1WineDude :: Serious wine talk for the not-so-serious drinker!: safe drinking levels

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Save a Prayer for The Morning After on 12seconds.tv
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It's that time of year again.

The time of year when websites far & wide gather together in solidarity to take part in the time-honored tradition of posting Holiday Hangover cures.

And not a moment too soon.

If you're like me, the stress of the holidays, combined with the outpouring of good emotion when getting together with loved ones and friends during the season, invariably leads to some drinking.

Rather than contribute to the cornucopia of hangover advice that will inundate your throbbing skulls this holiday season, I thought that I'd run through some examples of the sage advice and let you know what works - and what doesn't work - for the Dude's hangovers. This is based solely on my own experience, and is not intended as a warranty of any kind, expressed or implied. Your mileage, as they say, my vary...

Let us take a list from the self-help site Lifehackery.com, from their post 9 Ways to Deal With a Hangover. For the purpose of making my post more humorous, I've combined and condensed the list into 7 methods, and added my own two to start. So we're back to nine hangover-related items, just not the same nine as on Lifehackery.com though all nine from Lifehackery.com are actually included. Got it? No? Crap. Oh well, let's get started anyway.

9 Methods for Dealing with a Hangover - What Works, and What FAILS

Abstinence

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is really and truly only one surefire way to prevent a hangover, and that is to Abstain from drinking alcohol, or at least to drink in moderation. If you're like me, this may start out as a well-intentioned option during the holidays, but the road to Hangover Hell is paved with the puke of the well-intentioned holiday party-goer...

Dude's experience: RECOMMENDED (but unlikely).
Hydration

Most hangover symptoms are caused by dehydration. So, logically, drinking oodles of water to hydrate yourself when drinking alcohol will, in theory, help to prevent your hangover. This is really only effective when combined with a) relatively moderate consumption (of the booze, not the water) and b) maintaining adequate mental capacity to remember to drink oodles of water while you're drinking your oodles of wine. Whoops!

Dude's experience: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Sports Drinks & Fruit

Fast-forward to the dreaded morning after your revelry. The theory behind these suggestions is that they a) help to hydrate you more quickly than water alone, and b) contain Vitamin C, both of which may help to decrease the length and amplitude of your hangover pain curve.

The problem is that they also typically contain a relatively high acidic content - good luck keeping that down when you're nursing a fragile hangover stomach.

Dude's experience: NOT RECOMMENDED
Sleep/Puke

Sure, sleep will help, and it has the added benefit of delaying a possible awkward meetup with the person that hooked up with the previous evening. You're just not likely to get enough of it. Personally, I find it very, very difficult to sleep once the alcohol starts to leave my system (note: additional alcohol intake to promote further sleep is NOT recommended here).

You might feel better when you yak, but when I toss the cookies, it lays me out and I'm useless for the next 30 hours or so. Not everyone feels better when they puke - some people actually feel worse.

Dude's experience: USE CAUTION
Swim / Cold Shower Hmm... uhmmm.... riiiiight. I suppose that hypothermic shock would make you forget about your hangover for awhile. This so-called advice feels more like the prank of sick and twisted miscreant. Bottom line is that if someone recommended this "remedy" to me, and I was insane enough to actually try it, once I recovered I would hunt that person down and kick the living crap out of them.

Dude's experience: NFW. EPIC, EPIC FAIL!
Sweat / Urinate

People, this works. First, you need to ensure that you get water into your lame hungover self pronto after waking up. More water will help you flush out the nasty stuff in your system (like ethanol!) that is fueling your hangover. Additionally, moderate exercise (don't overdo it there, Hercules!) can help get you moving, get your blood flowing, and get your sweat carrying off some of that nasty stuff as well. Just don't forget the water!

Dude's experience: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Hot & Spicy Food

You need to be careful with this one, but I've found that it does, indeed, help to mitigate the effects of a hangover. Hot food - in terms of temperature and spice, will promote sweating, which will help to flush out your system. Go for a hot & spicy soup for bonus points, since that combo will also help to rehydrate you.

Dude's experience: RECOMMENDED (just not first thing the monring!)
Baking Soda

Apparently, mixing Baking Soda with water and drinking it is purported to help ease a hangover. I've got no idea if the science behind this is sound - or even if there is any science behind it. I just know that baking soda seems like something I would NOT want to be tasting when I'm nauseous.

Dude's experience: UNTESTED (but NOT recommended)
Magnesium

Magnesium is a migraine treatment, and therefore consuming foods high in magnesium might help to mitigate your hangover headache (assuming you're not too nauseous to eat, that is). Veggies, nuts, and some teas are good sources. I haven't tried this one myself, but I like veggies, nuts, and tea so I'm going to go ahead and recommend it - at least it's good for your diet if not your hangover!

Dude's experience: RECOMMENDED

Here's wishing you a happy (and hangover free) holiday time!

Cheers!
(images: 1WineDude.com, joemonster.org, sororitysecrets.com)

Read the full article...

(images: brainboomer.com, jamieq.blogspot.com)

I work in two professions - Wine Consulting and Playing Rock Music - that pretty much guarantee that I am in close proximity to alcohol (and its potential abuse) a good portion of the time.

I love to drink. Specifically, I love to savor excellent wine (and beer), and admire the nuances, flavors, aromas, and overall artistic craftsmanship that a good drink can deliver. Most of all, I love sharing that experience with others. Wine connects us to a particular place and time, and connects us with each other - not just the place, time, and people that made it, but also the place, time and people with whom we enjoy it when we pop the cork.

And once in a blue moon, I like to overdo it a bit. Because getting buzzed with friends is, well, it's just plain fun.

Notice I wrote "once in a blue moon" and not "every weekend." In the rock-&-roll context of my life, I've seen first-hand what alcohol abuse can do to individuals, families, and even total strangers that come into unfortunate (and sometimes, in the case of drunk driving, catastrophic and tragic) contact with an abuser.

Genetics and personality traits are very important in determining anyone's individual predilection towards abuse of alcohol, but it doesn't help that cultural, and peer pressures (at least in the U.S. and the U.K.) tend to ridicule the appreciation of wine as snobbish, while at the same time aggrandizing inebriation as the height of fun in a social context.

That approach is completely ass-backward. I don't have any pithy humorous sayings on that topic. It's just so sad, stupid, and heartbreaking that I can't make it funny and still respect myself.

Alcohol-related liver diseases (which are notoriously difficult to diagnose until they are advanced) have been on the rise in countries like Britain for years. Whether you drink or not, the rising abuse of alcohol (in the U.S. or the U.K. for example) is expensive for taxpayers and health insurance recipients who all help to fund health care systems that are having trouble keeping up without breaking their banks.

I'm not the first person to touch on how these dangers impact those of us in the wine consulting biz (check out this great series in Men's Vogue for an example). But I thought I'd add to the on-line discussion by listing the tips that have helped me (so far) to successfully navigate the waters of wine appreciation while minimizing the damage to my liver (and my relationships)...

Abuse Is NOT 'One-Size-Fits-All.' Safe levels of drinking can only ever be approximate. While you may read that having 2 drinks per day is the safe average level of consumption for someone of your weight and gender, these generalized figures don't take into account your race, family history, or personality type. You can't treat these as hard-and-fast rules - your safe levels may differ.

All Things In Moderation. If 2 drinks per day is a safe limit for you, that doesn't mean that abstaining from drinking for one week means that you can safely consume 14 drinks over the weekend. If you are unsure if your current alcohol consumption levels are safe, consult alcoholism.about.com (or, better yet, talk to your doctor).

Treat Professional Settings Professionally. I've written before about the perils of industry tastings, so I won't repeat all of that advice here. Bear in mind that just because free alcohol is available to you doesn't mean that you are obligated to drink it. When you're at industry tastings, don't forget to spit, and don't use it as an excuse to catch up on drinking that you think you've "missed out on" in the past.

Don't Punish Yourself. If you're not an abuser, drinking too much once in a long while shouldn't upset you (unless it's caused you to do something that you regret). Nobody's perfect. Just make a mental note to improve the next time. If needed, ask your friends for support. (If you are an abuser, or concerned that you might be headed in that direction, then falling off the wagon is a big deal and might need the help of a professional).

Never, Ever, Under Any Circumstances Drink & Drive. This one should be obvious but amazingly I still know people who do this. This is never, ever safe under any circumstances. If you suspect that you're going to have more than your normally safe level of alcohol, get someone else to drive - no excuses.

Cheers!