Revelers toasting to the holidays can't
count on drugs or herbal concoctions to cure their hangovers,
British researchers report.
"No compelling evidence exists to suggest that any conventional
or complementary intervention is effective for preventing
or treating alcohol hangover," concludes a team led by
Max Pittler, a research fellow in Complementary Medicine
at Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exeter and
Plymouth.
Their less-than-inspiring advice? Practice either abstinence
or moderation when the glasses are being filled.
A second study may provide some help with moderation:
It found that people tend to consume a smaller amount
of liquor from tall, skinny glasses than from short, squat
ones -- even when the two receptacles are designed to
hold the same amount of liquid.
Both reports appear in the Dec. 24/31 issue of the British
Medical Journal.
In the first study, Pittler's team gathered data from
eight trials that looked at medical treatment for preventing
or treating hangovers.
The trials tested eight different agents: propranolol
(an antihypertensive drug), tropisetron (a drug for nausea
and vertigo), tolfenamic acid (a painkiller), fructose
or glucose sugars, and the dietary supplements borage,
artichoke, prickly pear.
Most of these trials found no beneficial effects for
these agents on hangover, although borage, a yeast-based
preparation, and tolfenamic acid did show some benefit.
Drinking may be fun for a while, but it comes with a
price that may be unavoidable, one expert said.
"The supply of folklore remedies for hangover is virtually
limitless," said Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention
Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine.
"The best way to contend with hangover is not to get one,
by practicing abstinence or moderation."
However, many rational approaches to avoiding or reversing
hangover have simply not been formally tested, Katz said.
"There is some evidence that dehydration is part of the
hangover syndrome, so drinking plenty of non-alcoholic
beverages, particularly water, before, during and after
a holiday indulgence may help."
"In addition, spacing out alcohol consumption will allow
your body's enzymes a better chance to keep up, and likely
reduce toxic side effects," Katz said. "A simple strategy
to accomplish both is to alternate alcoholic beverages
with something like seltzer."
Another study in the same journal finds the shape of
the glass helps determine the size of the drink.
A research team led by Brian Wansink, chairman of marketing
and applied economics at Cornell University, and his colleagues
found that people pour 20 percent to 30 percent more alcohol
into short, wide glasses than they do into tall, narrow
ones of the same volume.
However, they believe that tall glasses hold more, Wansink
said. Even professional bartenders pour more into short,
wide glasses than into highball glasses, they found.
"If a person wants to limit how much they consume, it's
better if you pour into a tall, skinny glass," Wansink
said. "If as a host you want to limit what people drink,
you better use tall, skinny glasses. You will be less
likely to pour too much," he added.
