Avoid Dark Colored Beer Before grabbing that delicious dark stout, it may give you worse hangover symptoms than a lighter beer. The reason for this is congeners. Congeners are a byproduct of the fermentation process used to make beer and other alcohol, and they are linked to hangover symptoms.
A 2006 Dutch study on college students found that darker alcohol with more congeners tend to cause worse hangovers. (It also found that liquors were more likely to cause hangovers than beer or wine, likely because liquor has higher alcohol concentrations.) Cheaper drinks are more likely to have more congeners, too.
Try a beer that complements the citrus instead, such as a witbier or hefeweizen. Even a West Coast pale ale will do the trick; just keep it sessionable with a low alcohol content— you're trying to help your hangover, not create a brand new one.
Furthermore, hops are a sleep aid! So drinking a beer with less alcohol can actually soothe you in the long term. In the end, beer will offer less of a hangover than other alcoholic beverages, if you get any hangover at all, and the lower alcohol beers may even help you have a great morning to wake up to the next day.
“Many specialists agree that cheaper alcohol brands often use less effective filtering, allowing more of those troubling byproducts into the alcoholic beverage, thus increasing the risk of those unwanted hangovers,” says Veach.
Guinness is light on hops. Lagers and brown ales are light on hops. “Your reader may have a hop allergy and might want to stick with beers that are low in hops. A lot of the craft beers have too much hops for me to drink without getting a splitting headache.
But a study by the British Medical Journal found that vodka is actually the least likely drink to give you a hangover: it's so pure that it contains virtually no congeners. Mixing vodka with soda or fruit juice is ideal, as sugary soft drinks can contribute to a headache the morning after the night before. But go easy.
Drinking water during the festivities really is a good way to keep a hangover at bay. One, it replenishes your hydration levels, which is key to hangover prevention since alcohol is dehydrating. Water is even more important when you mix alcohol with caffeine, which doubles the dehydrating effect on your body.
Never drink on an empty stomach
Always eat a meal or a hearty snack if you plan to drink. This can slow the rate at which the alcohol enters your bloodstream, which can lower the odds of a hangover, said Julia Zumpano, a registered dietitian with the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Human Nutrition.
A genetic variation that affects the way alcohol is metabolized may make some people flush, sweat or become ill after drinking even a small amount of alcohol. Factors that may make a hangover more likely or severe include: Drinking on an empty stomach.
Myth: Having an alcoholic drink in the morning after a night of drinking will help avoid a hangover—a practice known colloquially as “a hair of the dog that bit you.” Fact: While this might temporarily minimize some symptoms, it could contribute to and prolong the malaise and other symptoms of the hangover.
Go Ask Alice, a column sponsored by Health Services at Columbia University, reports that for most people, the hangover threshold is five drinks, especially if you consume those drinks in a short period of time, and especially if you drink on an empty stomach.
No food can erase the effects of a night of drinking alcohol, but the best hangover foods are hydrating and anti-inflammatory. Rest helps, too. Try to avoid greasy foods, sugar, and caffeine which can make your symptoms worse. Instead, stick to water and foods like bananas and crackers.
How long do the effects last? Hangovers can last up to 72 hours after drinking, but most are shorter in duration. Again it depends on how much was consumed, how dehydrated you became, nutritional status, ethnicity, gender, the state of your liver, medications, etc.
Vitamin B
Vitamin B has long been praised as a hangover helper, and it's true that it can greatly reduce the symptoms of a hangover. Choose supplements including B-1, B-6 and B-12, to boost your body's metabolism and replace the B vitamins lost the night before.
How to prevent a hangover before bed. Many drinkers suggest taking a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID), like ibuprofen, before you go to sleep for the night to stop a hangover from setting in.
Metabolism depends on several factors (gender, weight, age, health), but in general, most people can metabolize roughly one drink an hour. So diluting it with ice or water will increase your time between refills and decrease your odds of a hangover.
Tequila, cognac, and whiskey are drinks high in congeners. Bourbon whiskey has a substantial amount of congeners, more than most other alcoholic drinks. Drinking alcoholic drinks high in congeners can give you an intense hangover.
Some alcoholics prefer to drink vodka because it is clear and looks like water, and it doesn't have the strong odors that other alcoholic beverages have. Just because someone prefers vodka doesn't mean they're an alcoholic.
The main ingredient in alcohol that is responsible for a sore head is ethanol. There are a variety of reasons why this potent chemical can cause a headache such as its ability to dilate the blood vessels. Alcohol is a diuretic, causing the body to lose vital salts and minerals which help it to function.