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Curing the New Year's Party Hangover Pt 1 – Water the Ultimate Elixir

27/02/2012 By Peter Brooks

It’s that time of year again. The venues and restaurants of cities and towns up and down the country are buzzing with the merriment and laughter of New Years Eve parties. At Office Water Coolers we’re certainly no strangers to getting out of the office and having some festive fun with our staff during the Christmas period. Good food, good drink and good company is what this time of year is all about after all. But I’m sure a lot of you reading this are no strangers to getting swept up in all that festive New Years excitement and having just a few too many festive tipples.

Yes it’s hangover season and as a multitude of office workers shuffle to work after a heavy night at the office party we thought we thought we’d let you into a little secret. You see, at Office Water Coolers, water is our business so it’s also our business to tell you all about water. And what a magical elixir this life giving substance is, especially when it comes to hampering that hangover!

Alcohol is a diuretic, which means it takes water from your body leaving you dehydrated, which in turn causes headaches, the most common symptom of a heavy night drinking. Other symptoms can include nausea, sensitivity to light and noise, lethargy, dysphoria, diarrhea and thirst but these vary greatly from person to person with around 25% of (lucky) people experiencing very limited effects from excessive alcohol consumption.

Firstly and foremost it must be said that the ultimate cure for hangovers is not drinking as much alcohol in the first place. Embarrassing recollections of the night before aside, your body doesn’t like being given lots of alcohol and treats it as a poison. It’s probably best therefore not to poison it in the first place. Having said that we all get a little carried away so having a secret weapon to mitigate the effects is always a blessing. And believe us when we say water is without doubt the best weapon in your armoury for fighting off a hangover.

Here are Office Water Coolers four golden rules for hangover prevention:

Drink water before you go out

It might seem an obvious one but being dehydrated before you even start drinking is never going to help so make sure you remain hydrated throughout the day. This is something you should do regardless of whether you’re drinking or not.

Drink water whilst you’re out

The rule of thumb here is to drink about 6oz of water for each alcoholic beverage consumed. This isn’t always feasible in the excitement of festivities when the drinks are flowing but the general advice is to take on board water regularly throughout the evening.

Drink water before you go to bed

Described by many people as the magic bullet for killing off the hangover. Drinking a pint of water before you go to bed and making sure you have a full pint to rehydrate if you wake up in the night or first thing the next day, is an extremely effective way of staving off the worst effects of a night on the booze.

Drink Water when you wake up

And so you’ve woken up and the hangover hits you. Not much you can do about it now you may think. Well that’s not entirely true. Despite the numerous hangover cures and remedies espoused by gurus over the years, water is without doubt the best method for rehydrating and speeding up your recovery from the dreaded Christmas hangover.

In the next part we’ll be looking at some other ways of combating the festive hangover and dispelling some myths. Until then, have a great new years eve!

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