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Hangover

Almost everyone you know seems to have a sure fire theory about how to have a big night out and still avoid the dreaded hangover. Some just don’t add up while others can leave you feeling even worse. Here are 10 hangover myths debunked and some facts which will leave you feeling a little better the morning after!

Myth 1: Aspirin or ibuprofen while you drink can allay the headache

• FACT: Aspirin while you drink or after a hangover is a strict no-no. Asprin increases acid secretion in the stomach and does nothing to help eliminate alcohol from the body. On the contrary, aspirin was found to increase blood alcohol levels by 26% when taken before drinking. This was found in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
• Ibuprofen while you are drinking is also not advised as it may increase the risk of liver damage when combined with large amounts of alcohol.
• TIP: Ibuprofen the next day – about an hour before you need to be functional – will help.

Myth 2: Wine does not give a hangover, vodka does

• FACT: No, in fact, red wine can leave you with more of a hangover than vodka. It’s all got to do with something known as ‘congeners’ that are present in the alcohol. Congeners are toxic substances in the alcohol, and when you drink, these toxins are dispersed through your system. The level of congeners varies between different beverages. More expensive alcohol contains fewer congeners, as it undergoes a more rigorous distillation process and filters out a higher percentage.
• Dark colored drinks, such as brandy, whiskey and red wine, have more congeners than clear drinks such as gin, vodka, and white wine. So red wine can actually leave you with a hangover that is as bad as, or possibly worse than, a hangover from vodka.
• The British Medical Journal did tests that showed drinking bourbon whiskey is twice as likely to cause a hangover than the same amount of vodka.
• TIP: Stick to wine, beer or clear alchohol drinks in moderation

Myth 3: Beer before liquor – never sicker

• FACT: There’s nothing about the chemistry of these drinks interacting with each other that makes you sick the next day. What tends to happen is that once you start drinking beer your reluctance to drink more disappears and when you move onto the ‘harder’ stuff you are likely to drink faster.
• TIP: Sticking to beer means that you don’t get drunk as quickly due to the lower alcohol content. But ultimately, it’s the amount you drink and your pace that will determine how you feel, not the order in which you do it.

Myth 4: Not to worry ladies, a hangover won’t hit you that hard

• FACT: With an equal quantity of drinks, alcohol is likely to leave a woman twice as tipsy as her male partner. The constitution of a woman’s body, typically lower body weight with lesser water content and more fat, makes her more susceptible to getting drunk than a man.
• Besides increased alcohol absorption, men have higher levels of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which allows guys to metabolize alcohol better.
• TIP: Ladies – know your limits – there’s no need to keep up with your male counterparts.

Myth 5: Drinking helps get over stress and helps you sleep.

• FACT: If you are drinking to relieve stress or get sleep, think again. If the amount of alcohol in your blood is high, the brain is unable to enter the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep, which is the relaxed state. Ultimately, you sleep all night and often all day to beat your headache, albeit without giving your mind and body the rest you really wanted.
• TIP: Rather than drinking to relieve stress try excercise or techniques like yoga and meditation. See the section on insomnia for more advice.

MYTH 6: I can sober up quickly if I need to

• FACT: If you think that taking a shower and drinking 5 cups of coffee will help you sober up – think again. The only thing your body needs is time — depending on your weight, it takes about three hours to eliminate every two drink you’ve had that night. All these techniques are likely to do is create a cold and alert drunk, the experts say.
• TIP: If you are set for a big night try and make sure there’s nothing that can arise that will need clear thinking, either during the night or the following day.

Myth 7: Drink lots of water the morning after

• FACT: While it’s certinly true that drinking water the next day will help, it’s more important to drink water while you are drinking and before your hangover sets in. Alcohol dehydrates your body by being flushed out along with water in the form of urine. This water has to be replenished. If you don’t drink water while drinking alcohol, your body will use the water needed by other vital organs, including the brain. This is one reason why you experience headaches.
• TIP: Try to match a glass of water for every couple of alcoholic drinks.

Myth 8: Eat before you go to sleep

• FACT: Well, actually, it’s better you eat before you drink rather than before going to sleep. After a meal the food in your stomach slows the absorption of alcohol in the bloodstream. And strangely, fried foods go well with drinking because fatty foods stay for a longer time on the stomach lining. If you are busy digesting a steak your body has time to process the alchohol and byproducts, thereby helping to prevent a hangover. So drink slowly and on a full stomach.
• TIP: Make sure you have a good meal prior to your night out.

Myth 9: Eat light after an hangover

• FACT: More than eating light, it’s important to eat the right foods that will rehydrate and energize you. Some examples are eggs, fruit juices and bananas. Apart from proteins, eggs contain large amounts of cysteine, the substance that breaks down the hangover-causing toxin acetaldehyde. Therefore, eggs can help cleanse your body off alcohol. It’s also a good idea to eat bananas in the morning after a night of heavy drinking – they not only provide lost electrolytes, but, more importantly, replenish the potassium lost because of alcohol’s diuretic (producing urine) properties. Other potassium rich foods or sports drinks are also good alternatives.
• TIP: Make sure you have the ingredients for a healthy breakfast the morning after. Boiled eggs, a banana and fruit juice are a great option.

Myth 10: Hair of the dog

• FACT: Don’t believe the folklore remedy that drinking more alcohol will cure your hangover. All the ‘hair of the dog’ will do is delay your hangover into later on in the day. More alcoholic drinks will only boost the existing toxicity of the alcohol already in your body, and according to research, may lead to further drinking.
• TIP: Just don’t do it! The best morning after drink would be a Gatorade to replace lost electrolytes and water.

So get out there and have some fun, but remember to eat well, drink lots of water and avoid those painkillers while you are drinking.

One of the main complaints I hear from women these days is that the men in their lives seem so insecure and unsure of themselves. “He just doesn’t seem like the man I married,” one woman told me. “He seems to have lost all confidence in himself. He’s depressed and withdrawn a lot of the time.” Another woman said, “I never know what he’s going to be like when I come home. I’m always walking on egg-shells. It seems like the least little thing will set him off.  Why is he so insecure?”

There are two things women need to understand about men and their levels of security and confidence in themselves. The first (and many women know or suspect this) is that men are inherently less grounded than women. Biologically and psychologically they are more vulnerable than women. Secondly, there are significant changes going on in society today that add to men’s basic insecurity.

Both of these types of insecurity are captured in the following quote by anthropologist Margaret Mead.

“Men have always been afraid that women could get along without them.”

Males are psychologically and biologically more vulnerable than females and hence more insecure

From the moment of conception males are more fragile and vulnerable than females. Male fetuses die more often than female. So do male newborns. So do male infants. So do male adolescents. So do male adults. So do old men. Think about, at every stage of life, males die more often than females.

The male fetus is at greater risk of death or damage from almost all the obstetric catastrophes that can happen before birth.  Perinatal brain damage, cerebral palsy, congenital deformities of the genitarlia and limbs, premature birth, and stillbirth are all commoner in boys than girls.  By the time a boy is born he is on average developmentally some weeks behind his sister.  A newborn girl is the physiological equivalent of a 4 to 6 week old boy.  No wonder we’re insecure.

Did your mother-in-law give you an incredibly ugly sweater?
Or a co-worker gift you with a hideous pair of earrings?

We’ve all been stuck with gifts that weren’t our taste and wondered what to do with them.Regardless of how you choose to handle the ugly gift, remember that taste is highly subjective and the giver probably thought the orange metallic handbag was just fabulous when it was purchased. If you keep that in mind, you can handle even the most heinous fashion gifts with ease.

Here are a few suggestions for dealing with clothing and accessories that don’t match your taste:

1) Thank the giver for the gift, whether you love it or not. The real gift is the that the giver spent time and money thinking about you (however bad their taste).

2) If the ugly gift is clothing, you can always say it doesn’t fit just right (which isn’t a lie, almost nothing fits perfectly without alterations). It’s perfectly acceptable to ask for a receipt to exchange the clothing for something else based on fit.

3) Who is the gift from? If children or grandparents give you something that doesn’t exactly fit your style, the sentimental value of the gift alone makes it worth keeping. It won’t kill you to don that teddy bear sweatshirt once in a while to keep your kids happy.

4) If you receive a gift you hate from someone who doesn’t live nearby, you can always ask them “Wow, where did you get this purple patchwork sweater?” If they tell you the name of the store and it’s nearby, you can try to exchange it for something you like since it’s unlikely they’ll ever see you wear it.

5) Don’t regift the ugly item. That just makes things worse because you are giving something you don’t like to someone you do. If you want to redistribute the ugly gift, give it to charity.

6) Remember that no matter how you ask to return or exchange the ugly gift (even if you use a valid excuse like fit) you’ll shake the gift-giver’s confidence. The person who bought the gift thought he or she made a good choice, only to discover it wasn’t right. Is it really worth the trouble and hurt feelings just because hot pink isn’t your best color?