Tips to prevent Hangover

New Year's Eve is just around the corner. And if you plan to ring in 2001 with a snazzy outfit, confetti and bottles of booze, be prepared for the holiday hangover.

Ah, yes…that annual tradition: the throbbing head; the rank, pasty taste in your mouth; the nausea; the feeling that death would be preferable to opening your eyes and getting out of bed.

It's not a pleasant thought. But if that doesn't stop you from sipping too much champagne, here's a quick refresher course on the hangover and what you can do to recover from one.

Alcohol ingestion can produce toxic metabolites. The alcohol is broken down by the body by different enzymes, and depends on other substances called cytochrome P450, which are actually responsible for metabolizing the ethanol that is ingested.

Different people have different quantities of the enzymes than can break down alcohol. Those levels depend on factors like gender and race. For example, women have less than men do, and Japanese men are very sensitive to small quantities of alcohol, says Newman.

Many of the symptoms of a hangover are associated with dehydration and reduced blood sugar levels. However, there's also an inflammatory reaction that's created by not just the alcohol, but the impurities that come along with the alcohol. Those impurities are called the congeners.

Studies have suggested the difference between feeling a little under the weather and feeling like your body is a nuclear testing ground is largely related to this inflammatory reaction.

Congener levels vary in different alcohols, with clear, odorless, virtually tasteless vodka having very little. However, liquors like brandy, whisky and cognac have high congener levels.

Roughly six to eight hours after you've had your last drink and you're suffering through your hangover, your blood alcohol level is probably 0. But that doesn't mean you aren't impaired, experts say.

There are many both cognitive and physical functions that a person can't perform very well when they have a hangover. You may blow 0 on a Breathalyzer test, but good luck passing a driving or flying test.

Skiers will have a two to fourfold increased risk of having a major accident if they're hung over.

And anyone who's gone to work the morning after too much drink can tell you simple occupational and managerial tasks are significantly impaired by a hangover. It's not as benign as people would tend to think.

It may explain the popularity of folk remedies guaranteed to soothe that aching head and calm that churning stomach. In Mexico, suffering drinkers swear by boiled tripe. The Irish down corned beef and cabbage for breakfast after a night of too much Guinness.

The Finns prefer whole salted herring with a little warm vodka, while yogurt and two cloves of garlic is the cure of choice in Turkey. Koreans recommend alder-and-licorice tea. And hungover residents of Quebec head for the nearest poutine stand for a helping of French fries, meat gravy and cheese curds.

Will it help? After the fact, probably not.

The most common -- and best -- advice is to drink a lot of water and eat while you're drinking. That decreases the amount of intoxication, and will decrease the amount of hangover. And the morning after, your best bet is to keep drinking water and use aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen to reduce headaches.

But if you want to avoid a hangover altogether, there's one guaranteed method: The only way is to not drink, or not drink excessively.

What To Do

If you're going to drink, don't get behind the wheel. Arrange to travel with a designated driver, sleep over or take a cab home.

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