Hangovers hurt. You may not remember the night before, but you never forget the morning after. But can they be avoided or cured?
The transition from prince to frog brought on by one too many was first scrutinized in ancient Greece, as indeed were remedies for the condition. The usual cure — I advise hungover readers to skip the next line — was boiled cabbage, whose pungent aroma, and powerful flavor were believed to restore the senses of the most ardent Epicurean. The poet Amphis reckoned the medicine to be worse than the ailment, and suggested that it relied on its emetic qualities for its effect.
Another classical hangover remedy we might find more familiar: sleep it off. Indolence was believed to be the defining characteristic of the habitual drinker, who turned day into night and vice versa. But if you need your days, and hate cabbage, what then?
One might turn to the example of Squire Mad Jack Mytton, a 19th century eccentric and inebriate who spent his entire adult life drunk, and thus, technically, avoided hangovers. Sadly, his passion for the bottle killed him at the ripe old age of 38, “a worn-out debauchee and drivelling sot.”
A watered-down version of the Mytton therapy is to have a single drink as soon as you wake up — the so-called hair of the dog treatment. The saying dates to the time of Shakespeare, when the lexicographer Randle Cotgrave observed: “our Ale-knights often use this phrase, and say ‘give us a hair of the dog that last bit us.’” If the thought of another drink is less appealing than a mouthful of cabbage, one might follow the example of John Wilmot, earl of Rochester, libertine par excellence, who swore by sex as a hangover cure. Unfortunately, its efficacy cannot be judged from his example: Rochester only made it to 33 when a combination of syphilis and drinking took him to his grave, his youth and his wealth “blazed out … in lavish voluptuousness.
The Original Pick-Me-Up has a number of modern rivals including RU-21, formulated by Soviet scientists during the Cold War to keep their secret agents on their toes. Such magic bullets aside, however, the best treatment for a hangover is to drink water. Alcohol is a powerful diuretic, so plenty of Adam’s Ale before, during and after a binge will limit the pain and the damage.
(via nytimes.com)
Happy New Year!
