Don't feel like a dog the day after

The 9 p.m. New Year’s Eve party. The midnight ball drop. The 8 a.m. hangover.

Is the third one always inevitable?

Well, the best way to avoid the problem is to not drink at all the night before. But if you’re going to ring in 2012 with alcohol, there are ways to minimize the pain, according to experts.

Hangovers are characterized by a not-too-welcome concoction of fatigue, thirst and headache. They can cause problems such as short attention spans, depression and increased blood pressure.

Although humans have been consuming alcohol for 10,000 years, hangovers are poorly understood and understudied, said Dr. Paul Aravich, a neuroscientist and professor of pathology and anatomy at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk.

How hangovers happen isn’t clear, but there are theories: Liquor stimulates a class of chemicals in our bodies known as inflammatory cytokines – some of the same chemicals incited by the flu virus, which explains the similar sensations of fatigue and achiness.

Alcohol also contains compounds known as “congeners,” which give distinctive flavors and colorings to drinks. The darker the drink, the more congeners it contains.

Mixing different types of drinks mixes different types of congeners, and that is thought to make hangovers worse, Aravich said.

So what can we do to avoid the morning-after blahs?

the night before

Be aware of what you’re drinking Twelves ounces of beer, 8 ounces of malt liquor, 5 ounces of wine and a 1.5-ounce shot of whiskey all contain the same amount of alcohol. That’s the important part – the amount of alcohol you consume.

Age matters, and not just for being ID’ed The younger you are, the better your body can handle alcohol. People over 65 should drink no more than one drink a day, Aravich said.

Help your body deal with what you’re putting in it Eat food and drink water to slow the absorption of alcohol and to promote its processing. Also, down no more than one drink an hour because the body takes about 60 minutes to clear one drink.

Don’t mix different types of alcohol That’s the advice of Dennis McCloskey, owner of BarMasters Bartending School in Virginia Beach. For example, if you start with wine, stick with wine. Mixing liquors and liqueurs can be a bad combo, too. And before going to bed, McCloskey suggests drinking a couple glasses of water.

Remember this rule of thumb The darker the drink, the greater the hangover.

Don’t laugh at the friend who passes out Alcohol overdoses and deaths occur when too much alcohol is consumed too quickly, Aravich said, so don’t treat a passed-out friend lightly.

the morning after

Here’s what doesn’t help Coffee, cold showers and exercise do NOT speed up the removal of alcohol from your body, Aravich said.

Here’s what might work McCloskey said he’s heard that consuming vitamin B-complex or chamomile tea with ginger can calm hangover symptoms. He’s also been told that a particular brew – boiling a 2-inch piece of ginger root in three cups of water for about five minutes and drinking it alone or mixed in tea – works well.

Don’t drink more Neither Aravich nor McCloskey agree with the “hair-of-the-dog” theory, which calls for chugging more alcohol in the morning. “Using the hair of the dog that bit you to protect against rabies was an old wives’ tale just as using the ‘hair of the dog’ for a hangover is a wives’ tale,” Aravich said. “Consuming extra alcohol during a hangover simply adds to the ongoing toxicity.”

Denise Watson Batts, (757) 446-2504, denise.batts@pilotonline.com