Holiday season often means indulgence… well, overindulgence. As anyone who’s overindulged in alcohol knows, this can lead to a hangover, with symptoms like fatigue, headaches, nausea, dizziness, mood disturbances, light
and sound sensitivity, sleep interference, and trouble focusing. Luckily, if you plan ahead, you can avoid a crummy post-party hangover. Here’s how to recover from a hangover as quickly and naturally as possible:
Before you drink:
-Take milk thistle on a regular basis
Taking liver cleansing herbs, such as milk thistle seed, on a regular basis can help keep your liver functioning, healthy, and able to process a night of drinking. Milk thistle alone won’t be enough to combat a hangover when taken the day of, but if you take it daily over a long period of time, it will support proper liver function, allowing your body to detox itself efficiently when you occasionally booze it up.
-Get enough sleep
Sleep won’t totally cancel out the effects of drinking, but a good night’s rest before a night of partying can prep your body to cope better. Since alcohol interferes with your sleep, it’s important to get good rest the nights before and after your party night.
-Eat a balanced meal with protein and detoxifying vegetables
Eating a full meal before drinking is so important. Having a combination of quality protein, good fats, and complex carbohydrates will slow the absorption of alcohol, reducing your chance of getting drunk too quickly or ending up with a hangover. Vegetables have fiber to help remove toxins from the body through the G.I. tract, plus antioxidant phytochemicals that reduce damage to cells. Try eating some of these 6 detoxifying foods to help encourage your body’s detoxification processes.
-Plan how much you’re going to drink
Obviously the ferocity of your hangover will depend on how much you drink. Minimize the amount you drink to avoid a hangover. It can help to plan out how many drinks you will have, or plan to stop drinking alcohol and switch to water at a certain time.
-Take a multivitamin
Taking a multivitamin the day of drinking will help give you nutrients to manage inflammation and oxidative stress, two of the main causes of hangovers. You probably should even double up on your multivitamin dose if you know it’ll be a long night out.
While you drink:
-Pick your poison wisely
Clear alcohols like vodka and gin have low or non-existent levels of congeners, which are toxic chemicals produced in small amounts during the fermentation process of alcohol. Dark liquors like tequila, dark run, whiskey, and specifically, bourbon, have higher levels of congeners, and therefore can lead to worse hangovers.
Nicer alcohol also tends to cause less severe hangovers because it’s been filtered to remove impurities (which is part of why it tastes better). Plus, if you buy a more expensive drink at the bar, you’re more likely to sip and savor it, likely reducing your overall alcohol consumption.
Have you ever noticed that you get a worse hangover from champagne than you would from an equal amount of another type of booze? The bubbles in it speed up the absorption rate of the alcohol, getting you tipsy faster, but often leaving you with a hangover. Avoid champagne and other bubbly drinks if you are serious about avoiding a hangover.
-Avoid processed and sweet drinks
Sweet cocktails are easy to drink quickly without realizing how much alcohol you’re consuming— which can lead straight to hangover city. Plus, some people are sensitive to ingredients like the dyes used in cheap conventional mixers, so the additional chemicals may contribute to the hangover. Plus, alcohol and sugary mixers will impact your blood sugar, and a hypoglycemic crash could leave to shakiness, mood swings, or binge-eating pizza at 3 AM.
-Rehydrate
Drink water alongside your alcohol, maybe alternating every alcoholic drink with a glass of water. Dehydration is not the main cause of hangovers, but it certainly contributes to symptoms. A beverage with some electrolytes, such as coconut water or an Emergen-C packet, would be even better than plain water, as drinking alcohol can deplete your electrolytes.
-Keep track of how much you drink
Be mindful of how much you’re drinking, especially if someone keeps topping off your wine glass. Alcohol can sneak up on you. I had friends in college who would draw tally marks on their hand with every drink they had so they wouldn’t overdo it; you might need to come up with a similar system if you are forgetful.
After you drink:
-Make your sleeping environment completely dark
If you don’t have blackout curtains, put on a sleeping mask. Alcohol already disrupts your REM cycle, and light will interfere with your sleep even more. Every extra bit of sleep will help you feel better the next day.
-Take a B complex vitamin
Drinking depletes B vitamins, and since they are important for liver detoxification, taking a supplemental B complex the next morning can really help your hangover. I am one of those people that experiences anxiety as a symptom of my hangover, and doubling my dose of B vitamins after drinking really helps with that.
-Take a hangover supplement
Our favorite natural hangover supplement is Party Smart by Himalaya. Available soon at Peach Vitamins, Party Smart is an all-natural herbal supplement based on Ayurvedic principles. It’s very effective and only takes 1 pill!
-Eat eggs at breakfast
Eggs contain amino acids and B vitamins that take part in detox reactions, so they are a great choice at breakfast the next morning. Eggs contain cysteine, an amino acid that is essential for making glutathione, one of the most potent antioxidants and liver detoxifiers in the body.