Home Remedies for Hangovers

You may wonder why we dedicate some of this site to home remedies and cures for hangovers? Quite simply because we know we've all been there. We've all woken up with a rotten hangover, feeling terrible with no real vitamin drinks, no alcohol detox and nothing to provide hangover relief.

Or at least that's how it seems. Maybe we think there's nothing in the cupboard that we know of that helps a hangover? You may have the right ingredients there, you just need to know about it.

The best recommendation we can give is combining one, two or even three of these natural remedies. For example, drinking fruit juice and eating a bacon and egg sandwich would counter several of your hangover symptoms simultaneously.

Here are our tried and tested top ten home remedies for those hangovers that happen when nothing seems to be there for you.

1. Fruit Juice Zap

You lose lots of liquid as alcohol's a diuretic (which means it increases the rate at which your body expels liquid, which explains your visits to the restroom) and also because alcohol consumption depletes your body's natural reserves of vitamins and minerals. Go for an organic fruit juice if you can, a combination of several different fruits such as cranberry, blueberry, kiwi, banana, mango, passion fruit. Orange and pineapple could be fine if you have already eaten, but avoid them on an empty stomach as they may be acidic.

But if you can't get your hands on a smoothie (and don't have the patience to make one) follow the tips on the Fruit List page here.

Go here for the full drinks chart.

2. Food

Having some simple, starch based food will help to relieve your hungover state by boosting the sugar level in your blood and bringing back that 'human' feeling again. You may even feel like singing another Human League song afterwards.

Eating starch based food will help you even more if part of the cause of your hangover is to do with you not eating enough the previous night, in which case you'll feel particularly slow and lacking in energy. Many people report that eating brings them back to life after a heavy night.

Obviously, we realise that on occasions, your hangover will be too severe to eat anything, in which case we can recommend either staying in bed and sleeping or drinking water, combined with other home remedies such as exercising or taking a hot bath.

Otherwise, read about our food remedies for hangovers.

3. Exercise and fresh air

The only drawback is that a bad headache from drinking hangover-inducing drinks, such as rum, tequila, low quality red wine or brandy may still stay, even after sweating out lots of alcohol. In this case you may need to try rehydrating yourself more by drinking plenty of liquids and eating recommended food.

Please note, we don't necessarily recommend you doing excessively vigorous exercise when feeling hungover, we just say it works for some people. Maybe it's too much for you, depending on your state and your natural fitness levels. This technique is more used by people who already do sport and are in relatively good shape.

Other people prefer a brisk walk where the air is fresh or perhaps a game of golf which has the added benefit of distracting you by the game you are playing. Fresh air is far better for you - we all know how a hangover can appear to be less severe in the countryside.

4. Hot shower or bath

Others find that a very hot shower is just as effective, especially when the jet of water is directed on the back of the neck. The muscles around the neck and head can contribute to tension and headaches which can be relieved by hot water, which relaxes the muscles and improves blood flow.

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