Hang Over

Last friday it was my birthday. To celebrate surviving another of our earths rotations around the sun I traveled to the far off city of York. By far my favourite city in the UK despite the distance. One of the many many reasons I love this city is that pubs and more importantly varied ale is plentiful. So on the afternoon of March 27th I started drinking. I got absolutely riddled. This obviously led to a hangover.

The key symptoms of a hangover(at least for me) are - Headache, Photo-Sensitivity, Nausea, lethargy and Weakness. And in my a rather bizzare desire for a pint of hot, thick gravy. Most of this can be explained by the simple fact alcohol is a diuretic, it causes you to urinate. This means you are losing water......in this case lots of water. When you are dehydrated you get a headache, you're blood pressure drops which also explains feeling weak and lethargic. The Nausea is a combination of the Ph effects of alcohol and the dehydration.

In a perfect world I would hook myself up to an IV of saline, or even better something with a few electrolytes in to reverse the effects of the dehydration. I would also take a Proton Pump Inhibitor(PPI) to settle my stomach Ph. PPI's are commonly given to people high risk for gastric ulcers, usually because they are on a medication which can errode the gastric lining(asprin and ibruprofren are key offenders here).

As I had none of this on me I considered taking an approach I have used with a moderate amount of success in the past. A good seven hours sleep and about a pint of black coffee so strong the spoon dissolves. However in the name of science what I tried was something my fiance recommended, being from yorkshire stock and having been a student I believed she was a leading mind on the subject of hangovers. So I drank a bottle of Iron Bru. Honestly I cant explain why it worked so well or so quickly outside of suggested witchcraft. Its clearly designed to rehydrate and boost electrolytes. But I was feeling absolutely fine five minutes after drinking it. It Was a miracle!

So I was wondering dear readers. What do you do for a hangover? How well does it work?


I thought I might start ending my posts with a bit of information on what I am up to -
Reading: Terry Pratchett - Last Continent.
Listening To: Bad Company - Bad Company, Mark Knopfler - Sailing to Philidelphia.
Watching: Poldark.
Drinking: The Aforementioned Black Coffee.
Eating: Nothing I'm in a Diet.

I should mention that none of the above should be used to try and estimate my age. :P I'm only 23. I just have taste.