by Georgia Stewart

Created on: December 18, 2008

Most of us have been to that twilight zone, after a night of drinking, where we go to bed feeling as though we've conquered the world, been to the moon and become a million times more intelligent only to wake up in the morning, having been through some mysterious portal in the night, and find that we've been transported directly to the outer fringes of hell!

The first thing I usually want to do is to go back to sleep but I know I can't because the brain is throbbing relentlessly, there's a queasy feeling that tells me my stomach wishes to throw up everything that's not in it and that neighbour over the road with the power tools is going to turn me into a homicidal maniac in the next half an hour. That is, unless I do something about it.

Initially I might wish I'd eaten berries, especially blueberries before I had a drink, or afterwards before bed because they're excellent detoxifiers and replenish the vitamins and minerals that the alcohol has stolen, and I'll definitely wish I'd drank more water but when that little period of remorse passes it's time for action.

I always have a bottle of water at hand so I drink some of that before going to the kitchen to make Horsetail tea. Horsetail detoxes the body, and a banana because Potassium loss due to drinking alcohol can be severe, along with Vitamin B, B6 and C.

An excellent breakfast for a hangover is a chopped banana and grapefruit, a desert spoon of ground flax seed (for the fibre and because it's packed full of vitamins and minerals) covered with probiotic plain yoghurt to restore the digestive system's good bacteria because the bad ones love a drink as much as we do! I always add Chlorella and Spirulina powder for good measure because they're power packed foods but the breakfast without it will do you an immense amount of good anyway.

Excellent morning-after herbal teas are Chamomile to sooth the frazzled nerves, Meadowsweet because it's antacid and Black Horehound, which is anti-emetic or will prevent feelings of nausea and the act of vomiting. Centuary is a bitter herb, which means that it will stimulate the taste buds into producing stomach and pancreatic juices and will cause the liver to release bile into the duodenum. In other words bitter herbs will give your digestive system a well needed boost which will help to eliminate the destructive toxins ingested the night before. Bitters also reduce fermentation in the intestines. Ginger settles the stomach and Gentian is a good tonic.

You can take some honey for energy and Slippery Elm gruel. Helpful supplements are B-Complex, C, E, Essential fatty acids, Potassium, Magnesium, Selenium and Zinc which can all be found in foods if you do the research so that you don't have to buy them. They're more effective in fresh foods anyway.

Avoid coffee at all costs; Caffeine is the last thing you need because it's a heavy diuretic so will cause you to go to the toilet and lose more precious water. Seeing as the main cause of a hangover is dehydration coffee as a cure for it isn't the best idea known to man, in fact it could eventually go down in history as the worst!

Finally remember to drink numerous glasses of water throughout the day because your body has been drained of vital fluids. Alcohol also contains cogeners, the chemical by-product of fermentation which have a poisonous effect on the body; you must rehydrate it and the brain.

Now I must say goodbye and leave you but a final word: don't think that I mean you to take everything I've listed at once, I've just given you some options to experiment with so happy and safer drinking to you!

Reference: Bartram's Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine Thomas Bartram

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