Hangover Vitamins

Hangover vitamins can be found near the cash register of just about any convenience store you walk into these days. It's like the owners of gas stations assume a large part of their customer base are heavy drinkers in need of a hangover cure. Vendors must sell big amounts of these hangover remedy pills, or else they wouldn't put them in such a promiment location in the store.

Hangover VitaminsBut I'm asked all the time if a hangover vitamin can actually cure symptoms of a hangover. Each after-alcohol pill has its own chemical properties, so we'll look at the underlying scientific reasons the designers of these vitamins use to claim they work, and whether those claims hold up to examination.

Hangover Chaser

We've had a full article on "Chaser Hangover Pills", so I'll try to be brief in this examination. Hangover Chaser uses calcium carbonate and trace charcoal to absorb congeners in alcohol, which (according to Chaser marketers and others) are the main source of toxins that cause hangovers. Congeners are part of the fermentation process, and give alcohol its flavor, smell and color.

I'm not convinced that Chaser blocks congeners effectively enough to cure a hangover. In fact, I think most of the effect of taking Hangover Chaser tablets is that you drink a glass of water along with them. If your take Chaser and a glass of water before drinking, then Chaser plus water 6 drinks into drinking alcohol, then a Chaser and glass of water at the end of the night, and finally a Chaser and glass of water the first thing the next morning, you've ended up drinking 4 glasses of water.

Since alcohol causes your body to dry out or dehydrate, and dehydration causes a number of the problems associated with hangovers, drinking those 4 glasses of water should help mitigate the effects of hangovers. The lesson here is to drink lots of water.

Berocca Hangover Vitamins

Berocca was once manufactured by a Swiss company, but Bayer's now handles worldwide manufacturing of Berocca. Berocca pills contain vitamin C and a combination of vitamins from the vitamin B group. Also added to Berocca are zinc, calcium and magnesium. All of this sounds promising.

When you are so drunk that you're taking to the hospital from drinking, the first thing doctors do is give you a shot of vitamin B-12, which helps blood formation, the metabolism of every cell in the body, as well as the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system. So taking vitamin-B group should help.

Beyond that, Vitamin C and magnesium are lost when you drink too much, so helping your replenish these vitamins is good, too.

Active Ingredients of Berocca

Taking Berocca is a healthy thing to do, about like taking a multivitamin. Whether taking Berocca as a "hangover vitamin" works is another matter entirely - at least as a hangover cure. Berocca taken beforehand should make you more resistant to certain hangover effects, while Berocca taken after you have a hangover might help you recover quicker. Berocca doesn't block hangovers or make you immune to hangover effects.

Ginseng Hangover Vitamins

Ginseng is another hangover vitamin you'll see used, especially if you are having trouble regaining strength and vitality. People drink cups of coffee to recover from hangovers, but caffeine is a diuretic, and therefore tends to dehydrate the body. Since the dehydration caused by excessive alcohol consumption is one of the main reasons for hangovers, taking something that makes you more dehydrated probably isn't a good idea.

In these cases, some people replace caffeine or coffee with ginseng pills. Ginseng has been known to increase energy and vitality in humans for thousands of years in China and Korea, where the ginseng plant is native to. In recent years, ginseng has been a major ingredient of energy drinks.

The problem with ginseng is that it's been known to cause inability to sleep, high blood pressure, diarrhea, nausea and mania in certain patients, taking ginseng might not be a good idea with a hangover, if you're already experiencing any of those symptoms. I would suggest you use ginseng in an non-hangover state first, to see whether the herb has any effects on you. If not, taking ginseng might help you re-energize, but it also might hurt your ability to get rest or rehydrate, which are probably the two most important ways to get over a hangover.

All in all, ginseng wouldn't be the first hangover pill I would take.

Milk Thistle Vitamins

Our final type of hangover vitamin we'll discuss today is a pill made with milk thistle extract. We've discussed this one our page called "Milk Thistle Hangover", so I'll only cover milk thistle briefly in this article.

Milk thistle is a seed extract from a plant found in Middle Eastern, North African and South European countries. Milk thistle extract has been used to treat liver ailments since the Roman Empire era, so there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that milk thistle pills should help hangovers and other liver-related illnesses.

Scientific study has shown that milk thistle pills increase resistance of liver cells to toxins found in alcohol. Taking milk thistle vitamins before drinking should increase your body's ability to resist toxins found in ethanol, a key ingredient of alcohol. This isn't going to help you directly with headaches and nauseu, but it should help these indirectly, by helping you resist the alcohol poisoning your liver.

Anti Hangovers Vitamin

Anti Hangovers VitaminAnti hangover vitamins should not be look at as a cure for hangovers. Hangover vitamins should be looked at as one of a series of measures you can take to prevent hangovers. Prevention is more effective than post-hangover treatments, however much of a buzzkill that sounds like.

My prescription to prevent hangovers include a big meal before drinking, to soak up alcohol and help your body metabolize the alcohol slower. Along with this, drink a lot of water, to prevent severe dehydration. Take a handful of hangover vitamins, if you think you need it, including Berocca and Milk Thistle pills. Add in a few glasses of water throughout the night, along with 2 aspirins and a glass of water when you go to bed. If you really want to be careful, sleep sitting up, to avoid bad headaches the next day.

All the while, avoid binging too hard, because when you have a certain number of drinks, there's a law of diminishing returns, and you'll enjoy yourself less, instead of more. That's hard to do, once you start drinking alcohol, and it may not sound like as much fun as just letting go. But if you're concerned enough about hangovers to search for hangover vitamins, and you're the type who doesn't mind taking your vitamins, take that next step and keep your head about you, when you're drinking.