Extreme remedies for an everyday headache XANTHE CLAY

Shaughnessy Bishop-stall has spent 10 years searching for a hangover cure that really works, but was it a doomed quest?

Most of us know the feeling: the headache, the dry mouth, the vague sense of regret, the craving for pickled onion flavour Monster Munch. And with the party of the year on its way, come Tuesday morning there will probably be plenty of sore heads experiencing it all over again. Yes, it’s hangover season. And while many of us might prefer to forget, a new book on the subject of the hangover by Canadian writer Shaughnessy Bishop-stall, pictured right, tackles the subject head on.

The book, Hungover, is the story of Bishop-stall’s 10-year study of the subject, one he researched so thoroughly that he developed an allergic-style reaction to alcohol. Technically called alcohol flush reaction, he named it Drunkzilla.

When I spoke to Bishop-stall on the phone from his native Toronto, he sounded surprisingly perky, but then it was only Thursday. “There is something very curious about our resistance to see hangovers as curable,” he mused. “It seems people believe we can do almost anything with science except cure a hangover.”

We British have a stiff upper lip when it comes to hangovers, said Bishop-stall. “You’re supposed to not let on regarding how awful you feel. It’s the opposite of Japanese culture where it is considered rude not to publicly display your hangover the night after a party, otherwise your host will think you didn’t have a good enough time.”

So is there a cure for a hangover? Bishop-stall tried driving fast cars, freezing “polar bear” swims, jumping from a 850ft building and even piloting a fighter jet in a bid to banish the booze blues after nights of meticulously recorded overindulgence. Isn’t all this laddish behaviour just glorifying binge drinking? Bishop-stall’s prose style is as smooth as a fine malt whisky (he teaches writing at the University of Toronto, so no surprises there) and there’s a charmingly hangdog approach to his drunken exploits. And Bishop-stall does sound a little shame-faced discussing his work, admitting that “the original versions of the book were darker”, but adding: “As the book progresses, in the last few dozen pages it does become more of a cautionary tale.”

Certainly the aftermath of sampling a cure once sold door to door by chimney sweeps – soot, which Bishop-stall mixed with eggnog – is very far from glamorous. He finally developed his own hangover “remedy”: a blend of B vitamins, a plant called milk thistle, frankincense (an anti-inflammatory) and N-acetylcysteine, a substance used to treat drug overdoses.

None of these is a staple in my bathroom cabinet. So I asked Twitter for its advice on home cures – “asking for a friend?” replied one, pertly – and the suggestions ranged from tripe soup, to pickled cabbage juice, with fizzy drinks, hair of the dog, bacon and, yes, pickled onion flavour Monster Munch featuring highly. It seems that comfort food and anything that can wake up jaded taste buds are all worth a go.

Time for some medical advice. According to Dr Graham Lennox, clinical lead for neurology at Oxford University Hospitals, “the neurology view is that hangovers are a sort of migraine”, which fits with the parallel symptoms including headache, nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light. Dr Lennox developed a sensitivity to alcohol in later life, whereby even tiny amounts result in a bout of Irish flu, a condition he describes ruefully as “getting a hangover without even trying”.

Among the culprits are “congeners”, by-products of the fermentation process that are generally in higher quantities in darker booze – so brandy, red wine and rum have more than gin, vodka and white wine, with beer somewhere in the middle. Sticking to paler booze may be a good plan, as is looking for better quality alcohol. “Most people know hangovers are more likely to be triggered by cheap red wine than a good vintage red wine… I often say to patients buy twice as expensive and drink half as much.” In the end though, while other components, including congeners, are relevant, ultimately it’s the alcohol that is the trigger. Lennox emphasises: “The best way to avoid a hangover is to not drink.”

What about the so-called hangover remedies that are on the market? If you watched the latest series of The Apprentice, you’ll know from Daniel’s ill-fated bid to tempt Lord Sugar with his Hangover Killer that in the UK brands are not allowed to claim to cure the symptoms of a heavy night’s drinking. But there are several that subtly imply that they may be helpful, and they mostly include ingredients like milk thistle extract, taurine, and ginseng.

All of this should be taken with a pinch of salt and a couple of paracetamol. Taurine, a component in energy drink Red Bull, has been shown in studies on rats to prevent and even reverse liver damage, although this doesn’t mean it works the same way in humans. Milk thistle, an ancient cure with the active ingredient silibinin, is listed in Germany (where herbal remedies are regulated) for the treatment of liver damage, although it’s not clear if swigging the odd hangover-killertype concoction will do any good. Small studies in South Korea suggest that ginseng helps with hangover symptoms, perhaps by aiding us to metabolise the booze efficiently, but there is nothing conclusive.

A more drastic “cure” is an intravenous drip, a treatment popular among junior doctors after a night out. Or it could be a fancier affair, like the Myers’ Cocktail, a nutrient mix that claims to benefit your immune system and energy levels. Bishop-stall tried a Myers’ Cocktail twice – but remained unimpressed. Dr Lennox agrees that it is “mostly a placebo effect… You feel that something dramatic is being done and it is bound to make you feel better – and migraine is extremely susceptible to the placebo effect”.

Some of our more ordinary bathroom cabinet cures may be a better bet, according to Lennox. “If you know it is going to happen, you can take painkillers before you start. That will sometimes help.” And ibuprofen is probably better than paracetamol, as it lasts longer, but don’t take it on an empty stomach as it can cause gastritis. Drinking water before bed is another good idea, but both Dr Lennox and Bishop-stall agree that advice to alternate alcoholic and soft drinks works only because it slows us down. “Our bodies, in general, can process one alcoholic drink an hour. When we are partying we usually double or triple that, but if you put a drink of water in between each drink you get much closer to that,” says Bishop-stall.

If all else fails, Bishop-stall recommends a Great British breakfast of “eggs and a side of slightly burnt toast and Marmite with a hair of the dog, and a bit of milk thistle thrown in”. In fact, forget the hair of the dog, as Lennox says: “I don’t see the point of it at all – you are just postponing the agony.” But a bag of pickled onion Monster Munch won’t do any harm.

‘In Britain you never let on how bad you feel. But in Japan, it’s rude not to display your hangover publicly’ BishopStall tried freezing ‘polar bear’ swims, jumping from an 850ft building and even piloting a fighter jet to banish the booze blues