20 Feb 09 Getting Unwasted

Yes, It’s Friday Night.

For many, two days break ahead for party time.

A couple of things you can do to help before you go out.

Eat. Although it won’t stop you getting drunk, a stomach with food in, will help to slow the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream. It’s when alcohol is absorbed into the blood quicker than the body can metabolize it that the feeling of drunkenness starts to build up.

Drink plenty of water beforehand, as that helps to make sure you are fully hydrated, and one of the causes behind a hangover is dehydration.

Most people can metabolize about one standard drink within an hour. (A standard drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 6 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits, all of which contain the same amount of alcohol.)

Most of us, when we go out for a drinking session drink at a faster rate than one drink an hour. Hence we tend to get drunk.

Ok, so it’s the morning after the night before. You eat a decent-size meal, and had a jug of water too.

However, you drank the bar dry, and now you have a dozen men with hammer drills in your head, and your stomach has tried to eject itself through your mouth 5 times in the last 30 mins even though it’s long since emptied its contents.

Standard remedies include raw eggs and tomato juice. If you think raw eggs are bad, a Mongolian cure was pickled sheep’s eyes. The Chinese advocate Green Tea. Russians prefer to sweat it out in a sauna.

At the end of the day, and you really do wish it was the end of the day, because you didn’t want to get up, and you can’t wait to get back to bed again. It’s an early night tonight, and you resolve never to drink (at least that much) ever again. These fire and brimstone pulpit hollerers that scream abstinence of all things enjoyable in life, suddenly have a point today.

There is though, really only one guaranteed and sure fire way to get rid of a hangover. It’s called time.

None of the so-called ‘cures’ really work. try to drink water if you can, to rehydrate yourself – but only if you can keep it down. Try to eat something light, but again only if and when your stomach will allow you to.

Time will allow your body to get rid of the by products and poisons from the excess alcohol. and metabolize any that was still left from the night before. Remember that 12 ounces of beer an hour? If you drank a dozen bottles of your favorite beer, it’s going to take all night, and most of the next day to get rid of it completely. That’s why you really don’t feel better until the day after that.

Just try not to drink quite so much next time, eh? Your body will thank you for it!

Tags: alcohol, beer festival, dehydration, drunk, London Pride, metabolize