Hang Over Hangover
By Mikee dela Cruz

DRINK AND BE MERRY. But drink responsibly, too.

The art of growing up is consuming alcohol – unless your religion disallows it (Hey, Christ’s first miracle was to turn water to wine!), or you’re allergic to it, or you’re plain boring.  In truth, many do not only drink – a recent survey found that three out of every five college students engage in binge drinking, meaning excessive consumption.

Having established that generally everyone drinks, then basically everyone knows of hangover – the after-effect of having drunk too much, which, while having no precise scientific definition, is recognizable as a combination of any of these symptoms: headache, nausea, diarrhea, lack of appetite, shakiness, feeling tired, and an overall feeling of being unwell.

Not that you need lecturing on this.  Your body’s reaction is more than enough to tell you that, yes, you drunk too much, and now it’s payback time.  Instead, with the logic that even when told not to, people will still drink anyway, what’s needed is some educating on hangover. 

FIRST STEP: KNOW

It is now believed the cause of hangover is multi-factorial and its occurrence is not solely related to the amount of alcohol consumed.  The severity of a hangover also varies according to the period of time, food consumption, lack of sleep, psychosocial factors (stress, et cetera), increased physical activity while drinking, general health condition, dehydration, one’s enzymatic capacity to deal with the poisons, weight, genetic predisposition, and your age.  Generally, though, beware: six drinks in an 80 kg male and 3-5 drinks in a 60 kg woman will almost always lead to hangover – do the maths to check just how much alcohol your body can take.

SECOND STEP: PREPARE WELL

Pre-prepare for a pending hangover. Stock up on “instants” (e.g. noodles, canned good, et cetera) so you have more time to rest in the morrow.  Don't go out on an empty stomach. “Food will sop up the alcohol so that it doesn't all go directly into the bloodstream,” SoYouWanna.com stated.  Then, hydrate.  Alcohol acts as a diuretic (read: dehydrates the body, particularly evidenced by the frequent visit to the toilet while drinking).  Always replace loss body liquid.

THIRD STEP: NIGHT OUT

Choose your booze.  The general rule is the darker drinks, such as red wine (which also contains an extra hangover-inducing poison called tyramine), bourbon, scotch, and brandy have more congeners than lighter drinks, like white wine, vodka, and gin.  But whatever the drink's color, the cheaper it is, the more poison will be in it.  Try not to mix. 
Consume less than one drink per hour.  Your liver breaks down alcohol at the rate of about a beer an hour.  Spreading out the drinking over the course of an evening lessens the likelihood of a hangover. 
Forget the image.  Don’t act macho and try to outdrink everyone.  Biologically, men can tolerate more alcohol than women, even if they are of same height and weight.  Better to beg off than wake up in somebody’s room without your knowing how you got there in the first place.

STEP FOUR: FOLLOW UP

Early the following day of the binging, you’ll actually start feeling its longer-term effects.  To stop further deterioration, urinate and get rid of the toxins you ingested; drink, drink, and drink some more; and then rest (call in sick, if you must).

Things to avoid: Alcohol – there are those who claim alcohol contains ethanol and methanol. Methanol makes your head sore, ethanol stops it working its evil magic. New drink = new ethanol = delayed pain.  Defy the belief and stay away from alcohol to completely cleanse your system.  Caffeinated beverages, which, as diuretic, will aggravate dehydration.  And analgesics, which upset the stomach and aggravate the symptoms of a hangover.

I won’t even try to stop you from drinking – heck, I can’t even stop myself!  But drinking intelligently (that sounds oxymoronic, I know, but you get the point) will save you from experiencing hangover, or even worse!