Rx for holiday hangovers

It is easy to overindulge during the holiday season. You can eat until your stomach bloats or carol until you get a sore throat. Or, you can shop until you literally drop. Many of us do go too far — and then comes the morning after. But don’t despair. Here are some tips on how to manage almost every imaginable holiday hangover.

You’re Stressed To The Max

Your least-favorite relative insisted on a holiday visit this year. As usual, she’s critical of your Christmas décor. She doesn’t like the food. She insists on going shopping during the rush-hour period. And she drives you insane with remarks such as how she would have done this and that thing differently. After two days, you’re exhausted, and you can almost feel the steam coming out of your ears.

Yes, you have a stress hangover. Stress hormones sweeping through your body can make you restless, anxious, and unable to sleep, says Herbert Benson, MD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Here’s the hangover help you need: Take a walk. Exercise can help the stress hormones beat a hasty retreat, Benson says. Distract yourself. Do something you enjoy. Even 30 minutes of gardening, painting, or reading can lighten your mood and help you cope. Let it out. Jot down your feelings in a journal or talk to a trusted relative or friend about what you’re going through. Look for my column of Dec. 11, 2007.  You’ll learn how to wipe away stress effectively.

You Ate The Whole Thing

Pritchon, ham, queso de bola, pate, brazo de Mercedes. It was your neighbor’s holiday shindig and you didn’t want to insult her by not trying everything — at least once. Now you feel bloated, nauseated, and disgusted. “It’s the ultimate yuck feeling,” says Cindy Yoshida, MD, a gastroenterologist who is the author of No More Digestive Problems. “Higher-fat foods empty a lot more slowly from the stomach,” she says, which means part of last night’s meal might still be with you today. 

Here’s the hangover help you need: Give your tummy a break. Don’t eat until you’re hungry. “And then have smaller meals that are relatively low in calories and fat, and high in fiber for the rest of the day,” Yoshida says. This will stimulate your gastrointestinal tract and get things moving. Rehydrate early and often. Not only will fluids help re-balance your body’s salt-to-water ratio, which fights bloating, but “they also empty from the stomach better than solids do,” Yoshida explains. Mellow out with mint. A peppermint lozenge or peppermint tea can increase gastric emptying, which will relieve pain, Yoshida says. (If you have heartburn, skip the peppermint. Take an antacid instead.)

You Hoisted One Too Many

A glass of your favorite pinot noir seemed like the perfect way to celebrate the season. But that second bottle probably wasn’t such a good idea. Now you have a classic hangover: headache, nausea, fatigue, and shakiness. Otherwise known as veisalgia, these symptoms are the result of dehydration (because alcohol impairs the kidney’s ability to hold onto fluids), poor sleep (because alcohol alters the levels of certain neurotransmitters, causing brain cells to be hyperexcitable), and inflammation (because the impurities in most alcoholic drinks lead to an inflammatory response that produces flu-like symptoms like achy muscles), says hangover researcher Jeffrey Wiese, MD, of Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.

Here’s the hangover help you need: Sleep in or take a nap. “It may help to try to get a couple of extra hours of sleep in the morning,” Wiese says. “Every additional hour you can get will help you recover.” Sip right. Replenishing fluids is important. Sports drinks, which contain essential nutrients, are best, followed by juices, and then water, Wiese says. “The more you can drink, the better, since it will help the hangover go away faster.” Start before you go to sleep. Take vitamins. Popping 50 to 100 mg of thiamine or B1 and 10 mg of B6 per day may make up for deficits and ease hangover symptoms, says Bankole Johnson, MD, of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Keep taking for a couple of days to restore the losses caused by overindulgence. Relieve pain. It’s fine to take ibuprofen to reduce aches and underlying inflammation, Wiese says. You can even take it at bedtime. But “stay away from acetaminophen,” he adds, “because it won’t help with inflammation and can damage the liver if used with alcohol.”

You Went A Little Wild

Who has time for bedroom gymnastics when you’ve got a gazillion gifts to buy? Certainly not you . . . until last night, that is, when you and your spouse caught Julia Roberts and Jude Law in Closer on cable. By the flick’s end, you were so charged up you had the best sex of your life. You’re not too sorry — except it’s uncomfortable even to sit down this morning. Just one night of passion can cause tiny tears in the entrance to the vagina, says David E. Soper, MD, a professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. And if you’re running to the bathroom every 30 seconds and it burns when you pee, you have the typical symptoms of “honeymoon cystitis.”

Here’s the hangover help you need: Baby your bottom. A warm bath or cool compresses can be soothing; afterwards, pat the area dry. Also, wear loose cotton clothes to avoid friction. Call for help. If you’ve got a peeing problem, phone your doctor and describe your symptoms. Your physician will probably prescribe a course of antibiotics and perhaps an oral painkiller (such as Pyridium) that relieves urinary tract pain, Soper says. Avoid irritants. Don’t put creams or even strong soap on your vagina, Soper says. They’ll dry you out, which can make tiny cracks in the skin worse.

You Talked Too Much

Maybe you led the caroling at the office bash, or stayed up all night gabbing with your brothers and sisters in this one time in the year that you are together. But today? You are hoarse, and even a whisper is painful. That’s your vocal cords — red, irritated, and swollen — telling you they’re overused, says C. Richard Stasney, MD, director of the Texas Voice Center and an associate professor of Otolaryngology at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Here’s the hangover help you need: Shhh. Ideally, rest your voice for a day or two. But even a few hours will help, Stasney says. Drink up. If people were smoking at the party and you were downing wine, you’re probably dehydrated, and your vocal cords may be irritated. Consume two quarts of water during the day to rehydrate your body and lubricate your pipes. Soothe the soreness. A steaming bowl of chicken soup will pamper your vocal cords. Or, gently gargle for two minutes with a solution of six ounces of warm, distilled water mixed with one-half teaspoon of salt, one-half teaspoon of baking soda, and one-half teaspoon of light corn syrup; this strange-but-potent combo may help stimulate mucus flow in your dry throat. Or, there’s always the reliable salabat.

You’re Running On Empty

A wee-hours party blitz is sure to cheat you out of a major shut-eye. You’ll wake up feeling foggy, groggy, and totally unprepared to tackle your to-do list. “If you sleep only four hours a night, you’ll perform as well as if you’re legally drunk,” says Joyce Walsleben, PhD, a sleep expert at the New York University School of Medicine and co-author of A Woman’s Guide to Sleep. Lack of sleep can also curb your ability to fight off infections.

Here’s the hangover help you need: Lighten up. The morning after, sit near a sun-drenched window or take a walk in the sun for 20 minutes; the light promotes alertness by turning off your body’s production of melatonin, which makes you sleepy. Take a nap. “A 10- to 20-minute nap helps you collect sleep and revive your performance level,” Walsleben says. Caffeinate. Have a cup about 20 minutes before you want your performance to kick into high gear. Eat lightly. Stick to small meals of complex carbohydrates (vegetables, fruits, whole grains) and lean protein. Avoid turkey, dairy, fish, and peanuts; they have an amino acid (tryptophan) that makes you sleepy.

As for me, I intend to stay awake and rent the movie Closer as soon as I can.