How to Get Over a Wine Hangover

So, the Drink Local Wine – Missouri conference has been over for a while now and I’ve been giving a lot of thought to my response.  At the very least, I want to cover the highs and lows of the conference, the spits and the swallows (is that a thing?) and the laughts and the tears, but I did want some time to gain perspective.  I wanted to make sure that my thoughts about Missouri wine were well thought out and not simply riding the emotion of great food, great wine, and good times.

However, before that, I submit the following Public Service Annoucement.

Tips for Getting Over a Wine Hangover

May the record reflect that at a wine conference, there is a lot wine.  In fact, it’s about as hard as anything I’ve ever done to keep a wine glass empty for more than a few seconds.  Believe me, I tried.

Also, for the record let me say that I’ve had beer hangovers, tequilla hangovers, whiskey hangovers, and now wine hangovers.  That wine hangover was over and above, far and away, the worst hangover I’ve ever had.  Bar none.  Hands down.  Certainly, that first night at the conference was far from the drunkest I’ve ever been, but the hangover was bad.  I’m guessing it was the sulfites.

Here’s how to get those nasty things out of your system:

1.  Drink lots of water before you go to bed.  This makes sense for a hangover of any variety, but in a wine hangover, the water will help flush the system.  That’s a good thing.

2.  Take a shower when you get up.  Standing under the hot water and letting it work out some of the knots in my shoulder made me feel better, and as the muscles unknotted, it made sure all the junk in my system was flowing as freely as possible.  (That is a thing…massage therapists have their clients drink water all the time because knots trap bad bodily chemicals.)

3.  Avoid orange juice.  When I have a beer hangover, all I want is OJ.  It’s liquid + vitamins, which is the double whammy of hangover recovery.  Maybe it’s the sulfites again or the sulfites + the citric acid, but my tummy wasn’t having any.  Ice water was the rule of the day for the first hour.  Once I felt a little hydrated, I was able to move to OJ.

4.  Bagel.  Plain.  Putting something easy to digest (processed carbs) into my stomach helped calm it and allow me to drink OJ faster, learn more about carbs in wine.

5.  Sit.  Inactivity kept the head from moving quickly.  No head movement = less headache.

6.  Ibuprofen.  As soon as I took it, my eyes stopped pulsing in time with the speakers.  That was good.

Eventually, I came around and was my old sweet self again…right in time for lunch.  Yay.  More easy-to-digest food and orange juice.

So, I highly recommend my six step system.  And if that doesn’t work, go to a wine tasting where you have to consume like 42 wines in 4 hours.  There’s nothing a hangover loves more than alcohol!

Thanks to pasukaru76 for the picture.

Enjoy!