Get rid of that hangover

Your plans are set in place with the best of your drinking buddies. You're going to join thousands across the world in a collective drunken stupor in honour of Saint Paddy. But if you're not careful, a night of fun might be followed by a morning not-so-fun. As a famous physicist once said, "what goes up must come down." And although Sir Isaac Newton may have been referring to the laws of gravity, the same applies to you and your St. Podge parties.

What causes hangovers?

While your pounding headache and constant urge to vomit might feel like a personal punishment from God (re: "Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink" [Isaiah 5:11]), there's actually a more science-based, biological reason for your suffering over the toilet bowl.

Known in the medical community as 'veisalgia,' hangovers are caused by several factors. First, as a diuretic, alcohol causes you to urinate more frequently than you ever would sober, which leads to dehydration. The sudden and large dehydrated state in our body leaves an imbalance in electrolytes.

The ethanol in your drinks needs to broken down, which was done by acetaldehyde. As a toxic compound, acetaldehyde is estimated to be 10 to 30 times more toxic than the alcohol itself. Acetaldehyde causes sweating, skin flushing, nausea, and vomiting.

How to help your hangover

The popular fried eggs breakfast cure, as tasty as it is, has never been scientifically proven to be effective as a treatment. What has shown to be effective, however, is rehydration, prostaglandin inhibitors, and vitamin B6.

Make sure to have sugar and fluids to help your body overcome its state of hypoglycemia and dehydration. Electrolyte drinks such as Gatorade can help restore the balance in your body. Keep drinking water throughout the night to prevent your body and your brain from becoming dehydrated, the cause of your morning migraine.

Take caution when you're reaching for the painkillers to alleviate that headache. Researchers suggset prostaglandin inhibitors are helpful for headaches and nausea; this includes anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), and naproxen (Aleve). It does not include acetaminophen (Tylenol), however, because acetaminophen could irritate your liver, which is already working overtime from last night and has undergone enough abuse.

You can also take antacids or stomach relief medicine such as Pepto-Bismol or Tums to calm the upset acid in your stomach and help alleviate nausea.

A B vitamin can be taken to help restore the loss of nutrients during your body liquids exodus, but don't expect this to completely and quickly "cure" your hangover. It will only help alleviate some of your symptoms.

What doesn't help a hangover

We may not know exactly what completely "cures" hangovers, but we do know what will worsen it. In a study conducted on college students, researchers found that those who smoked on the day they were drinking would have higher odds of suffering a hangover the next morning and those who did, suffered an increased severity in headache, nausea and fatigue.

For future reference, avoid drinking alcohol quickly to reduce your risk of a hangover the next morning. Pace your drinks with food and non-alcoholic beverages in between to slow down the rate your digestive tract has to absorb the alcohol.

Have you experienced the morning-after pain and head-aching regret? Or maybe you've had to take care of a friend vowing lifelong teetotalism over the toilet bowl. Were you able to help alleviate the symptoms at all, or are you more of the 'I-told-you-so' type? Let us know in the comments below!