The best way to cure a hangover is to prevent one altogether by keeping your body hydrated during your night of drinking. Remember, alcohol works as a diuretic on the body, making you urinate greater amounts, more often throughout the night.
Follow these tips for preventing dehydration during a night of jubilation…
1. Pre-drink Lots of Water
Start your night on a high hydration note by drinking a few tall glasses of H2O before you leave for a night on the town. This way you will fill up your hydration stores early so you’re set for the evening.
2. Mix a Few Spritzers
Sodium-free club soda, soda water, or bubbly water (as I like to call it) is a hydrating mix for cocktails and hard alcohol. You can add an ounce of rum, vodka, or gin, a splash of real fruit juice, and fill the remainder of the glass up with club soda (not tonic, which contains a lot of sugar and calories).
3. The Blender is your H2O Friend
Do you fancy a margarita, piña colada, or frozen Bellini? Blender drinks are pro hydration thank to the ice in each concoction. Just try to use as many fresh fruits, herbs, and juices as possible to mix your blender drinks as the pre-made mixes are full of sugar and sodium.
4. Alternate Drink/Water
We’ve already established the alcohol is a diuretic, which means it makes you eliminate water faster from the body, leaving you dehydrated. To prevent a water shortage, alternate each drink with a tall glass of ice water in between to prevent a headache and nasty hangover.
5. Settle Tummy Troubles with Club Soda
If you tend to get a troublesome tummy from drinking too much, you’ll be interested to know that sipping on low sodium seltzer or carbonated water between alcoholic beverages will hydrate your body while settling your stomach.
6. Drink Light Beer
If you get dehydrated quickly when drinking a few brewskies with friends, try switching to a lighter beer. Studies show that brews with lower alcohol content dehydrate the body at a much slower rate.
7. Water Down Your Liquor
If you like shots the rocks why not opt for those cubes in liquid form right off the bat. Instead of drinking your favorite brand of scotch or rye straight or it in a tumbler mixed with a splash of water. Scotch and whiskey drinkers (like my father) say a splash of H20 brings out the flavors in the hooch.
8. Hydrate With Garnishes
Did you know that the celery stick in your Bloody Mary or the slice of watermelon with your Bellini is a hydrating garnish? Most fresh or frozen fruits that adorn your cocktail glass are there for more than just show. So gobble up those raspberries and cranberries for a hydrating break.
9. Munch Away that Hangover
Sure you can chow down on pizza and salty nachos, but if you choose a more hydrating array of fresh veggies or fruits as you toss back a few glasses of wine, you might save yourself a pounding headache later on. Focus on hydrating blends of grapes, berries, grapefruit, melons, cucumbers, celery, and carrot sticks for munching.
10. Big Glass of Water Before Bed
If all else fails and you enjoy a few to many wobbly pops without taking any of our hydrating tips to the bar, then be sure to drink a large glass of water (or two) before you go to bed. The gracious glass of H20 will likely prevent a nasty morning-after headache.
