We all know that a terrible hangover after a night of drinking is one of the worst feelings in the world. It has the potential to wipe out your entire next day, where nothing but a dark room and a cold cloth on your head is possible (can you tell I have experience in this field?). However, there are days where you simply can’t afford to have the entire day as a write-off, even if you have a headache, upset stomach, or other hangover symptoms. Maybe you have a family event, day two of a music festival, or you may, horribly enough, even have to go to work. Yikes! So, what are the best ways to cure a hangover when you just can’t afford to have one? Here are our 5 best ways to prevent a hangover, tested and ranked.
5. Eat a healthy, hearty breakfast
For some people, eating food is the absolute last thing they want to do after a night of drinking. However, for those who can stomach it (literally), eating a hearty, well-balanced, and healthy breakfast can definitely help offset your hangover symptoms. Personally, I always assumed that eating a good breakfast the next morning helped to absorb some of the alcohol, but this is not the case. Having a hearty, nutritious breakfast does help regulate your blood sugar levels. Believe it or not, drinking certain types of alcohol in excess causes blood sugar to drop which is why a good breakfast can help alleviate the symptoms the morning after having too many alcoholic drinks. A nutritious breakfast can also put essential vitamins and minerals back into your body, which you most definitely lost after your wild night out.
Try this: A green smoothie with potassium-rich avocado toast, poached eggs, and chia seeds.
4. Exercise
Don’t hate me for this one, but a good workout can and will most definitely help your hangover blues. A workout can help both your body and your mind to recover from a night of dancing and drinking. Not only is a good workout always great for your mental health, which may definitely be feeling off after a night of partying, but it’s great for sweating out toxins that accumulated in your body after a night of drinking. Although cardio is preferable, any kind of exercise will help – consider doing some stretches or some yoga to warm up your body and get your heart rate going. Just make sure to rehydrate before pushing yourself too hard. More on that later.
Try this: Don’t even want to go outside? Have a look on YouTube for thousands of low impact exercise videos you can do right from your living room.
3. Get some sleep
If at all possible, do us a favor and go back to sleep. Getting a good night's sleep is so important to your body’s recovery from, well, virtually anything. While you may initially sleep for a few hours, it’s likely that high consumption of alcohol is going to hugely impact your ability to get a restful night’s sleep – making your body’s ability to recover a much slower process. Virtually all of the hangover symptoms you’re experiencing are going to be made worse due to lack of sleep. Therefore, if you’re able to, getting up, having a bite of hangover food and a big drink of water, and maybe doing some stretches before rolling back into bed might help you get a few more hours of solid, uninterrupted sleep, and speed up your hangover recovery.
2. Hydrate
Ever wake up from a night of drinking and feel absolutely parched? Is that even a question? This is because your body desperately needs to rehydrate. Drinking alcohol itself is not necessarily what causes a hangover – it’s what happens to your body as a result of it. Both constantly urinating and being sick as the result of too much alcohol can make you dehydrated, which can both create and hugely aggravates your hangover symptoms. When you constantly urinate, you are losing essential electrolytes that are necessary for normal functioning – which is why reaching for drinks with electrolytes in them is such a popular thing to do after a night of drinking. That's why sports drinks are one of the most common hangover remedies. You should also drink plenty of water after a night of partying. While water isn’t necessarily your go-to choice when you’re drinking or even afterward, it will be the most beneficial over drinks with a lot of sugar like juice or soda in preventing a solid day of recovery in bed.
Try this: Mix a sachet of Pedialyte in with your ice-cold water for a serious hydration boost to counter dehydration.
1. Supplements
We hate to brag, but our RaveAid supplements are highly successful in the treatment and can actually help avoid a hangover. Consuming our RaveAid capsules before and after your next major event can not only help prevent a terrible hangover but will start helping you feel better immediately. Of course, they do not replace adequate hydration, so making sure that you drink plenty of water is still incredibly important. However, your body will not so desperately be lacking the nutrients that it needs when you wake up, giving you a huge advantage against combating your hangover. When you know you have a big event coming up, although not necessary, RaveAid suggests taking even larger precautions and using our supplements up to two days before and after. This can help make sure your body stays as unaffected as it can in your attempts to destroy it and your liver (we’re sure that’s not your goal). RaveAid contains essential vitamins and amino acids such as Vitamins C, E, B3 and B6, magnesium, 5-HTP, and coenzyme Q10 to give yourself the best fighting chance against your hangover.
Although there are most definitely others, those are our five best ways to cure a hangover, tried and tested. Again, there is nothing worse than losing a whole day (or even two days in some cases) to hangover symptoms like an upset stomach, nausea, and headache. It’s easy to forget to take care of yourself when you're out drinking and just want to have fun, but your body will more than thank you later, especially if your goal is to go out the next day and do it all over again!