Some of the measures to avoid a hangover are best employed before you start drinking. These include eating a healthy meal and drinking water. You should avoid drinking large amounts of cheap liquor and choose lighter beverages if you will be drinking a substantial amount. It is also best to abstain from mixing beverages and from drinking more than you can handle.
Before you begin drinking, you should eat a full and healthy meal. Having food in your stomach can prove to be a major benefit in several ways. As drinking alcohol tends to strip your body of nutrients, eating a healthy meal will allow you to ensure that you have an adequate supply to help restore what is lost. Food will also help to absorb the alcohol, which prevents your body from absorbing as much at such a rapid pace. If you are drinking over an extended period of time, you should also have another meal or periodically have some type of snack food.
Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it also strips your body of water. Dehydration is the cause of some of the symptoms of a hangover. You can fight against these undesirable effects by being well hydrated before you start drinking. During the period while you are consuming alcohol, you should continue drinking water.
Being selective about what you drink can also help you to avoid a hangover. Consuming large amounts of dark beverages generally poses more of a risk of a hangover than drinking the same amount of a lighter beverage, unless you are comparing an expensive dark beverage to a cheap light beverage. Cheap liquor also increases the risk of unwanted symptoms the morning after you drink. Considering that, it is best opt against heavy consumption of cheap liquor. It is also best to avoid mixing different alcoholic beverages, especially if you do not know how your body will tolerate the combination.
You may also be able to avoid a hangover by choosing not to mix drugs and drinking. Many medications specify that alcohol should not be consumed with them. Others may not specify this, but there still may be a possibility that you will experience side effects. You definitely want to avoid mixing the two substances if the drugs are not yours and they are being distributed for recreational use.
The most obvious means to avoid a hangover is to limit the amount that you drink. Medical authorities commonly claim that the body processes about one alcoholic beverage per hour, though the exact amount may vary from person to person. This means that spending hours rapidly chugging one drink after another will result in you having an abundant supply of alcohol in your system that your body cannot readily get rid of. One way to limit your alcohol consumption is to have non-alcoholic beverages, ideally water, during the course of time while you are drinking.