Have a Holly, Jolly Hangover

Now I know being hungover isn't technically a disease or a medical condition, but since we're smack in the middle of hangover season—think office parties, spiked eggnog and that killer champagne on New Year's Eve—I thought I'd give the hangover a little attention. After all, even if you're not a member of the 99 Bottles of Beer club at your local pub, you've likely woken up at least once in your lifetime feeling like you've got a vice on your head and a hamster running on a wheel in your stomach. And chances are that happened around this time of year.

Down in Mexico, my hangover country of choice, menudo is more than just the name of Ricky Martin's former boy band. It's also a soup made from tripe that's supposed to be one heckuva hangover cure. Personally, the thought of eating cow stomach lining has never much appealed to my senses, so I prefer to get my cure in the form of baby Gatorade, also known as Pedialyte. That feeling of having a small barge crashing through your frontal lobe is usually caused by dehydration, and Pedialyte has more electrolytes than most other sports drinks.

Through our amazingly scientific research (Google searching), we have found that the only true hangover cures are water, sleep and prevention (don't get drunk). But the comments section on a recent post for the New York Times blog, Proof:Alcohol and the American Life, offers some very innovative suggestions. One poster suggests the impossible feat of somehow setting your alarm to go off an hour before you're supposed to really wake up so that you can take an aspirin and drink a glass of water. Another writer offers up a recipe of beer, raw egg and Tabasco sauce.

Do you have any surefire cures you'd like to share to help us get through this holiday season?
—Joy Hepp