By Katherine Clark
In a chemically altered sense of euphoria, you have a permanent grin on your face, feeling like god’s gift to man/woman, even though you are a bad dancer you shake your ass on the dance floor and feel damn sexy. Your friends encourage the shots to keep on dropping, one more game of beer pong you’ve been kicking ass all night, no need to stop now.
You start to feel a little less than yourself; even though you don’t smoke you walk outside and light up for some fresh air with your cigarette smoke. Even though you have a significant other, you can’t find them and the brown haired beauty with the green eyes makes for an exciting stand in, at least you think his eyes are green.
You might tell a friend an awful truth in a moment of drunken clarity feeling bulletproof and then not understand why they took it so bad. Stumble into someone, knocking over their drink and then stand in fight or flight stance as a fist is being shaken in your face.
You start to feel a little less than yourself; even though you don’t smoke you walk outside and light up for some fresh air with your cigarette smoke. Even though you have a significant other, you can’t find them and the brown haired beauty with the green eyes makes for an exciting stand in, at least you think his eyes are green.
You might tell a friend an awful truth in a moment of drunken clarity feeling bulletproof and then not understand why they took it so bad. Stumble into someone, knocking over their drink and then stand in fight or flight stance as a fist is being shaken in your face.
The next morning, the excitement from the night before has turned into a dark hole in the back of your mind that is beating like the heart of a humming bird in your ears, that pizza you ate on your stumble home is turning in your stomach like a boulder being liquefied, and the taste in the back of your throat mimics what you think road kill would taste like, this is what medical journals and old wives call a hangover.
People choose to drink for many reasons, to relieve stress, celebrate special events in their lives or their friends and families lives, or simply just recreation for others.
For as many different reasons people have for drinking there are as many different ways that people can react to drinking alcohol.
The Mayo Clinic states that the more alcohol you drink the more likely you are to have a hangover. But there is still no magic formula to tell you how much you can safely drink and still avoid a hangover.
The answer then is all about the individual, how much you weigh how often you drink, and even your age, can determine how your body reacts to detoxing after a night of drinking.
Of course your body is dehydrated so drink some water. But not ever one solution fixes every one person hang over.
Five different people were asked what their “go to” hangover remedy is, for five different people there were five different hangover remedies.
Andrew Keating, 18: “Drink a lot of lemonade and nap every 5 minutes.”
Meghan Donohue, 22: “I pound lots of water, sleep all day and eat McDonalds.”
Tim Fink, 28: Marijuana is the best cure for a hangover.”
Shaun Cotton, 29: “Before going to bed drink a lot of water to prevent a hangover or have a beer or two the next day.”
Debra Nash, 52: “Tums, Advil, and Special K cereal.”
According the Mayoclinic.com drinking causes the blood vessels to expand which causes headaches, dehydrates the body by stimulating it to produce more urine, irritates the lining of your stomach causing nausea or vomiting, and makes you sleepy doesn’t allow you to sleep well. All in all it makes your head and stomach hurt because you’re dehydrated and you haven’t sleep fully.
So Cotton’s suggestion of hydrating with water before going to bed is a great hangover preventative measure as well as not drinking on an empty stomach which can further irritate the stomach lining. But drinking another beer or alcoholic beverage will make you feel worst.
Fink’s hangover remedy of smoking marijuana, the Mayo Clinic says that taking drugs, which includes nicotine, with alcohol makes a hangover worst than doing nothing but wait it out.
Keating’s remedy of drinking lemonade or carbonated drinks will also make a hangover worse as well because it will increase dehydration.
Meghan Donohue and Debra Nash are the winners with the best hangover remedies. Drinking water will prevent dehydration, eating bland foods such as Special K may boost your blood sugar and help you feel better and settle your stomach. Taking an over the counter pain reliever will help a headache but could also irritate the lining of the stomach if not taken with food. Lastly, sleep, if your asleep long enough you will wake up and your hangover will be gone.
Credits: Lucas Martin, Renee Paquette, and Mike Kyle, taken by Katherine Clark, 2008; Lucas Martin, taken by Katherine Clark, 2008; Emily Lacey, taken by Katherine Clark, 2009
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