Party hearty: six tricks for avoiding the most dreaded of holiday occurrences: the evil holiday hangover

You may think you have the company Christmas-party thing down, what with chatting up Alexis, the cutie from accounting, and downing as much open-bar beer and scotch as a sailor on shore leave. But the next day, you're going to pay for it. To harness that hangover, you can either swear off booze entirely (yeah, right) or keep these six dos and don'ts in mind before you start pounding the eggnog.

DO: AVOID SUPER-SWEET MIXED DRINKS.

You ordered that rumrunner for her, right, chief? Well, if you didn't, you should have. Drinks with juice or sour mix spike blood-sugar levels and change the way your body metabolizes alcohol, upping hangover risk. Instead of those frou-frou cocktails, opt for ones mixed with tonic, diet soda, or unsweetened lemon, lime, or tomato juice.

DO: HAVE A STEAK BEFORE YOU PARTY.

Think of it as a prophylactic measure. (Stop laughing, Beavis.) Protein helps to slow alcohol absorption. But don't worry, dude. Your drinks will still provide the desired mind-numbing, social-lubricating distraction you seek. You just won't fly from zero to 60 (60 being propped up in a corner, drooling on yourself) at warp speed.

DON'T: POP PAIN KILLERS IN ADVANCE.

Taking aspirin, ibuprofen, and especially acetaminophen (Tylenol) before you go to bed is a waste of good drugs, since you generally don't get headache symptoms until after alcohol has left your bloodstream. It also puts you at serious risk for long-term liver damage.

DO: STICK WITH THE CLEAR STUFF.

Think vodka or gin with the plate of sugar cookies. And pay the extra buck for top-shelf alcohol. According to research published in The Annals of Internal Medicine (I said stop, Beavis!), the clearer and more processed (i.e., expensive) the spirit, the less severe the hangover. Dark or colored alcohols contain small levels of toxic substances called congeners--a byproduct of fermentation--which worsen hangover severity.

DON'T: HIT THE GYM OR SAUNA.

Ho-Ho-Oh-No! Sweating out the hangover may seem like a smart idea, but it's not. The more dehydrated you get, the worse you'll feel.

DO: DRINK IT OFF.

Gatorade and non-citrus juices will get electrolytes back into your depleted system. Although OJ may seem like a good idea, it can actually aggravate your already pissed-off stomach. Avoid coffee, too, since java is a diuretic that steals excess fluids away from your body.

Alcohol Quiz

Myths and mixers revealed

1. You can drink yourself to death.

True. It is possible to fall into a deep sleep, vomit, and choke to death because you were too drunk to clear that chunk of chicken from your throat--a la Jimi Hendrix. Or you could get so drunk that the areas in your brain controlling life function simply quit working, causing you to fall asleep and never wake up--think Jim Morrison.

2. The older you get, the more alcohol affects you.

True. The body has a harder time processing and removing alcohol from your system as your organs age.

3. Bread helps to soak up alcohol in your stomach, preventing a hangover.

False. By the time you're hungover, the alcohol is in your blood and nothing can soak it up. Having food in your stomach, however, does slow your body's absorption of alcohol, thereby helping reduce the severity of hangovers later on.

4. Ordering low-carb drinks won't interfere with my diet.

False. Even without a mixer added, drinks like vodka and rum change the way your body burns and stores fat, encouraging it to hold on to as much flab as possible.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Weider Publications
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