Maybe your thought is to pig out on greasy bar food while you drink. Maybe you have the latest and greatest over the counter miracle cure pill to try. Or maybe you have a cooler made up with some “hair of the dog” chilling in the back of your fridge for the morning after. However, if you are looking for a healthy alternative to your traditional hangover cures, you might take a look at what your local Chinese herbalist has to offer.

If you are familiar with traditional Chinese foods, you may have noticed that many of the recipes include ginger and garlic, which are known for their medicinal affects on a variety of discomforts. This is because many of the recipes evolved as part of traditional Chinese medicine, which traditionally uses these and other herbs and foods to help keep the body in top shape.

So, while you are out shopping for beer, wine coolers, and tequila, you might consider a stop into your local Chinese herbalist. Here are a couple of recipes that might perk you up after your night of overindulgence.

For hangovers, you can consider some herbal tea. You will need 20 grams of Hovenia dulcis, known as zhi ju, 10 grams of Pueraria/kudzu root, known as ge gen, and 10 grams of Peuraria flowers, known as ge hua as well as four cups of spring water. Take a glass or ceramic pot, and bring the herbs to a boil in the water. Once boiling, reduce the heat and simmer until you only have two cups of liquid. Strain the mixture, discarding the herbs, and divide into two cups. Drink one cup on an empty stomach immediately, and then drink the second cup about two hours later.

If you want to detoxify your liver, you can try a Lotus Root Cooler. You will need a large fresh lotus root, raw sugar or barley malt, and four cups of spring water. Cut the root into one inch pieces, and add the pieces and the sweetener to a saucepan. Cover with boiling water. Put a lid on the pot and allow the mixture to steep for a few minutes. You can then strain it and drink throughout the day.

If you want to detoxify your whole system, you should try some Ginseng Licorice Tea. You will need a handful of the small rootlets of white ginseng roots, known as ren shen. You will also need 10 long, thin slices of licorice root, known as gan cao, and eight cups of boiling water. Add licorice and ginseng together with four cups of boiling water in a teapot or thermos, allow to steep for 20 minutes, and then pour off the liquid into another container. Repeat with another four cups of water (can be repeated up to five times) and drink throughout the day.

Hopefully hangovers are not a part of your regular routine but should you find yourself suffering from one there are plenty of Chinese herbal remedies to try.

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Planning your night out before you start drinking can help you feel better the next day. Start by eating a good meal. Focus on eating foods that are high in fat and carbohydrates. A full stomach does not absorb alcohol as easily as an empty one, allowing your body to process the alcohol more easily. Fatty foods and high carbohydrate foods take longer to digest, so the effect lasts longer. By eating first, you can also decrease stomach irritation.

It is important to stay hydrated so drink water before consuming alcohol. Taking a multivitamin can also help combat the vitamin and mineral loss that the diuretic affects of alcohol can cause.

When drinking, there are some things that you can do to help prevent alcohol absorption. You should drink slowly, preferably no more than one drink an hour. This gives your body enough time to process the alcohol. Having a drink of water or a sports drink with your drink will help to keep you hydrated and allow your body more time to process the toxins.

Another thing to do is to watch what you are drinking. Mixing drinks will often cause you to feel worse the next day. Beer has the lowest amount of alcohol, but carbonation allows it to be absorbed faster. Wine is higher in alcohol, but is not carbonated, and white wine has fewer congeners than red. Cheap wines also tend to be higher in congeners than the more expensive types. Liquor has the highest amount of alcohol, and clear liquors have fewer congeners than dark ones, and again, the cheaper the liquor, the more likelihood of a hangover.

When you get home from your night out, there are some things that you can do before going bed. Take two aspirins with a full glass of water to help hydrate you and decrease hangover severity in the morning.

Make sure that to take actual aspirin, not acetaminophen, which can cause more problems for your liver.

When you wake up in the morning, you should take two more aspirins with another glass of water to help stave off a headache caused by inflammation. Taking another vitamin can help you replenish the vitamins and minerals that you loss the night before and set you on the road to recovery.

A healthy breakfast can also help. Eggs have cysteine that can break down toxins; bananas include potassium crucial to hydration, and fruit juices or sports drinks can help by replenishing sugar, salt, and electrolytes that you may have lost. Start out slowly, to avoid nausea, and avoid caffeinated beverages that will prolong your misery.

The best thing to do to prevent a hangover is not to drink at all, but if you are going to anyway then the above steps should help lessen the painful affects.

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There are several things that have been shown to help ease the pain of a hangover. Some are more effective than others, of course. Here is a look at some of the things that have proven most successful.

You can actually start by popping some pills. Taking a dose of aspirin is the most effective cure for any pains that you are feeling; provided that your stomach is not in too bad of shape (aspirin can irritate sensitive stomachs). Also take 200 mg of cysteine, which you can get at specialty food stores and supplement stores. Cysteine has been shown to counteract the effects of acetaldehyde on the body. 600 mg of Vitamin C and a Vitamin B-complex supplement can help to replenish the nutrients that were flushed out of your body with the frequent visits to the bathroom. If you do not have these as separate pills, try taking a multivitamin.

Next, a smoothie can help hydrate you and get vitamins and minerals back into your system while still being pretty easy on your queasy stomach. Blend together a banana, a can of V-8 juice, six strawberries, a couple tablespoons of honey, 1-2 cups of milk, a pinch of salt and a dash of nutmeg until it reaches your desired consistency. This will help coat your stomach and get some nutrition in you. If you know that operating a blender will be beyond your capabilities with a hangover, prepare the night before so that it is ready in the morning.

If you are still feeling bad later on in the day, then you can round it out with some Maalox, Gatorade, and bouillon soup. These should all sit easily on your stomach, help hydrate you, and replenish the vitamins and minerals that you lost. If you are still nauseous, add food back slowly into your diet so that you do not end up throwing everything back up.

If your head is still pounding after the aspirin, take an icepack, wrap it in a towel, and put it on your head. Alternate twenty minutes on with ten minutes off until the pain subsides.

Of course, your friends and family will have their own remedies for the morning after pain. You are welcome to try these as well if you think you can tolerate them. However, avoid any “remedies” that involve drinking more alcohol, vast quantities of caffeine, or taking painkillers like acetaminophen. In the long run, these will actually end up harming your body more and causing you to feel worse once their effects have worn off.

All in all, the best cure for a hangover is time – your body needs time to process the alcohol and the toxins so that you can start to feel better, and there is no real way to speed that up.

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1. Hangover - The prime cause of a hangover (headache, upset stomach, lethargy, nausea) is dehydration, so try to drink plenty of water or fruit juice on waking and last thing the night before, if possible. Then try the following aromatherapy treatment.

First, make a cold compress to which you add one drop of juniper oil and one drop of fennel oil. Apply to your forehead and temples. Next, blend three drops of rose oil in 1 fl oz (25 ml) of a carrier oil and massage it into the liver area – the lower right side of your ribs and just below them.

Rose oil helps to detoxify the liver. Drinking plenty of water throughout the day is important as well as it will flush the toxins out of your system more efficiently.

2. Hay fever - This is actually an allergic reaction caused by the pollens of various shrubs, trees and grasses. Symptoms include sneezing, running nose and sore red eyes. Aromatherapy can ease hay fever, but won’t cure it.

Add six drops of hyssop oil to a bowl of hot water and inhale the steam. Alternatively, mix six drops of hyssop oil in 2 fl oz (50 ml) of carrier oil and massage it into your cheeks and under your nose regularly. People prone to epilepsy should avoid hyssop.

3. Jet lag - This affects you when your internal body clock becomes disorientated. It can cause changes in your normal eating and sleep patterns and is generally debilitating.

During you flight, drink plenty of water and soft drinks, avoid alcohol and eat little. Sleep if you can, and before traveling make up this aromatherapy blend. Add four drops of rosemary, four drops of ylang-ylang and four drops of lemon oil to 4 fl oz (100 ml) of carrier oil. During your flight, massage it into your neck, face and the back of your neck up to the base of your skull. On arrival, pour some of the blend into a warm bath and soak in it for at least 15 minutes.

Disclaimer: This article is not meant to provide health advice and is for general information only. Always seek the insights of a qualified health professional before embarking on any health program.

Read useful articles on Hair loss remedy to control your hair fall. Know how Herbal remedies are helpful in promoting good health. Also read about Natural weight loss to shed your extra body fat.

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But did you ever think a drink typically sipped by athletes could help cure a hangover? I definitely didn’t…until I spoke to the founder of Zym the other day. Brian Koff, founder of the product local to Chicago but available to all online at gozym.com, taught me more than a thing or two about his product. And talk about making a sale for the greenest holiday of them all. Zym, with its catchy green tube and lemon-lime endurance formula, is just asking to tag along to all the St. Patrick’s Day festivities. It’s convenient to carry and its combination of electrolytes and B vitamins–remedies for a hangover according to health911.com–can be just what the body needs after heavy imbibing. Zym also boasts effervescense, low calories and a light flavor to add spark to that plain glass of water. Pop it into your Nalgene before you’re off for the day and you could whisk that headache away before you even arrive at the office (that’s what some claim at least). It might just save you and your Irish holiday.

But be sure to know that Zym isn’t just a hangover helper. Anyone can drink it to simply spice up your water without a ton of extra calories, or athletes can use it to break down lactic acid build-up and add electrolytes to a depleted system. I like to say the drink saved me from dying on a training run along the Lakefront last summer–water wasn’t cutting it but Zym revved my system enough to get me home.

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The best cure to one is not to drink too much in the first place but if you have over-indulged yourself, don’t worry. There are ways to alleviate the symptoms of a hangover.

Firstly, lets look at how you can save yourself the agony. To prevent the effects of a hangover which are mostly due to dehydration, drink as much water as possible before going to sleep. This will also assist the body in getting purged of the alcohol in your system. Taking water every once in a while during your drinking marathon can also stop hangover from occurring the next day.

Another way is to munch on something before or during drinking.

If none of these tips work or if you didn’t pay heed to them then here are ways to beat the nausea, dizziness and exhaustion:

You must have seen people in movies waking up with hangovers and reaching for a pot of strong black coffee. Bad idea! The caffeine in coffee will serve to dehydrate your body even more. Plus, it has diuretic properties so of course it will leave your stomach feeling worse than ever.

Bland water too much for you to face? Substitute it with ginger ale. This will help you calm your stomach. Make sure it is flat and not fizzy.

Fresh fruit juice is another good option. The vitamin C found in it will provide you with quick energy that your body so craves.

Do not ignore your thirst. Even some energy drinks can be helpful to some people.

To ease the dry feeling in your mouth, take a few tablespoons of honey or stir it in with a glass of water.

When you have had enough water try swallowing a few slices of plain toast and keeping it down. Do not apply any topping like marmalade or peanut butter.

For a little freshening up and getting energy into your exhausted body, try eat a little fruit.

In case it’s impossible for you to look at any solid food or even juices resort to multivitamins.

Take some aspirin to get rid of the headache. Tylenol and Panadol are common choices. Use them in the morning and not at night when your body is still loaded with the alcohol.

Sleep it off. Use all the remedies given above and hit the pillow again.

Wrap your head in a cool wash cloth or compress. Try relax.

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Now, this does not mean that you should take advantage of the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet at your local greasy diner. Instead, you should eat something light and healthy to see how your stomach reacts. You should avoid carbohydrates and fatty foods since these are only going to make you feel worse.

To drink, you can start out with a simple cocktail of tomato juice, Tabasco sauce, lemon juice, and a shot of vodka. This works well for a variety of reasons as a hangover cure. First of all, the tomato juice is packed with vitamins and antioxidants that will help your body to cleanse your blood from any leftover alcohol and impurities that are still lurking around.

Another reason that you feel terrible the next morning is the fact that you essentially overdosed on alcohol the night before and now your body is going through withdrawal. Having the shot of vodka in your juice will help put some alcohol back into your system, and allow you to start some of your other hangover remedies before the hangover comes back. However, keep it to only a shot. Any more and you are setting yourself on the road to alcoholism.

Once you have gotten the juice down, and are hopefully starting to feel a little better, you can make yourself a protein-packed breakfast. Try 3 pieces of back bacon, 3 canned tomatoes, 2 scrambled eggs, and an orange to start out with. The eggs have protein that will help build your strength back up, as well as a chemical that is known to fight some of the toxins that are still left in your system. Canned tomatoes, like the tomato juice, also have the vitamins and antioxidants that you need to revitalize your system. The bacon has fat that helps bind to the alcohol left in your blood, and the orange has citric acid to make that fat easier to digest, not to mention vitamin C, one of the essential vitamins that you lost through dehydration.

For best results, you should have a second breakfast with more of the same foods within four hours of your first one, and try to stay awake in between them instead of going back to bed, since going to sleep slows down your metabolism. If you need help staying awake, try taking a nice hot shower, followed by a cold rinse, to help wake you up.

Time is the best cure for a hangover but since you can’t hurry that up, a good healthy meal is the perfect alternative.

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The scenarios behind a hangover tend to be pretty similar – too much to drink, mixing drinks, etc. The symptoms are often the same: migraines, nausea, dry mouth, dizziness, and a general feeling of discomfort. Here is a look at how you can prevent yourself from feeling this way should there be a next time.

Never drink on an empty stomach. Eat something with greasy, fatty foods loaded with oil or butter. Others will swear by having a couple of tablespoons of olive oil before leaving the house. Remember to wash it down before going to bed with a couple of glasses of water.

Drinking water in general before bedtime will help with dehydration along with something to dull the pain.

If you need help waking up in the morning, you can try a red eye. Take some whiskey, fresh coffee, Tabasco sauce, a raw egg, pepper, and orange juice and blend it together in a blender. If you are able to choke it down, fans say that you will start feeling better within 15 minutes. If you need a faster cure, try a Black Mary. Mix coffee with tonic water, honey, and orange juice. Again, it might be a little rough to get down, but there are those that swear by its effectiveness.

Some other preventatives have to do with when you are actually out drinking. Following these rules can help keep you feeling good the next day.

First of all, avoid mixed drinks. If you prefer the harder drinks, take them straight or over ice. Avoid drinks that have colas or juices mixed in, since these will often get you drunk faster and without realizing it. This leads to more toxins needing to be flushed from your system, and a higher likelihood of a hangover the next day.

Do not mix low alcoholic drinks with highly alcoholic ones. For example, drinking both beer and hard liquor is a thing to avoid. Choose one or the other, otherwise, your body gets confused and you end up taking in more alcohol. And, the more alcohol that gets absorbed, the more likely you are to have a hangover.

Avoid dairy when you are drinking. Milk, cheeses, ice cream, and cream sauces can really upset your stomach when you mix them with alcohol. So unless you enjoy the view of your toilet bowl, stay away from them until afterwards.

Always keep in mind that while hangover “cures” can help to alleviate the symptoms of your hangover, only time and your metabolism will officially end it. So keep that in mind when you are out drinking, particularly if there is somewhere that you want to be the next day.

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The biggest offenders of this are red wine, bourbon, whiskey, brandy and tequila. Also, combining these different impurities can make the hangover all the more severe. Also, the carbonation in beer speeds up the absorption of alcohol, so following beer with liquor is not a great idea. Even getting to bed early and managing to get a long sleep still may not completely eradicate some of these symptoms. Whilst drinking, the creation of the natural stimulant glutamine is inhibited, when you stop drinking, the body makes up for this loss and beings to overproduce glutamine thus stimulating the brain while the person is attempting to sleep, therefore preventing the deepest sleep being had. The best remedy for a hangover is simply – don’t drink alcohol! But if you insist on a few sups there are a few cures that are bandied about that are rumoured to beat the dreaded hangover. One of the most common is the ‘hair of the dog that bit you’, which simply means drinking a little more alcohol the following morning -sometimes this can be a fate worse than death and all is really does is stave of the inevitable. Another proposition is to swallow down as much burnt toast as is humanly possible, the thinking being that the carbon in the toast will act like a type of filter. It’s not true, nor are several other propositions such as black coffee or fatty foods. There are some things that can help but bizarrely they are not bandied about so much. Eggs can help clear up toxins and bananas can help enhance potassium levels.

Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland. Article source Russell Shortt, http://www.exploringireland.net  http://www.visitscotlandtours.com

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Hey, hold on! I am not trying to scare the life out of you. I am just showing you the real picture of a hangover that you may require to face the following day after you have overindulged in your favorite wine.

This sounds really bad but don’t worry, there are many tips you can follow in order to get rid of a wine hangover. All you need to do is to follow the instructions given below:

a) Water, water and water:

Water is the key to get over the wine hangover. Drink plenty of water. Alcohol has a tendency to dehydrate your body. This is the main reason that most people end up having a lot of liquids in the form of plain water, lemon water, coffee and black tea without having pee for a single time. If you want to stay away from the temptation of overindulging in wine, the best way is to have a glass of water for each glass of wine you desire to have. Wine is a great source of water, but the presence of water tends to produce adverse effects on the body. Hence, it is necessary to keep hydrating your body with water.

b) Binge in:

Sounds great! Believe me, it really works. Eat your favorite meal or some snacks an hour before a drink. This will save you from getting involved into overindulge and the hangover. The meal or snack should include bread or pasta.

c) No prescription drugs:

So you want to save money! It’s a good idea but you should not save money via mixing your glass of wine with prescription drugs for more effects. This will only damage your body. Drink less if you really want to save money.

d) Milk:

Drink a glass of milk prior to consuming wine. This will provide a protection coat to your stomach and helps you absorb the alcohol in the wine.

e) No salt:

Salt will prove dangerous as it tends to maximize the process of dehydration. You should stay away from salt when having margarita…

f) An aspirin:

An aspirin will help you to remove headache. Avoid taking ibuprofen or paracetamol. These medicines usually have adverse effects on the body especially after the consumption of wine.

g) Avoid dark drinks:

The major hangover you experience may be due to combining red wine with whiskey. You should mix whiskey with soda or water. Avoid mixing it with cola and tonic.

Hangover is due to over indulgence in wine. Try to stay away from it. Follow the instructions mentioned above you would feel better after a wine party with your friends.

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