So you’re having a great night out, and feeling invincible. The next thing you know, you’re laying in bed the next morning and your head is throbbing.
You finally get the motivation to get yourself out of bed around noon, and try to go about your day. You eat breakfast and drink some coffee to try to snap out of it, but you’re still seriously struggling. This is considered a hangover.
While the best way to avoid a hangover is simply not to drink alcohol in the first place, we all know that the likelihood of that happening is quite slim, especially in college. However, many doctors and experts have tips to help lessen, or even prevent, a hangover. I decided to go directly to the source and ask a doctor what they would suggest doing to prevent hangovers. I talked to Dr. Craig Mintzer, an Orthopedic surgeon and nutritional consultant.
1. Drink Water
In case you haven’t heard, alcohol dehydrates you. According to Dr. Craig Mintzer, dehydration occurs because “for every one alcoholic beverage you drink, your body can expel up to four times as much liquid.” When you are dehydrated, the tissues around your brain shrink because they lack the water that they need, and this is what leads to pressure in the head.
To avoid a hangover, you should drink one glass of water for every alcoholic beverage that you consume; this trick not only keeps you hydrated, but it also keeps you from drinking more alcohol in the mean time.
2. Antioxidants Are Your Friends
According to Dr, Mintzer, there is a huge misconception about the cause of hangovers. Most people believe that main cause of hangovers is dehydration, “when in reality dehydration is just one of the causes of a hangover; inflammation and oxidative stress are also huge contributors.”
Antioxidants help lessen this inflammation, so by taking an extra multivitamin, eating an açaí bowl, or drinking pomegranate juice before consuming alcohol, it will greatly diminish the hangover.
3. Order Your Drink on the Rocks
Not only does it make you sound cool and sophisticated when you order your drink “on the rocks,” it also helps prevent you from feeling hungover the next day. This is because the ice melts into the drink, diluting and watering down the alcoholic beverage, which increases the time in between refills. Slowly sipping a drink on the rocks puts you at less of a hangover risk than drinking a potent drink such as a Cosmopolitan, with no ice to water it down.
4. Avoid Bubbly Beverages
Bubbly drinks, whether it’s champagne or a soda that you’re using as a mixer, contain carbon dioxide. According to Princeton University’s health resources, when the body absorbs alcohol with carbon dioxide (in bubbly drinks), it speeds up the rate of alcohol absorption into your bloodstream. The more the alcohol is absorbed into your bloodstream, the worse you feel the next day. Instead of mixing with bubbling beverages, use non-carbonated drinks like juices, and try to avoid too much champagne.
5. Pace Yourself
Dr. Mintzer also mentioned that “your body absorbs alcohol much faster than it metabolizes it.” The faster you consume alcohol, the more time the toxins from the alcohol spend in your body before your body can metabolize them. As these toxins sit around, they affect your brain tissues, which causes the severe hangover headache the next day.
6. You Get What You Pay For
When on a college budget, that $8 fifth of Burnett’s seems like a much better idea than a $30 fifth of Grey Goose. While you do save quite a bit of cash opting for the cheap liquor, you pay the price later.
According to Dr. Mintzer, the top-shelf, more expensive alcohol is highly filtered to remove the impurities and toxins that contribute to hangovers. Also, knowing that what you’re drinking is expensive and costs more per sip will likely cause you to drink it slower to make it last, which will help prevent a hangover the next day.
7. Eat a Big Meal
An empty stomach absorbs alcohol super quickly, so you never want to drink on an empty stomach. The more carbs, proteins, and fats that you eat before drinking, the slower the alcohol will be absorbed into your bloodstream, preventing a hangover the following day.
According to Dr. Mintzer, fats and carbs line the stomach, aiding alcohol absorption, and also replace sugars that your body needs. Before drinking alcohol is probably the only time that doctors will actually suggest eating greasy, fatty foods, so make of this advice what you will.
8. Be Cognizant of Congeners
Congeners, or the chemicals that contribute to the taste, smell, and color of alcohol, are important to take into consideration when choosing a drink. Doctors recommend clear over dark liquor, as clear liquor generally contains less congeners, therefore releasing less hangover-inducing chemicals into the body. When given the option, choose clear liquors like vodka and gin over dark liquors like whiskey and rum. Your head will thank you later.
So, while there’s no magic pill that you can take the completely prevent hangovers from occurring, if you follow Dr. Mintzer’s orders while drinking, you will be much less likely to experience a hangover the next day.