By now, we are well into cocktails and canapes season. The usual year-end revelry and merrymaking would mean that you would need to navigate your calendar of parties to make sure that you’re dressed in your sparkliest best, your choice of gifts is always on point and you’re not hitting the champagne too hard that you roll into work looking like a car wreck.
Still, it’s a downer to have to sip on the same cocktail glass all night while mentally reminding yourself to go slow and avoid a hangover.
Fortunately for you, we’ve got some cures that you should be checking out. In our bid to help you let your hair down and stay fresh the next morning, we’ve rounded up some hangover cures and put them all to the test.
While we advocate drinking in moderation and understanding that different people react differently to these cures, we went ahead and did some of the legwork for you, so you can enter your next party confident that you’re going to survive and thrive in the post-party experience.
Read on and find out which hangover cures worked (and which didn’t), and thank us later.
Every good test always requires control factors. This unchanging set of variables then allows the tester to get a better read on the results. For the entirety of the testing period, this Alcohol Einstein stuck to three glasses of Whispering Angel’s rosé wine, which had a 13% alcohol level. I’m told this is Adele’s favourite wine during the pandemic.
(Side note: the wine was totally #notsponsored, so call it my civic duty to our readers in having to buy bottle after bottle of wine just to ensure I had enough to test all the different hangover cures.)
Here’s how the test worked: cures were administered per the instructions they came with – some before drinking and some after – and the tester would consume three standard glasses of wine. Three may not seem like a lot, but for a person with a low alcohol tolerance like myself, it was enough to have me swaying. Don’t judge.
Now, on to the cures.
What is it: DrinkAid is a local company that aims to help drinkers combat common alcohol-induced symptoms such as the “Asian flush”, nausea, and the heavy-headed feeling the morning after a heavy round of drinks. The science behind it is that the pills are formulated to break down acetaldehyde – a toxic by-product that your body produces when it digests alcohol.
Dosage: 1 capsule before drinking, and 1 capsule after drinking.
What we thought: I’d say this was one of the more effective cures in the mix. I definitely did not turn as red as quickly as I normally did, so that’s a win. The redness did catch on towards the end of Glass #2, but that’s a very delayed onset in comparison to me usually turning red after three sips. The next morning, I didn’t feel any headaches or fatigue either. I’d rate this 8/10.
What is it: On Bounceback’s site, they list a couple of benefits, of which some include helping improve liver health and boosting one’s alcoholic metabolism rate. Of course, they point out that one of the key benefits is in alleviating the post-alcohol recovery process (read: hangovers).
Dosage: 2 capsules before drinking, and 2 capsules after drinking.
What we thought: I really liked this one, to be honest. I didn’t get red at all, and the next day I woke up feeling fine and perfectly ready for a big work presentation. Perhaps the only gripe – if I had to really nitpick – is that it is recommended to be taken after food due to the formulation incorporating ingredients like vitamin C, which can be slightly acidic and sensitive to those with stomach issues. I’d rate this 8.5/10.
What is it: These bright blue capsules are touted to “come to your rescue after a crazy night out on the town, leaving your body rejuvenated and ready to thrive”. It uses key actives like milk thistle and vitamin B1 to help fend off alcohol damage whilst maintaining liver health.
Dosage: 2 capsules before drinking. If you’re drinking heavily, continue with 2 capsules every few hours.
What we thought: I have good and bad news. Here’s the bad news first: I did wake up with a slight heaviness in my head. The good news? Knowing how bad my hangovers can be, this was a very very low-grade hangover and I was completely functional at work. I’d rate this 6.5/10.
What is it: Here, we leave the realm of science and venture into the weird world of “crowd-sourced hangover cures” (a.k.a cures that I got after sending out a mass WhatsApp message to friends). The first one basically said to drink lemonade. The idea behind it is that vitamin C should help give your system the jolt it needs to rise out of bed.
Dosage: 2 tall glasses of lemonade, before anything else. “Even before brushing teeth”, read the reply message.
What we thought: Did I think this was going to work? No. Did it work? No, duh. I had a heavy, throbbing sensation in my head which rendered me useless for the rest of the Saturday morning and afternoon. So much for trying to be productive and hitting the spin studio for a morning ride. And sure, I didn’t have pure lemonade (who has time to squeeze a bunch of lemons the morning after?!), so I settled for this lemon-flavored vitamin water. It didn’t work. I’d rate this 3.5/10.
What is it: Another suggestion I got – and one of the more plausible ones – was to rehydrate myself with litres of water (makes sense, since alcohol dehydrates the body), then pop 2 Panadol pills (also makes sense, since it helps with the headache), and finally drink a bottle of sports drink (makes sense as well, since it replenishes…stuff).
Dosage: 2 litres of water, 2 Panadol pills, 1 bottle of sports drink.
What we thought: My hangover arrived right on schedule so I followed the instructions. I’ll be honest, I only did 1 litre of water before I felt like I was morphing into a water balloon. Right after, I took an hour-long nap, but when I woke up, I felt heaps better than before. I’d rate this 5/10.
What is it: Yet another sensible suggestion from a sensible friend. This one essentially told me to crush up Panadol and dissolve it alongside a Berocca in a glass of lemon-flavored sparkling water.
Dosage: 1 Panadol pill crushed and dissolved with a Berocca tablet, in a tall glass of sparkling water.
What we thought: I had questions, obviously. Why 1 Panadol tablet when the recommended adult dosage is usually 2? Why did it have to be crushed up? Does the sparkling water need to be specifically lemon? And why sparkling water?
When I replied with these innocent questions, I just got a very curt reply telling me “don’t ask so much, just do it”. Turns out, this wasn’t half-bad either. The fatigue and lethargy definitely faded off faster than usual thanks to the Berocca, and the Panadol helped assuage the headache – though I still stick by my guns and recommend 2 pills over one, just so your aching muscles have some respite. I’d rate this 5/10.
What is it: They say soup nourishes the soul, right? Perhaps why one friend told me to go get pho the next morning.
Dosage: 1 big, piping hot bowl of pho in your preferred topping. Apparently, the “science” of this cure didn’t pay attention to whether beef, seafood or chicken worked best. Oh well.
What we thought: Okay, this was a struggle. Whoever thought telling a hungover person to leave bed, put on clothes, and walk to the nearby pho shop is obviously delusional. Nevertheless, I had my partner drag my tired self out of the comfort of our bed and bring me to the Vietnamese restaurant around the corner. Was the pho good? Yes, but no prizes for guessing if it helped or not (answer: it didn’t). I’d rate this 2/10.
What is it: Of course, I got some weird solutions. This was perhaps the least strange one I got, which I felt was still doable. The instructions are simple: crack an egg into a glass of cola and chug.
Dosage: 1 egg, and 1 Coca-Cola.
What we thought: There is a happy ending here, but I wouldn’t know because I gagged non-stop trying to down the rancid concoction before expelling it out into the sink. The gag reflex does have a great effect in instantly waking you up though, so I’d say it wasn’t a total disaster. (I’m also reviewing my friendship with the person who sent me this because I feel like I’ve been pranked.) I’d rate this 1/10.