits. "Ginger is great at soothing the stomach. It also speeds up alcohol digestion and it can even help your throbbing head."
And to go with it, you might want to try a mashed banana and honey sandwich. "Bananas are a high source of potassium - an electrolyte that gets depleted when you go out on the binge," says Dr.Okorocha. "The honey will give you that spike of sugar in your bloodstream and that energy rush to help you get back on your feet."
Perhaps the best cure, however, is to think ahead the night before and make sure you drink plenty of water. The doctor's solution for ensuring that you get all the h20 you need before falling asleep is to balance a glass of water on a chair on your bed before you go out. That way, you'll have to remove the water (and hopefully remember to guzzle it down) before climbing in for a snooze.
Or, you know, you could just remember to stay hydrated without risking soaking your bedsheets!
Hopefully, these remedies will sort you out next time you have a messy night; but it should be said that always drinking in moderation is the only trusted route to avoiding long- or short-term health problems, and that watching your alcohol intake is a good habit to have.
H/T: BBC
