Hangover Kits

If you're a serious drinker, you need to have a hangover kit around the house. Hangover kits are somewhat like first aid kits, except they're meant to combat the specific effects of an alcohol-induced hangover. Put together post-binge preparations, so you don't have to wander around in an afterparty daze, trying to find ways to treat hangovers.

Hangover KitsI'll start with the materials and remedies you need in your hangover kit, then discuss exactly why each item is doing in the collection, and what you need to do with each one of them to relieve the symptoms of being hung over. Once you've kitted out your hangover treatments, put them somewhere easy to find in your house: inside the wet bar in your house, in your liquor closet or in a kitchen cabinet.

Mobile Hangover Kits

For those planning on going to a friend's house or out of town for a drinking binge, prepare a hangover kit and take it with you. Collect everything in an old backpack or overnight travel bag. You can place this in the trunk of your car or carry it along as you go. In either case, the backpack hangover kit won't raise eyebrows before a party, but you're going to look like a hero after the party, when you and all your friends are battling the effects of terrible hangovers.

What's in a Hangover Survival Kit?

Now that you know where your hangover survival kit goes on the road or at home, let's make out a list of what you need to have with you. Remember: you can never have enough water in a hangover survival kit.

Hangover Kit Items

Hangovers and Water

Water is essential to recovering from hangovers. A large part of the hangover effect has to do with the dehydration your body undergoes when drinking a lot of beer, wine and liquor. Alcohol contains ethanol, which naturally works to dehydrate the human body. Being hung over goes beyond the effects of ethanol, though.

When you drink, you are going to urinate a lot more than usual. This means you're losing a lot of body fluids, including a sizable portion of your body's water content. To get over a hangover, you need to get the alcohol out of your body and replace it with water. Drinking lots of water does both of those things.

Drink your water at room temperature. Cold liquids and warm liquids makes your stomach work harder than it otherwise would. When you have upset stomach from a hangover, give your stomach every break you can.

Aspirin or Ibuprofen

Hangover Survival KitTake an over-the-counter painkiller to combat hangover symptoms. In my experience, taking Advil works best. If you can remember to take 2 Advil pills before going to bed, that works better than taking two the next morning.

Painkillers tend to have a blood thinning effect, which reduces the kind of blood pressure that causes rampant headaches. Beside reducing the muscle pain caused from lack of water and magnesium, painkillers help alleviate the worst effects of hangovers: splitting headaches.

When taking painkillers to cure hangovers, avoid acetaminophen or Tylenol. Combining acetaminophen with alcohol is a good way to damage your liver. Avoid those remedies.

Tomato Juice - Orange Juice

Drinking tomato juice or orange juice not only replaces Vitamin C lost in your drinking episode, but it also replenishes a number of other much-needed nutrients.

Carbonated Drinks - Hangover Treatments

Carbonated drinks help ease an upset stomach, while giving you a quick burst of energy via caffeine and sugar. While it might sound excessive to suggest drinking water, tomato juice and a soda pop all at once, the idea is that each gives you something different. Each also contains a lot of water, so you're replacing lost water and rehydrating your body each way.

Also, upset stomachs sometimes won't hold down water. If that's the case, carbonated drinks tend to cure an upset stomach better.

Vitamin A - Vitamin B - Vitamin C

Another way to regain equilibrium in your body functions is to replenish nutrients through vitamins, especially vitamins A, B and C. A hangover happens when your body gets so much alcohol in the system, that it plays havoc with your natural body functions. Taking vitamins is all about restoring the balance in your body chemistry.

Banana - Hangover Remedies

Like taking vitamins the next day, eating a banana helps get something on your stomach, while replacing lost potassium and magnesium. Having something on your stomach helps your stomach out considerably, too.

Crackers - Hangover Remedies

While lightly toasted bread probably works better to help an upset stomach, packing crackers is easier to do with homeade hangover kits. Pack a few regular crackers, preferably with less salt, and eat a few in the morning. This puts something on your stomach.

Drink Responsibly

The best method of handling hangovers is preventing them by drinking in moderation. There is a law of diminishing returns when drinking beer, wine or spirits. At a point, you're not going to have more fun drinking more; in fact, you'll end up having less fun, if you end up with a hangover.

Avoiding a hangover is the best remedy. Try to have a stopping point. From experience, that's almost impossible when you get "far gone", but at least try to have that in the back of your mind. If that's too much to ask, at least consider drinking a glass of water or taking a couple of Advil, before you go to bed, after drinking.

Building a Hangover Kit

Hangover kits are better done in preparation for a big night out drinking, instead of after the fun of the big party. Preparing for hangovers is something any veteran drinker should do - otherwise, you're just a ranking amateur. Hangover kits take 5-10 minutes to fit out and requires only household items, but you and your friends are going to get a lot of use out of the hangover kits you prepare over the years.