Global cures to ease the pain of the morning after

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

It would be very wrong to encourage drinking to excess – partly because this is Rag Week/Mayo Monday/Donegal Tuesday or whatever you’ve having yourself, but mainly because some of us are no longer up to it or are given the opportunity – but, working on the basis that for every action there is a reaction, a good night out is followed by a grey morning after.

The curse of the hangover is the thing that results in you swearing that it’s never worth it, and that you’ll either give up the drink altogether or you’ll at least go easy on it – until the next night out comes round and you wipe the consequences from your conscience.

Some swear that you can imbibe any amount as long as you drink three or four pints of water before you go to bed; for most people that just means a night of unbroken sleep as you beat that well-trodden path to the toilet.

Others are evangelists for the power of Solpadeine, convinced that two of the fizzy little fellas in a big glass of water will miraculously undo the damage of the night before.

But in case you want to opt for a more traditional remedy, the good folk at our favourite Mental Floss website have come up with a list of historical hangover cures – some of them easier to get your hands on that others, but all guaranteed to ease the headache….or at the very least take your mind off it.

So let’s start with one hangover cure that you never knew you had in your house – your own sweat – and by licking this, no matter how pounding your head might be, you’re all set to face the day ahead.

Native American tribes call it ‘sweat swishing’ – and what you do is this.

You have yourself a workout the morning after, lick up the toxins that your body has expelled, and swish them around in your mouth. You have to spit it all out afterward, though, or it won’t work.

Either that, or the actual workout has cured your pain.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.