Hangover Treatment – What Are Your Options and How to Choose
A hangover is caused by overindulging in alcohol. It causes a range of unpleasant symptoms that are usually felt the morning after you drink alcohol. Mild hangover symptoms include body aches and headaches, heartburn, stomachache, and tiredness.
Severe hangover symptoms include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and increased sensitivity to light and sound. Fortunately, whether you have a mild hangover or a more severe one, here you will find some of the best cures for hangover.
DIY Methods
After a night of drinking, you may want to take “the hair of the dog” that bit you. In other words, you can have a drink or two in order to combat alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Both alcohol and some sedative prescription drugs like Valium can cause withdrawal symptoms because of the way they affect GABA receptors in your brain. However, you should understand that taking the hair of the dog keeps you in the cycle of consuming alcohol and then experiencing alcohol withdrawal.
Drinking fluids is important for fighting off the dehydration that alcohol causes. Diarrhea, nausea, sweating, and vomiting are signs of severe dehydration. You have probably noticed that you need to use the toilet more often when you are drinking alcohol. This is because there is a hormone called vasopressin that usually keeps your kidneys from overproducing urine, alcohol decreases these vasopressin effects.
Another thing that can help your hangover is to eat a carbohydrate-rich breakfast. Alcohol can make your blood sugar drop, so the headaches and tiredness you feel during a hangover might be caused partly because your brain is not receiving enough of the blood sugar it uses for energy. Furthermore, if you didn’t eat anything while you were drinking, your blood sugar might be even lower than it would be if you had eaten while you drank. Eating toast and drinking juice can help your blood glucose return to regular levels, and it is unlikely to upset your stomach further if you feel nauseous.
You can also pair your breakfast with caffeine-free tea. Caffeine has a mild-diuretic effect and may cause even more headaches.
Over the Counter Treatments
Taking a pain reliever other than Tylenol will help with some of the symptoms. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin and ibuprofen can ease headaches and body aches caused by a hangover. However, NSAIDs can upset your stomach, especially if you already aren’t feeling well. It is very important for you not to take acetaminophen (Tylenol). Acetaminophen can be toxic to your liver, and if there is any alcohol left in your system, this medication can become even more dangerous for the health of your liver.
A recent study has found that if you consume foods and drinks that are rich in B vitamins and zinc within 24 hours before or after you drink heavily, your hangover will be weaker than if you did not have higher levels of vitamin B and zinc. Vitamin B and zinc are also available as dietary supplements in capsule form, so you may want to try those if you can’t get these nutrients through food and drink.
A medication like Pepto Bismol or something similar can help settle your upset stomach. Antacids like Tums can treat heartburn and acid reflux.
Hangover IV Therapy
Intravenous (IV) therapy treatments can also help you recover from a hangover. At Drip Hydration, our hangover IV treatment contains IV fluids, electrolytes, and B-complex vitamins, including vitamin B12, Toradol, and anti-nausea medication. The iv fluids and electrolytes work to replenish the fluids you lost. The B-complex vitamins enhance your energy levels. Toradol is an NSAID medication that will reduce inflammation and pain. Anti-nausea medication relieves nausea and thereby reduces vomiting.
Our hangover IV therapy combines several of the treatments we have talked about. It tackles dehydration like water and sports drinks, manages pain as NSAIDs do, delivers important B vitamins like a supplement tablet, and calms nausea-like Pepto Bismol.
However, IV therapy benefits these remedies much faster than its oral counterparts. This is a more significant advantage than you might realize. The faster these remedies can take effect, the better. You don’t want to prolong your hangover misery. IV treatment works faster than oral remedies because the contents of the IV bag go directly into your bloodstream and begin working right away, whereas anything ingested by mouth must go through your digestive system before it can start to take effect, and it can take hours for something to pass through your digestive system.
We offer at-home IV therapy. This will save you time and money because instead of having to commute to and from a clinic and wait for your appointment, you can have your treatment administered by a trained professional in the comfort and privacy of your home.
How do I know which is Right for Me?
Choosing the right remedy for your hangover depends mostly on the severity of it. If your hangover is mild, drinking some water and taking aspirin might be all you really need.
However, if you are severely dehydrated and/or experiencing nausea and vomiting (which are both signs of being very dehydrated), you will not likely be able to keep anything down, rendering any oral remedies useless. IV therapy is ideal in that situation because you do not need to ingest anything orally. As previously stated, IV treatment works much faster than oral remedies because it bypasses your digestive system. This is especially important because you need to get your hydration levels back up quickly when you are so dehydrated that you can avoid more serious health complications.
Another advantage of IV therapy is that you do not need to drive anywhere to get treated. Needless to say, you cannot drive if you still have alcohol in your system, and you won’t want to drive if you are dealing with nausea and vomiting.
At-Home Hangover IV Treatment with Drip Hydration
Drip Hydration offers mobile IV therapy in the comfort of your home. Once you book your appointment, a certified nurse will come to your desired location and administer the treatment, which usually takes less than an hour.
During this time, you can do anything you’d like, such as relax under a warm blanket or watch TV. Drip Hydration will also go to hotels, worksites, or other locations upon request.
Convenience at its peak! If you want to learn more about our essential Hangover IV ingredients, then click the button below.
Hangover IV - Frequently Asked Questions
What is included in our hangover IV?
Our Hangover IV treatment contains a blend of IV fluids, electrolytes, vitamins and medication to restore the vitamins in your body and help your body battle with the unwanted hangover symptoms. Among the main ingredients are B-Complex vitamins, Vitamin B12, Toradol and Anti-Nausea medication.
Why is hangover IV much more effective than hangover drinks?
Hangover IV is more effective than hangover drinks because the IV solution is introduced directly into your blood without having to go through the digestive system which is already overloaded. This means you will feel the effects much faster and feel much better very quickly.
How long does it take for our Hangover IV to start working?
It usually takes between 30-60 minutes for you to feel the benefits of our Hangover IV drip.
What are the levels of hangover severity?
IV therapy in general is FDA approved. Our nurses are overseen by our Medical Director, Abe Malkin, and every nurse is registered and certified per state standards.
How long does it take for our nurses to arrive at your location?
Usually it takes anywhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours of booking an IV treatment for our nurse to arrive at your location.
How do electrolytes help with hangovers?
When you drink alcohol you get dehydrated and deplete your electrolyte stores in your body. By replenishing your electrolytes you rehydrate your body and this helps you fight the symptoms of the hangover.
Why are anti-inflammatory medications included?
Anti-inflammatory medications are used to diminish the inflammation in the body which is caused by the alcohol. When the inflammation is taken care of, your headache and muscle ache will start to fade.
How long does our Hangover IV treatment last?
It takes anywhere between 30 and 60 minutes for our hangover IV treatment to be fully done and for you to feel the effects and get relief from the hangover symptoms.
What are the levels of hangover severity?
There are 4 levels of hangover severity including: No hangover symptoms, Mild hangover symptoms, Moderate hangover symptoms and Severe hangover symptoms.
How does a Hangover IV therapy stack versus other at home remedies?
- Showers - cold showers MAY help ease your hangover symptoms but a Hangover IV Therapy WILL improve your symptoms within 30-60 minutes.
- Orally taken vitamins - Orally taken vitamins will help you with some hangover symptoms but it will take much longer because they have to be digested first.
- Orally taken medications - Orally taken medication can help you with some symptoms but they won’t tackle all of them. This medication also needs to pass through the digestive system so it takes a bit longer than our Hangover IV.
- Food - Food high in carbohydrates can help with some of the fatigue and headaches when you have a hangover but it takes some time to be digested and introduced into your blood.
- Drinks - drinking water and sport drinks rich with electrolytes will help you recover from your hangover but it takes a lot longer than getting all the right nutrients directly into your bloodstream.
