Twenty-four hours from now, you'll probably be lying in bed, head throbbing like the walls of an Ibiza club, wondering how you swallowed the rat that apparently crawled into your mouth and died during the night.
Or, worse yet, you'll be having those feelings at work.
How to start the New Year without a hangover? The *San Jose Mercury News *makes a halfhearted, obligatory teetotaling recommendation before getting down to business: start the evening off with a hearty, fatty meal that will slow the passage of alcohol into your small intestine, and from there into your bloodstream.
Because alcohol is naturally converted by the body into an especially nasty compound called acetaldehyde -- it causes nausea and vomiting, and breaking it down requires sugar, the depletion of which leaves you tired and cotton-headed -- the News also suggests alternating booze with sugar-rich juice during the night.
If you're feeling nauseous come morning, painkillers might not do much good (and you should always avoid acetaminophen, better known as
Tylenol, which can be toxic to a booze-soaked liver.) Enter the hair of the dog that bit you: the Associated Press recommends a vitamin- and electrolyte-replenishing Bloody Mary, with celery sticks on the side.
Apparently the AP didn't talk to the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune
quotes Seymour Diamond, chairman of the National Headache Foundation:
"Don't try to drink away your headache. That will just intensify your misery." But the Tribune also cites alcohol researcher Henry Kranzler, who says "people may think the hair of the dog works is because alcohol has a relaxing effect, possibly helping a hangover sufferer forget about how bad they feel." That doesn't exactly sound like discouragement.
But the best treatment of all: just go back to sleep. Sure, it'll be
New Year's Day, and you've made all those resolutions -- but you can start those on the *second *of January! Promise.
Happy New Year's, everyone!
*
Image: Megan Ann*
How to avoid starting '08 with a pounding headache [San Jose Mercury News]
Tips for avoiding New Year's hangover [Associated Press]
Hangover fact or fiction [Chicago Tribune]
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