Heal Your Hangover and Start the New Year Bright
Whether you are one of the smart and well disciplined to ring in the New Year with a morning chakra balancing meditation or are one of the ones who will be suffering a worthwhile headache, we have the insights and cures to start 2011 healthy and bright. If indeed you plan on get whisked away in indulgent celebratory endeavors on New Years Eve, we’d like to share a few choice home remedies to make your night of revelry a bit more memorable. Look below (even through bleary eyes) for the best preventative measures, hangover cures, and emergency quick fixes for having a night of “too much fun.”
Worship Water: Avoid dehydration and over indulgence at parties by drinking a glass of water for every alcoholic beverage you have throughout the night. Water will help keep you from experiencing those searing headaches that keep you horizontal the next day.
Take a multi B- vitamin: Your system quickly becomes depleted of this vital B-vitamin from too much imbibing. Take a multi B that includes B-1 (thiamine) and B-6 before the drinking begins or after the over-indulgence has occurred.
NAC- N-acetyl-cysteine is an amino acid that breaks down and eliminates on the main causes of hangovers, acetaldehyde. Take with multi B complex and vitamin C.
Bifidus: Take a ¼ teaspoon of the beneficial probiotic bifidus to help restore gut bacteria before you go to bed. Probiotics also help to aid in the manufacture of B vitamins as well as detoxify and restore the digestive system after alcohol consumption.
Replenish your electrolytes – Eat foods rich in minerals like potassium that get depleted by too much alcohol. Find your balance again and try 1tablespoon blackstrap molasses.
Eat bananas– they are rich in the minerals potassium and magnesium. These nutrients will help reduce the throbbing pounding headache by relaxing the blood vessels. This fruit is great in a smoothie with flax oil to relieve symptoms of nausea.
Vitamin C- this is another vitamin/antioxidant depleted during too much drinking. It helps protect the liver so replenish asap.
Liver support: Make a nutritive tea with dandelion root, milk thistle, burdock, and honey to aid in liver detoxification.
Ginger Tea: This tea can help quell unwelcomed nausea. Slice 10-12 pieces of fresh ginger root and simmer in 4 cups of water for 15 minutes. Strain out ginger and add honey to taste.
Sauerkraut- if the thought of eating kraut after a big night out turns your belly around even more than it is, trust me, I understand, but if you can get past the oddity and look at this food as medicine, this cabbage loving elixir might become your BFF. The vinegar and spices speed up the blood flow, quickening the detoxification process. The cabbage is a pal for liver detox too and while boosting beneficial gut bacteria. You can eat raw cabbage as an old school preventative to getting a hangover the next day after a big night on the town. Crunch on.
l-Glutamine– This amazing amino acid protects and heals the stomach lining thereby reducing injury and inflammation from alcohol intake while also reducing the effects of hangover and cravings for alcohol. Comes in powder form.
Ginseng Take ginseng before a night of partying or after the damage has been done. Ginseng is a liver detoxifier and will help clear the system of toxins.
Alkalinize– the day before, the day of, and the day after partying eat and drink restorative mineral rich foods to boost the alkalinity in the body. Try clear soup broths, miso, and lots of vegetables. Take a “green drink” the morning after drinking too much. Mix 2 tablespoons chlorella, blue green algae, spirulina, wheat grass or some super green powder in 8 oz. water and drink. This will help to replenish the mineral stores to buffer against the acidifying inflammatory effects of drinking too much alcohol.
May your year be filled with good health, and balance!