24. Start With a Healthy Baseline
Staying hangover free this holiday season is not going to be easy, especially with all the unhealthy food thrown into the mix. However, there are a few things that you can do to help get back and track and not feel like complete garbage. First things first, you need to start out with a healthy baseline in order to prevent any negative side effects from all this holiday season has to give. This means staying on top of your vitamins and minerals by eating a healthy diet. Staying hydrated is always key, but sometimes it's easier said than done. Luckily, there are a few more tips and tricks to help you stay as healthy as possible, as easy as possible.
23. Hangover Tea
This tea brand is one of the best preventative hangover solutions on the market. Hangover Tea is packed with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, to keep your body hydrated with the right things to keep you running at 100%. Starting with a healthy baseline means more than just drinking water. When you drink alcohol it decreases the number of vital nutrients like vitamins A, C, D, E, and K, according to the National Institutes of Health. Luckily, Hangover Tea is made from a special blend of ingredients like hibiscus, milk-thistle, and kudzu root, all of which help boost the circulatory system and liver function. Kudzu root specifically has been used for hundreds of years to treat the negative effects of alcohol consumption, as well as alcohol cravings. Hangover Tea is a safe and natural way to ingest kudzu and keep your body functioning properly.
22. Get Real With Yourself: The Physiology of a Hangover
Many of us enjoy the holidays, but many of us, don't. It's okay not to be happy during the holidays, but the key is to check in with yourself and to know exactly how you're feeling. It's easy to overindulge in social situations, especially during the holidays, because of the added pressure they bring. There are generally more social gatherings during this time as well as familial pressures, so do yourself a favor and give yourself a pep-talk before venturing out. Keeping yourself in check will most likely keep you from drowning your sorrows with too much booze, according to Dr. Dawn DeSylvia a veteran in functional and integral medicine.
21. Keep Your Hands Busy
Keeping your hands busy can work wonders during your next holiday party. When you're hands are free, you're more likely to keep drinking, even if you've had enough. An easy way to do this is to help with food preparation and handouts, help with clean-up, or play games. These are all interactive things that will keep you from chatting and losing track of how much wine you've had. Dr. DeSylvia says dancing is also helpful, “Dancing is great because it’s fun and it’s hard to dance with a drink in your hand."
20. Activated Charcoal
You can also try to curb a hangover by drinking activated charcoal drinks. Activated charcoal helps detoxify the body by binding to toxins and helping to move them through the body faster, preventing negative hangover symptoms. However, it can also do the same to vitamins and minerals if taken too much, especially when you're taking medication.
Luckily, there is an easier and less stressful drink to help detoxify your body.
19. Milk Thistle & Elderberry
Milk thistle and elderberry are known for their detoxification properties, much like activated charcoal. The benefit with these ingredients is you can't over-do them like you can the charcoal. They're also found in high amounts in Hangover Tea, so you can ingest them in a flavorful and delicious way. Steep some of the Blissberry tea before you drink alcohol and you will be able to prevent a nasty hangover by maintaining a healthy baseline and boosting liver function.
When you wake up and feel a little foggy and sick, finish the process with the second step, the Green Tea, to keep the detoxification going.
18. Skip The Boozie Brunch
Everyone loves a good mimosa at brunch, but unfortunately, it can do more to impact your hangover than drinking the night before. In the morning, you have less of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, the primary enzyme that breaks down alcohol, than you do at night. So you're not crazy, you do get more drunk at brunch off fewer drinks than you do pounding back a few at trivia night. So if you know you're going to be doing a lot of holiday boozing, skip the cocktail at brunch and save it for later. You'll thank yourself when you wake up hangover free.
17. Avoid Sugary Cocktails
Do yourself a favor and skip the overtly sugar cocktails and go for something easier for your body to bounce back from. It may be hard not to drink all the delicious holiday cocktail concoctions, but you'll be glad you did. Drinks like eggnog, hot buttered rum, and spiked cider are all packed with sugar and will help the booze dehydrate you even further. Stick to spiced vodka-based cocktails that have real cranberry juice and not cranberry juice cocktail, or a hot toddy to get the holiday spirit this season.
16. Workout In the Morning, Not Night
You may think hitting the gym before a night out might do you good, but in reality, it's making your hangover worse. While burning off all the calories you're about to drink may seem like a good thing, you're actually dehydrating your body right before dehydrating it some more. No matter how much water you drink it won't compare to the amount you can drink all day in preparation. Start working out in the morning instead, that way you can nourish your body all day before hitting the dance floor.
15. Pick Your Poison Wisely
Everyone has their go-to beverage when it comes to bar hopping, but what you drink can significantly affect your hangover intensity. Drinking darker liquors, like whiskey or bourbon, can create more intense hangovers because they have more toxins than light liquors, like gin or vodka. The more toxins your body has to expel the worse you're going to feel.
14. Green Tea & Dandelion Root
13. Drink Your Carbs, Don't Eat Them
When you eat heavy and carb loaded meals while you're drinking, you're sending your liver into overdrive. Many think bread will soak up the alcohol and make you feel better, but it's just not true. Your liver is working overtime trying to rid the toxins and booze from your body and the last thing you want to do is give it extra work regulating your blood sugar. Stick to protein-rich low carb dishes if you're going to indulge in an extra glass of wine or beer.
12. Eat Bitter Greens
Bitter greens are your best friend when it comes to kicking a hangovers butt. Indulge in bitter greens like artichokes, kale, arugula, broccoli rabe, dandelion greens, endive, and radicchio, because they're experts in increasing glutathione, a naturally occurring antioxidant in your body. Glutathione also boosts the immune system, which you're going to need help with after a night of drinking.
11. Vitamin Cocktails
When you get home after a fun night out, try not to just pass out the moment you walk in the door. You'll want to start counteracting the effects of a hangover right away. An easy way to do this is mixing cinnamon, turmeric, and water. It may not be the best tasting concoction out there, but those spices are great for fighting off extra aldehydes which are notorious for hangover symptoms. If you can, after you chug that down, take a vitamin B-complex--it'll help you metabolize alcohol faster. Honestly, drinking Hangover Tea is much easier, and tastier.
10. Probiotics
Probiotics are another great tool to fight the dreaded hangover. When you drink the natural microflora in your stomach get all messed up, and probiotics help rebalance your natural levels, alleviating an upset stomach.
9. One More Shot
Taking a shot of chlorophyll before hitting the hay will do wonders for your morning mood. Chlorophyll is what makes green plants green, and taking a condensed shot of it provides your body with detoxification and inflammation. Sure, it doesn't taste that great, but neither did the six shots of vodka you took last night.
8. Ginger
Ginger is a wonder-worker when it comes to post-drinking nausea. It also helps with inflammation, a common side effect of alcohol, as well as muscle soreness from hitting the dance floor. It can be a bit hard to swallow when you're hungover, so try steeping ginger tea, or better yet, Hangover Tea, which has ginger, cinnamon, dandelion, matcha, kudzu, among almost every other beneficial supplement on this list.
7. The Right Breakfast
Choosing the right post-drinking meal can have a serious effect on how long you feel hungover. When you wake up you might not want to eat fruit or a green juice and that's okay. Your body may be calling for monounsaturated fats, which help produce adiponectin, a hormone that works wonders for regulating blood sugar. A great source of monounsaturated fats is avocado. Yes, you may need the most basic breakfast Instagram has ever been obsessed with, avocado toast. You can also change it up with some lemon zest which can benefit your liver.
6. Coconut Water
Coconut water has become a major talking point in the last couple of years because of how well it hydrates the body versus plain water. Packed with vitamins and minerals, coconut water is an amazing hangover cure. It also has high levels of potassium, which help even out sodium levels. However, depending on the brand, it can be loaded with sugar as well, so try to get 100% organic coconut water instead of a juice blend.
5. Silica Drops
Silica has been known to benefit skin and bones by helping calcium get fully absorbed by the body, but recently it's been known to help with rapid rehydration. There are a few adverse side effect to this supplement in too much concentration, so talk with your health provider to be sure it's right for you. Or, stick to the many other options on this list.
4. Soda Water With Bitters
The old bartenders secret to getting through a hangover while working is soda water with bitters, and trust me, it works. The carbonation in the soda water will help with the upset stomach and when in combination with bitters it will soothe any nausea you might have. Bitters were created from the gentian root in the 1800's for its medicinal properties and quickly became a home remedy for upset stomachs. Oddly enough, these days they're mostly used for flavoring alcoholic drinks but maintain their medicinal properties. These days they come in a variety of flavors so you can find one that also tastes good.
3. Peppermint Oil or Tea
Peppermint oil is a godsend when it comes to an upset stomach, and although it won't cure your hangover, it will alleviate the nauseating symptoms. You can apply it directly to your stomach or drop some onto your tongue and within minutes you'll feel your nausea disappear. When you don't feel nauseous you're more likely to be able to eat and drink more water, which will help speed up your hangover recovery. You can also drink peppermint tea, but Hangover Tea would probably be a better option if you're sticking to tea because it'll actually cure your hangover rather than just tampering down the symptoms.
2. Nap
Napping is also going to be one of the easiest things to do to cure your hangover, because your body needs the chance to recover, and it recovers the fastest while sleeping. When you fall asleep while intoxicated your normal sleep patterns are disrupted and you don't get the benefits of a good nights rest, not matter if you get eight hours or two. When you've rid your body of most of the alcohol from the night before, try and nap the rest of it off.
1. Lemon Vervain
