If you are expecting to party hard this New Year how can you avoid the splitting headache, sickness, dizziness and dehydration that we commonly refer to as a hangover. 

Alcohol is a diuretic (it removes fluids from the body), so drinking excessively can lead to dehydration. Dehydration is what causes many of the symptoms of a hangover.  It can upset your stomach and give you a bad night’s sleep making you feel tired and fragile the next day, you may also still have some alcohol in your system the next morning.

How to Avoid a Hangover

Obviously the best way to avoid a hangover is to drink sensibly or not to drink at all but as we all know when you are having a good time with good friends it is easy to get carried away.

Before you go out

While you party

When you get home

The morning after

Hangover Cures

Before you go out:

• If you are organising the get-together, book a restaurant rather than just going round the bars and only drink with the meal.
• Don't drink on an empty stomach. Eat plenty before you start getting ready.  The best choice would be a meal that includes carbohydrates or fats (an ideal choice would be a spaghetti bolognaise) accompanied by a glass of full fat milk, this will slow down the body’s absorption of alcohol.

While you party:

• Avoid dark-coloured drinks like red wine, brandy or port as they contain natural chemicals called congeners that irritate blood vessels and tissue in the brain and produce the worst hangovers.
• Drink water or non-fizzy soft drinks in between each alcoholic drink, this way you will consume less alcohol and it will help to keep your hydration levels up throughout the course of the evening. Carbonated (fizzy) drinks should be avoided as they speed up the absorption of alcohol into your system.
• Get some fresh air. If you feel up to it walk home if it is safe to do so, it will help to sober you up.

When you get home:

• Drink some orange juice, the vitamin C speeds up the metabolism of the alcohol in your liver.
• Have something else to eat, this will increase your sugar levels helping to relieve that shaky feeling and settle your stomach.
• Drink a pint of water or a sports energy drink before you go to sleep and keep a glass of water by the bed to sip if you wake up during the night.

The morning after

Go back to sleep. If you don’t have to go anywhere then you not just go back to bed and sleep through all these horrible symptoms until your body has repaired itself.

Hangover Cures:

It has long been said that there is no such thing as a hangover “cure” but many people disagree as our researchers have discovered:

• A banana, a carrot, a tomato, a shot of vodka, a splash of tabasco and some milk blended together.
• Two slices of toast with marmite followed by a warm bath and drinking lots of water
• ¼ pint of olive oil, a raw egg and then top up the glass with milk
• Half a pint of pure orange juice mixed with half a pint of coke