The holiday season is a time for family, friends, food, drinks and probably, hangovers.
While it is easy to get carried away with the festivities, the next day can filled with headaches, nausea and exhaustion.
According to the Mayo Clinic, a hangover is a group of unpleasant signs and symptoms that develop after drinking too much alcohol.
The symptoms can last up to 24 hours and range from excessive thirst and an inability to concentrate to increased sensitivity to light and sound and muscle aches.
Here are five tips on dealing with a hangover:
- Drink Water- Alcohol is considered a diuretic, according to Healthline.com, which means it’s quickly dehydrates your body. Why should you care? Dehydration can cause dizziness, headaches and even vomiting and diarrhea.
- Get electrolytes- Since we have established alcohol dehydrates your body of fluids, getting electrolytes is an efficient way to replenish the nutrients you lost quickly. Examples of drinks with electrolytes are Gatorade, Pedialyte and treated bottled water like Smart Water or Essentia.
- Eat good, healthy food- While it may be tempting to eat fried, greasy food like French fries or burgers, health experts suggest eating something bland and easy to digest such as toast or crackers. “Bland foods, such as toast and crackers, may boost your blood sugar and settle your stomach,” according to the Mayo Clinic.
- Take Ibuprofen or other medicine for headaches — sometimes you need a pop a pill (or two). This GoodRX blog details how several anti-inflammatory medications such as Advil can help reduce “hangover severity” and cautions against using Tylenol, since it’s not an anti-inflammatory and won’t help as much.
- Give it time or just take a nap- After a night of drinking and debauchery, sometimes your body just needs a day (or night) off. “The body’s got an amazing capacity to heal on its own,” Dr. Charles Cutler said in an interview with Health.com.
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