After a big night you wake up and your mouth feels dry, your head pounds and your stomach feels "delicate." You have a classic hangover and you swear off drinking ever again, the next weekend approaches and you are invited to a friend's birthday celebration. Unfortunately, you also have an important event the next day that you cannot get out of, there is no way you want to be hungover for it. You could make an excuse and not go to the birthday celebrations, you could go and be the designated driver or you could use my three step hangover avoidance program.
If you're still reading then you have obviously decided to try my three steps. Step one is pre-event, step two is during the event and step three is after the event. Either one of these steps by themselves can work, but betting on the trifecta is a much better idea.
Hangovers are caused by a combination of three things. The first thing is dehydration, the second is vitamin depletion and the third is acetaldehyde.
The first thing we need to do is to avoid dehydration, before going out make sure that you have drunk plenty of water during the day and take a sports drink just before leaving. If you are dehydrated before you start then you will find it hard to avoid getting a hangover.
The second step is to stay hydrated. For every drink that you have during the evening you need to have a glass of water. You have to alternate these drinks in order to not overload your kidneys. When you arrive home have an effervescent vitamin B drink with a paracetamol tablet.
The reason for the effervescent vitamin B drink is two fold. It is a way of getting more water in you while also replenishing some of the B vitamins that the alcohol has destroyed. If you are able to get an effervescent B plus C vitamin this will work even better.
It is also important to eat while you are drinking as this will increase your metabolism. This means that the alcohol will be absorbed by your body faster and also flushed out of your system more quickly.
The third step occurs when you wake up. Get up as soon as you wake up and take a multi vitamin and mineral tablet with a glass of orange juice and eat a banana. The orange juice will help to replace the vitamin C that the alcohol destroyed while the banana will help to replace the potassium that you will have lost.
Now you need to have a shower or bath whichever you prefer. Take 2 drops of fennel essential oil, 2 drops of rosemary essential oil and 4 drops of juniper essential oil and mix this in 5 ml of a carrier oil such as sweet almond oil. This mixture can be made up in advance, you can miss out this part of step three, but I find it really good.
Pour a little bit of this oil into the running water if you are having a bath and then get in and relax for 10-15 minutes. If you are having a shower, then add a couple of drops of the mixture on a face cloth or sponge and wipe it all over your body. This combination will help your body to flush out any residue of the acetaldehyde that is in your system.
You should be feeling fantastic now and ready to take on the world, just remember to continue rehydrating your body throughout the day with small sips of water. I also like to drink chocolate milk the morning after, but I cannot find any scientific data to support recommending this, but it does taste good so where's the harm?