Foto di Max Pixel.net / Creative Commons Zero - CC0
• Before retiring, eat a banana (or avocado, baked potato with skin, beet greens) for its potassium and fiber.
• Hydrate with coconut water (for the magnesium) or a
sugar-free electrolyte packet in water. Avoid commercial sports drinks. Also set your choice of hydrated water at your bedside.
• Take a B-Complex vitamin and a Zinc vitamin.
• Doctor-approved Amazon sugar-free electrolyte packets,
B-complex and zinc vitamin recommendations are at the top of the page.
• Be careful with pain relievers. Read #6 again.
The Morning After
So you ignored everything above.
Welcome back.
1. Give it time
Unfortunately, this is the closest thing science has to a genuine hangover cure.
Your body needs time to metabolize the alcohol and its byproducts, rehydrate, repair irritated tissues, and return your brain and immune system to normal.
Hangover symptoms commonly peak around the time your blood alcohol concentration returns to approximately zero and can last 24 hours or longer.
Turns out Last Call wasn't actually the end of the evening.
2. Rehydrate
Drink water and other nonalcoholic fluids. If you've been vomiting or haven't eaten, electrolyte fluids may help replace what you've lost.
But electrolyte drinks aren't magic hangover erasers.
They're hydration—not an Undo button.
3. Eat Something
If your stomach can handle it, have a balanced meal containing carbohydrates, protein, and other nutrients.
Eggs, toast, fruit, oatmeal, yogurt, bananas—whatever sounds tolerable.
This is not the morning to prove your culinary bravery.
4. Rest
Alcohol may make you fall asleep quickly, but it disrupts normal sleep. Part of that miserable exhausted feeling may simply be because you didn't sleep nearly as well as you thought you did.
Give yourself time to recover.
Una sbornia si riferisce alla terribile sensazione che provi dopo esserti svegliato dal bere. È la reazione che il tuo corpo ha da quantità eccessive di alcol. Ed è diverso per tutti.
Quando l'alcol è nel tuo corpo, si scompone in acetaldeide (ass-eh-tall-deh-HYDE), che rimuove le vitamine e i minerali essenziali dal tuo corpo.
La parola "sbornia" è un termine americano. Si dice che la parola sia stata usata alla fine del 1800 e poi aggiunta ai dizionari nel 1904.
Prevenzioni per i postumi di una sbornia
1. Idratazione. L'alcol disidrata il tuo corpo, quindi bevi un bicchiere d'acqua tra le bevande alcoliche.
2. Fai uno spuntino mentre bevi.
3. Bevi alcolici di alta qualità.
4. Prendi ibuprofene, complesso B e vitamina C prima di andare in pensione.
5. Limita la quantità di alcol che metti nel tuo corpo. Bere per divertimento non significa abbinare la stessa quantità di alcol che bevono i tuoi amici. Il corpo di ognuno è diverso. Ascolta il tuo corpo e conosci i tuoi limiti.
Le classiche cure per la sbornia del mattino
1. Pelo del cane. Il "Hair of the Dog" si riferisce al bere un po' di più di quello che hai bevuto la sera prima.
2. Bloody Mary. Bere un Bloody Mary con aggiunta di salsa piccante e un uovo crudo al mix.
3. Bevanda sportiva. Bere Powerade o Gatorade reidraterà il corpo con elettroliti essenziali.
4. Bagno o doccia calda. Un bagno caldo aiuta a sudare le tossine.
Cure globali per i postumi di una sbornia
America intorno al 1800: immergi i piedi nella senape e mangia le uova alla Benedict.
Antico Egitto: mangia cavolo bollito.
Antichi libici: bere una miscela di acqua di mare e vino.
Antichi romani: mangiare canarino fritto.
Australia: mangia una bistecca alla fiorentina e bevi un milkshake al cioccolato.
Inghilterra: mangia una zuppa di vongole.
Francia: mangiare zuppa di cipolle calda.
Germania: mangia aringhe in salamoia con un cacciatore di birra.
Haiti: inserisci tredici spille a testa nera nel tappo della bottiglia da cui hai bevuto.
Ungheria: bere brandy con escrementi di passero.
Olanda: mangia aringhe e cipolle.
Irlanda: mangiare Ulster Fry (pane di patate, uova fritte, pancetta, salsiccia, pomodoro, funghi e soda bread).
Giappone: indossare una mascherina chirurgica imbevuta di sake.
Norvegia: bevi panna.
Mongolia: bevi un occhio di pecora in salamoia in un bicchiere di succo di pomodoro.
Porto Rico: strofina un limone sotto il braccio che beve.
Romania: mangiare la zuppa di trippa (fatta con il rivestimento dello stomaco di una mucca).
Russia: bevi succo di cetriolo salato e mangia pane nero imbevuto di acqua.
Svizzera: bere brandy con un pizzico di menta piperita.
Wild Wild West: bevi un tè che fa cadere le lepri.
Espressioni di postumi di una sbornia globale
America: “pelo di cane”.
Australia: “pelo di cane” e “cacata di gatto in bocca”.
Danimarca: "uomini di legname nella mia testa", "falegnami nella mia testa" e "falegnami che mi martellano in testa".
Old England: “pelo di cane”.
Francia: "riaccendi la caldaia", "bocca di legno" e "malato nei capelli".
Germania: “lamento dei gatti”.
Olanda: “pianto di gatti”.
Portogallo: “risacca”, “mare mosso” e “quella sensazione instabile dopo una notte a Port”.
Spagna: "un chiodo in testa".
Svezia: “dolore alla radice dei miei capelli”.
Italia: nessuna traduzione diretta per la parola “sbornia”.
Slovacchia: “avere una scimmia”.
I've added some "What's Up, Doc?" hangover information along the way. I've also provided some doctor hangover YouTube videos for you to view.
Fun Global Hangover “Cures”
Historical remedies, traditional foods, folklore, and some ideas that should probably remain folklore.
Ancient Greece
Cabbage. Raw, cooked, before drinking, after drinking—cabbage had quite the reputation.
Hangover status: Still cabbage.
Ancient Rome
Raw owl eggs or fried canary, remedies attributed to Pliny the Elder.
Hangover status: We'll take the headache.
Haiti
One folkloric remedy doesn't treat you at all. Instead, you punish the offending bottle by sticking 13 black-headed pins into its cork.
Finally, a cure that understands who's really to blame.
Germany
A traditional Katerfrühstück, or “hangover breakfast,” may include rollmops—pickled herring wrapped around onion or another filling.
Nothing says “my stomach is delicate today” quite like pickled fish and onions.
Netherlands
Pickled herring and onions have also traditionally been associated with the morning after.
Apparently Northern Europe looked at nausea and said, “More herring.”
Ireland
A hearty Ulster Fry may include eggs, bacon, sausage, potato bread, soda bread, tomato, and other fried breakfast favorites.
If it doesn't cure the hangover, at least you won't be hungry while you have it.
Japan
Umeboshi, intensely sour and salty pickled plums, are a traditional favorite.
The theory seems to be that if your mouth experiences something dramatic enough, maybe it'll forget about your head.
Mongolia
One widely repeated traditional remedy is a pickled sheep's eye in tomato juice.
Suddenly the Bloody Mary sounds positively restrained.
Romania
Ciorbă de burtă, a sour tripe soup made with beef stomach, is a traditional morning-after food.
Your stomach hurts, so naturally: more stomach.
Korea
Haejangguk literally refers to soup eaten to chase away a hangover. Recipes vary but can include beef broth, vegetables, cabbage, and—in some versions—congealed ox blood.
Korea didn't invent a weird little trick.
They invented an entire category of hangover soup.
Canada
Poutine—French fries topped with cheese curds and gravy—is a beloved morning-after choice.
Nobody has scientifically proven that gravy cures a hangover.
Canada has apparently decided further research isn't necessary.
Colombia
Changua, a breakfast soup containing eggs poached in milk with bread and cilantro, is a traditional restorative breakfast.
Which sounds considerably more reasonable than sheep eyeball juice.
American Cowboy Folklore
One wonderfully revolting Old West remedy was supposedly rabbit-dropping tea—rabbit manure steeped in hot water.
At this point, just keep the hangover.
Fun Global Hangover Expressions
Different languages have developed wonderfully descriptive ways of saying:
“I made some mistakes last night.”
English
Hair of the dog — shortened from “the hair of the dog that bit you,” based on the ancient belief that a wound could be treated with hair from the offending dog.
Eventually somebody applied the logic to alcohol:
What hurt you last night can fix you this morning.
Spoiler: it can't.
Germany
Kater — literally a male cat or tomcat, but commonly used for a hangover.
So Germans don't wake up with a hangover.
They wake up with a cat.
The Netherlands
Kater is also associated with the miserable morning after.
Apparently the cat crossed the border.
Denmark
Expressions have compared the sensation to having carpenters working inside your head.
Honestly, whoever came up with this one had definitely experienced a hangover.
France
French expressions have included “wooden mouth” (gueule de bois), a wonderfully accurate description of waking up with a mouth that feels like somebody stored lumber in it overnight.
Spain
Resaca, the everyday Spanish word for hangover, can also refer to the undertow or backwash of the sea.
The party was the wave.
This is what washed ashore.
Slovakia
A hangover can be described with an expression meaning “to have a monkey.”
Why a monkey?
Who knows.
He's probably friends with the German cat.
And the Greatest Hangover Fact of All...
Ancient Greeks tried cabbage.
Romans tried owl eggs and fried birds.
Cowboys supposedly tried rabbit-dropping tea.
Germans tried pickled herring.
Humanity eventually invented laboratories, microscopes, modern medicine, MRIs, and mapped the human genome.
And after thousands of years of civilization, the best scientifically supported hangover cure we have is still:
Wait it out.
Maybe the cabbage deserves another look.
• “Hair of the Dog” refers to drinking a "little" more alcohol the next morning to help you feel better. There's interesting science behind it. It is believed to affect the methanol in your metabolism, preventing formaldehyde from forming and helping your body eliminate methanol more easily through breath and urine.
• Drink a glass of hydrogen water. Hydrogen water is regular water with extra dissolved molecular hydrogen gas added. It may lower oxidative stress in your cells and reduce specific inflammatory markers. Drop a tablet into a glass of water, let it dissolve, and drink. A doctor-approved Amazon hydrogen water tablet recommendation is at the top of the page.
• Hydrate with coconut water (for the magnesium) or a
sugar-free electrolyte packet in water. Avoid commercial sports drinks.
• Eat a banana (or avocado, baked potato with skin, beet greens), take a B-Complex vitamin, and a Zinc vitamin.
The Bottom Line
Human beings have been drinking alcohol for thousands of years and searching for hangover remedies for probably about one morning less than that.
We've tried coffee, raw eggs, pickle juice, greasy breakfasts, herbal concoctions, cold showers, more alcohol, and countless miracle products.
And after all these centuries, science's advice remains remarkably unexciting:
Drink less. Drink slower. Eat something. Stay hydrated. Give your body time.
Or, in bartender language:
You can't outsmart a hangover—but you can stop ordering before it starts taking reservations.