Hey Steemaholics,
If you enjoy a night out drinking with your friends from time to time then you have almost definitely experienced a hangover. Personally, I find that they get worse and worse the older I get. They are almost unavoidable at this point.
Quest for the Cure
I know I am not the first, and certainly not the last, who has undertaken the quest for the elusive hangover cure. I’ve tried the obvious things—water, electrolytes, greasy food— all of which seemed to work somewhat well back in the day. For some reason, these things seem not to work as well as time goes on. I’ll share some of the remedies I’ve tried in the past and then talk about Reishi mushroom, my latest discovery.
Pedialyte—electrolytes for babies, also near the cash register at your local college campus
Toniq
I bought this for the same reason most probably do, thinking it was a one-stop-shop to eliminate hangovers. I didn’t do too much research into it, but apparently there's a "hydration" vitamin and a "hangover prevention" vitamin. One is to take beforehand, the other is to take after. I made the mistake of taking the hydration vitamin before drinking alcohol when you are supposed to take it after. This could be why I felt no noticeable effects from it. But it's interesting to note the main in gradient in the prevention vitamin—Reishi mushroom.
Trioral Oral Rehydration Salts
These are essentially just electrolytes on steroids. Electrolytes are just ions which basically come from salt. They are used in hospitals for medical conditions, for travel, outdoor labor, and extreme physical activity. These seem to make me feel better after an intense workout, and maybe slightly better after a night of drinking. I wouldn’t call them a hangover cure as much as a way to help restore your body while already hungover.
Reishi
I heard about Reishi mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum) while researching other "magic pill" hangover cures simply because it was the main ingredient in a lot of them. The benefits of Reishi mushroom apparently extend way beyond hangovers. They have been used in ancient Chinese medicine for hundreds of years, and there are all sorts of wild claims about their health benefits. However, there is a growing body of scientific evidence that supports the fact that the polysaccharides found in Reishi have anti-tumor, immune-modulating, and blood-pressure-lowering effects.
Even if it’s not a complete hangover cure, I decided that all these other amazing properties were enough of a reason to take it. Not to mention the mushroom on its own is a relatively cheap supplement ($10 for a 100-count bottle). The hard thing to remember about Reishi is that as a hangover cure, it is intended to be taken right before going to bed with alcohol in your system. This is arguably the most difficult time to remember to do anything important ever, so I end up forgetting a lot. However, since there are no adverse effects even from taking lots of it, I think I’ll add Reishi to my arsenal of super-supplements to take daily.
Why does getting older make your hangovers worse?
I know it’s better to treat the cause, not the symptom, and while theoretically that means no drinking, let’s pretend that it was inevitable anyways. Sometimes it helps to look at the question from a different angle—what changed in my environment, rather than my body? Changing the question made me realize that nowadays, with an 8-5 day job, I get far fewer opportunities to sleep in than I used to. As much as we may not want to admit it, I think that sleep is a key factor in hangover recovery that can’t be ignored. Why does hanging out with a friend on a Tuesday night and knocking back 3 beers now have such a devastating effect the following day? One that 20 year old me would probably ridicule. I think the answer is far simpler than we want it to be. It’s because we can’t always sleep in till 10. If any of you have an 8 or 9-5 day job you probably have to be up by around 7am. Assuming you went to sleep at midnight, this gives your body 3 hours to sleep off the 3 beers, leaving you with 4 hours of quality sleep. This is most likely the unfortunate reality of why hangovers are so common.
Please share and thoughts and ideas—as well as your own hangover cure concoctions—in the comments below!