[lfjokes] dealing with your hangover ...

[Adam Shand]

a couple of choice quotes from parts on the page (there is more then i
quoted).

"Isotonic sports drinks are supposed to replace all the sugars and salts
that are lost in healthy althetic activity, like drinking."

referring to cleaning up, the morning after, as a way to best enjoy your
hangover ...

"You FIND THINGS. This morning, I lifted a blanket expecting at worst to
find some empty beer cans, and instead found that there were more people
spending the night than I thought. Sometimes you find nice things.
Ambiguous money, for example.  Sealed containers of alcohol. Drugs.
Pretty cat masks. Mostly you find nasty things."

From: Royce Williams <royce at alaska.net>
URL:  http://members.aol.com/scissorfish/da/dahangover.htm

HANGOVER CAUSES

Dehydration

Ethanol is a diuretic. It'll act on little walls inside your kidneys,
briefly thickening them, and allowing less water to be reabsorbed from the
reservoirs labelled "pee" into your bloodstream (which may sound good, but
it isn't). Effectively, you'll lose more water than you gain from
drinking.

During the Hangover Morning, selfish body organs may bully the brain for
its meagre supply of water. When the brain begins to shrivel,
pain-sensitive filaments connecting the outside membranes to the inside of
the skull start to s t r e t c h.

The technical term is a "headache".

Sugar and salt loss; free radicals build-up

A salt imbalance may cause or aggravate nausea, fatigue and headaches. A
lack of sugar may leave you feeling wobbly and weary. Meanwhile,
destructive free radicals may be picnicking on your liver.

Build up of methanol

You know the purple nonsense labelled "DO NOT DRINK"? Well, that's meths,
and its major ingredient, methanol, is found is small quantities in some
drinks. Even when the poison is broken down, some of the by-products may
be harmful to the body.

Some people, of course, drink meths.

HANGOVER CURES

#1 Water

Before, during, and after. No, drink more than that. No. Drink more than
that.

I think drinking water works best just as you start to sober up.

#2 Food

Your body absorbs alcohol through the stomach lining, so anything you have
in there to slow down that process -- bread, pasta, a few inside-out
tennis balls -- is going to help. So if you can, eat before drinking.

If, during the course of the night, feeding yourself became a task of
insurmountable complexities, chances are part of the pain of the Hangover
Morning is simply a hunger pang. Anyway, various nutrients need to be
replaced. So if you can, eat after drinking.

#3 Other drinks

Isotonic sports drinks are supposed to replace all the sugars and salts
that are lost in healthy althetic activity, like drinking. The downside is
that they're attention-seekingly fizzy, at a time when you sometimes have
to sneak up on your own stomach to avoid painful rejection.  You could try
leaving one to go flat, or mixing one with fruit juice.

Fruit juice is also pretty good on its own. Coffee or tea will of course
temporarily perk you up. There's always fresh llama blood.

Having a tot of alcohol during the Hangover Morning might provide some
temporary respite. I've heard that this kind of kick-starts your liver (my
mother always sweetly used to say, "If you can't find anything to do, I'll
find something for you," and it was invariably vacuuming, this is the same
kind of ominous intra-body hint). More reliable sources gloomily suggest
that the effect is temporary: a shot of alcohol will occupy your liver in
the breakdown of ethanol, but sooner or later it's going to get round to
breaking down the methanol you've built up, releasing those nasty
byproducts.

#4 Drugs

Asprin. Paracetamol (although I've heard this can amplify alcohol's
damaging effects on the liver). Some swear by marijuana. Vitamin pills,
and custom-designed hangover cures, have their loyal fans.

#5 Oxygen

A brisk walk up the mountain. Come on. It'll build character. It's already
six A.M., you little bastard.

#6 Sweat

A long steam or sauna or (ha) physical exercise can speed up the rate at
which those toxins are expelled from your body. If you're hardcore, why
not collect your sweat in a little jar, ready for the next binge?

#7 Sleep

Chances are you're also suffering from inadequate sleep.

So sleep.

#8 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Reading from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has a healing effect. Also
works for rabies.

#9 Prevention: don't mix your drinks

Mixing your drinks to confuse your internal organs doesn't seem so fucking
funny now, does it?