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Sallubrious

Avoiding hangovers

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With the festive season upon us and Aussie culture coercing us to drink way too much piss a few tips to avoid hangovers could help a few. I happen to have quite a bit of experience in this field so maybe someone will get some benefit from my years of research.

 

1. Drink Vodka or Gin - these distilled spirits are low in cogeners and other compounds known to cause problems the day after.

2. Drink water in between drinks or water your Vodka down a bit with water.

3. Try to limit cigarettes when drinking, when you get on the piss it's easy to smoke way too much which can itself make you sick for hours. You just tend not to notice the effects of the tobacco when you are pissed, it gets you the next day.

4. This is possibly the best tip I have stumbled upon. Mix some salt into a glass of water and drink it at the last moment before bed after your last piss, make it a very salty mix - about 1/4 tsp of salt to a glass of water. I use Himalyan salt, but any salt should do.  It has several modes of action. Anyone with renal problems will probably want to avoid this step.

 

If you have really overdone it and have drunk way too much it can have an emetic effect and make you hurl while you are conscious so you don't spew on yourself in bed or choke on your own vomit.

 

For me the most important effect of the salt is that it works to prevent dehydration. If you just drink plain water before bed chances are that you will wake in a few hours for a piss then drink some more water because you are parched and then repeat that in cycles every two hours or so. The salt water alters the osmotic balance of your system and will make you retain water almost all night. That way you get a good night's sleep without waking up for the dreaded drink & piss cycle all night. When you wake you will also be hydrated much better than you would if you just drank water. As paradoxical as it sounds too much plain water can actually help cause dehydration (especially when combined with alcohol) because your kidneys are working double time to eliminate the excess water and the alcohol.

 

None of this is backed by any formal research just me using myself as a crash test dummy for years.

 

 

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only thing id add to that is about mixers, avoid coke and sugar like the plague, I try and only mix with water these days.

in the past I would account for more of my hangover being due to cigarette binges and masses of sugary mixers rather than alcohol itself.

also generally and I stress generally, anything clear is better than anything dark. but I think that's what your getting at with point 1.

 

that being said im on a healthy diet of port lately, tryin to save the coin.

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I disagree with the clear sprits being better.

 

It's far easier to drink too much vodka than beer.  You can drink 12 beers worth of vodka in half an hour.  Good luck downing half a carton in less than 2 hours.

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I never get a hangover if I manage a good spew before bed. 

Limiting your intake is the best bet usually although I have had actual hangovers before after only 3 or 4 drinks. I'm a lightweight thought..

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hangovers are for quitters :wink:

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I like to spew while in bed. Try get it all over yourself and on the blankets and pillows too. Works a charm :)

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Ahhh, my field of expertice! Wut an awesome thread, great idea! 

 

just a couple notes about me

I dont really get hangovers, headeaches and the like, which leaves us with the body load of alcohol and other symptoms of frequently indulging, a result of alcohol toxicity in the body the next day. 

 

1. drinking water in between drinking & before getting to sleep. It's also nice to keep a bottle of water beside your bed during sleep. Sometimes I drink 2-3 liters of water during sleep - I mean I wake up, drink, even get up to go and fill the bottle up. Also depends on how well one sleeps. Alcohol nights require much more water than a regular stoned night. 

 

2. go to battle with a full or half-full stomach. at the very least, dont go drinking with an empty stomach. I can do it, but frankly not many people I know can. Drinking with empty stomach inebriates one more in less time, but also, after lots of drinking the possibilities of sickness and nausea increase. Eating after a sequence of drinking also helps the stomach and body to refresh. Ideally eat before and after the many-hours-long drinking session. 

 

3. drink clear spirits like vodka and gin or beer. Indeed clear drinks have a clearer head and body load, BUT this is also a routine thing. People that drink whiskey will not change it for vodka or tsipouro. Dont mix different drinks , or at least too many different drinks in a single drinking night, and like someone said, dont mix sugar inbetween, maybe eat some sweet after eating, at the end of the night, but not during drinking. Find the beer that suits you best through testing of drinking some 2-3 liters of it,  not just a 330 ml can 

 

4. Beer is good for you. I only drink beer nowadays, and my theory is that its healthier for you. Much smaller concentrations of alcohol, much less alcohol even if drank fast and several others might be the advantages of this. Of course drinking very expensive beers, or especially stout black beer is not the right type to drink a lot from. Getting drunk with stout beer is like getting drunk on sweet liquer. Avoid.

 

I know many peoeple say they cant drink beer because of all the pissing (pissing is healthy, and I dont mind) but I think its a good idea to switch to beer if you like alcohol too much. 

 

Dont mix many different brands of beer in a single night - this increases you chances of nausea and the like.  I have found that there are brands of beer that are more compatible with each other,  this is could be routine-related, but I doubt it.

 

In any case, many heavy drinkers here, during a long session, they would drink a couple beers as an intermission , introduction or conclusion ,  from their liquier of choice during the night, usually whiskey or vodka here in greece. 

 

 

5. Dont drink fast - are you in a hurry or what?  I have seen many styles of drinking, I know it might sound like my own fucking opinion, and it its : slow drinking , such as they do in scandinavia, f.e., slow and lasting many many hours, is the best method. It proves you enjoy the drunken state and like to prolong it. Drinking a ton in small time what will you succeed? not something good, I reckon. 

 

FUN FACT: Even experienced drinkers sometimes get nausea and throw up, usually from drinking too fast with an empty stomach. Some people can vomit some, only to go on drinking in a more proper rate the rest of the night. Seems sick, but actually it feels pretty okey and right when it happens :P 

 

 

to sum up, for the people that get hangovers easily these are your 3 GOLDEN RULES: 

dont mix drinks/brands,

dont drink an empty stomach

drink water from time to time 

 

PS: if someone is afraid of vomiting during his sleep and choke, then maybe drinking just aint for him. people who drink occasionaly are the most "dangerous"  group, as they can have more intense reactions to both alcoholic euphoria (AKA acting like a fucking idiot)  and nausea (go into a vomit circus) . People with the most extreme reactions usually tend to avoid drinking too much alcohol, or quit it overall. 

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Most of those electrolyte solutions are salt, bi-carb and glucose sometimes with a bit of citric acid or something to balance the ph . They work, but for what they are they a bit of a rip off, convenient though.

I actually started using half a teaspoon of bi-carb before bed and that worked fine too. The idea at the time wasn't to prevent a hangover just an attempt to avoid the cycle of waking up for a piss every few hours. I was just looking for an easy way to get an anti-diuretic effect & sodium seemed like a cheap easy solution.

Then I started mixing Himalayan salt in 50:50 with the bi-carb and in the end I just thought fuck it, I'll just use salt.

I drink my vodka with a half a lemon squeezed into each glass, so I stay well hydrated and don't need to go to bed with water any more. I sleep through the night just like I would if I haven't drunk any alcohol now that I drink a sodium solution before bed. The lemon gives me a good shot of vitamins and a few trace minerals with each glass, so it's almost a health drink.

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had a few beers last night........um....maybe a few too many........ah fuck it ok......i racked up a few with a mate, then drank half a carton........yes yes hippies throw your multicolored, chakra aligned, blessed by the oldest Tibetan monk from Footscray, hand rubbed by buddha  stones :Pat me...meh -

but i tried the teaspoon of straight up nacl before bed and guess what - it works exactly how you said it would @Sallubrious.

Grog kills, leads to problems of all sorts, breaks relationships in two etc etc but a wee bit of salt stops you feeling like the creature from the black lagoon the next day

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_q9gTdYDKI3U/TBmRYbkY_GI/AAAAAAAACqk/MdKJdfs2QBg/s1600/smIMG_2188.jpg

 

 

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Coconut water has all those good electrolytes & tastes waay better than "rehydration salts". Tried and tested by me & all my workmates I worked early weekend shifts with. You can buy cans and just leave them in the medicine cabinet or back of the fridge, you don't need to stumble out and get fresh coconuts (although they are awesome). As for a salty pre-nap drink that tastes better than plain saltwater but is just as easy to make: miso. And for eating so you're not drinking on an empty stomach - this may just be my personal taste, but if I'm drinking a lot I'm probably already getting loads of carbs and don't need any more (either that or it's late at night and I don't need heaps of carbs to keep running), so I prefer protein-heavy foods. Spicy fried eggs with leftover nacho beans is a food of the gods.

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Was so pissed last night I told everyone I like enya. There's no avoiding this hangover

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^ or repercussions from your admission!  sail away buddy...

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Was so pissed last night I told everyone I like enya. There's no avoiding this hangover

 

That's gotta be right up there with discovering a tattoo on your face the next day.

Edited by Sallubrious
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^ An anchor with "Chips and Gravee" above and below it? :huh:

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well after a couple of Johnnie Walker double-black and blue (1st time) with my father-in-law (overrated IMO and, quietly, not half as good as the quick Glenmorangie ([Tayne]) at my place on their way to the cemetery) i'm off to the pub to meet friends.  Seems i'll be needing the advice from this thread tomorrow and will let you know how it works out.  The glass of saltwater scares me more than the hangover right now..    

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I hope Santa can handle his piss. I've left a litre bottle of 120 proof Vodka out for the hairy old bastard.





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So it looks like the old cunt piked it again. There's only about 200ml of Vodka left and no Santa.

 

Oh well, Wolfgang can serenade me into the last chang before bed like he does most nights.

 

.

 

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That bottle was a 1.125 l bottle and there's about 200 ml left. So I drank about 900ml of extra strength Vodka and I slept like a baby, didn't wake up for piss and have no hangover today.

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Piked it and had a "Gastrolyte" instead.  Then felt guilty and had a water with a several grinds of (Himalayan) salt - funny, it tasted much like the Gastrolyte.  Had another Gastrolyte at 4:30am. 

 

Feel exceptional today - zero hangover.  Cheers for the tip!!  And Merry Christmas all you fellow SABers.

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There's nothing wrong with gastrolyte CrayZ, it's probably even preferable to straight salt in some respects. As long as you get enough sodium in your system to initiate the anti diuretic effect and stop your cells giving up too much water. One tablet might be enough for some people, bigger people might need two.

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A cwe of nurofen plus or any codeine usually does me wonders, and type of alcohol or drug, as long as I get a box and get the goods before I start drinking, then drink the cwe as soon as I wake up I'm fine (: 

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A cwe of nurofen plus or any codeine usually does me wonders, and type of alcohol or drug, as long as I get a box and get the goods before I start drinking, then drink the cwe as soon as I wake up I'm fine (: 

Enjoy it while it lasts.  Might wanna accidentally spill some poppy seeds in your yard because come Jan 1 , 2018 you can't do that.

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