Cure your ‘babalaas’

According to www.babalaas.com, a hangover is the dehydration and Vitamin A, B and C depletion in the body caused by the chemical action of alcohol on your system.

The symptoms are usually a dry mouth, nausea, fatigue, dizziness and headache and are caused by a combination of these factors.

Apart from the obvious toxic effects, you should realise you’re suffering the effects of a mild overdose of a depressant drug and your nerves are reacting accordingly.

You have also flushed a significant quantity of vitamins and nutrients from your system causing a degree of metabolic shock that your body is struggling to compensate against.

This is why hangover symptoms often include disorientation and ‘the jitters’.

The best cure is obviously not to drink or go overboard and avoid the situation entirely, but some people find it next to impossible to avoid, especially over the festive season.

So if you have gone too far the previous night and you are now feeling the after-effects, here are a few tricks.

• Berocca – puts the vitamin B back in, as well as the big glass of water it’s mixed with. It’s probably best to do this before you go out.

• Coke – fizz for the nausea, liquid for the dehydration, and a caffeine and sugar hit to make you feel a bit more lively.

• Coffee – same as Coke but without the bubbles to help ease the nausea. Try it with honey instead of sugar since the fructose is absorbed quicker than the sucrose in normal sugar, plus it’s healthier.

• Marmite or Bovril on toast – something in your stomach is good, and salty is even better, plus you get a Vitamin B top-up.

• Cold pizza – who knows? but it seems to work.

• Asprin – simply attends to the headache and does nothing for the level of alcohol in your system, don’t take them before you go to bed.

• Bananas – sugar in the form of fructose, and potassium, which is one of the things you lose lots of when you drink.

• Vitamin C – another thing the alcohol takes out that you’re advised to put back in as soon as possible.

• A hot bath – the heat will sweat out the toxins that are causing all the problems, you’ll feel better afterwards.

Here is a hangover concoction:

Poor Man’s Bloody Mary

• 145ml tomato juice

• 85ml light beer

• Salt

• Pepper

• Lots of lime juice

• Dash of Tabasco sauce.