Cures for holiday hangovers

Myth or reality?

Hair of the Dog: Drinking a little of what ails you actually cures you
MYTH This approach is often promoted by more seasoned drinkers as the way to ease a pounding headache. Just drown it with a little more alcohol, a "cure" commonly known as "hair of the dog." I read that Ernest Hemingway, a legendary drinker, liked to down a tonic of tomato juice and beer after a night on the town. This might be just a thin justification for continuing the party one more day. Or is there some merit to Hemingway's hair of the dog philosophy? "None," says Dr. Peter Selby, an addictions expert and the clinical director of the addictions program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. "After a night of heavy drinking, you still have alcohol in your system when you wake up. Morning drinking just delays hangovers."

Always drink on a full stomach. Keeping well nourished and well hydrated throughout the evening is a good idea, says Selby. Matt Gowan, a naturopathic doctor, also supports this strategy. "Increased urine output when you drink leads to loss of water and electrolytes," says Gowan, who has a practice in Toronto. "Drinking a lot of alcohol will also irritate the stomach, so eating complex carbohydrates, protein and some 'good' fat will help protect it."

"There's a fixed rate at which you can metabolize alcohol, so you have to work with your body," says Selby. Your body can only break down a limited amount (one standard drink) of alcohol each hour. When you drink, your kidneys want to purge the toxin so they increase urine production, resulting in dehydration. "Drinking water will help replace the fluid lost from your system because your kidney function is affected by the hormones altered by drinking." And it will help prevent dehydration.

Women can't handle alcohol as well as men
FACT If you don't want to wake up looking like Faye Dunaway's haggard alcoholic character in the movie Barfly, you need to take a few precautions, says Selby. First of all, women feel the effects of alcohol more dramatically. They cannot tolerate as much intake and have a different body-fat-to-water distribution than men, which means they experience an increased concentration of alcohol in each drink. So women shouldn't even try to match male cohorts drink-per-drink. Women also have fewer digestive enzymes and can't break down the alcohol as readily, which means they feel the effects of one drink more strongly than men. Both Selby and Gowan concur that hormones are a factor when you drink, so if you're premenstrual, don't overindulge. Your hormones are peaking at that time, which means you're more prone to experiencing severe nausea with a hangover, and menstrual symptoms are more pronounced.

As for long-term health effects, women are also more prone to liver disease and breast cancer if they consume more than a moderate intake. (Moderate intake is one standard drink per day for women and two for men. A standard drink is equal to 142 mL/5 oz of wine, 341 mL/12 oz of regular-strength beer or 42.6 mL/1.5 oz of spirits.)