Reader’s hangover remedy

Q: Many years ago, when I was a young graduate student, I was faced with a dilemma. Saturday night had seen a great student party, at which many of us had way too much to drink. Sunday afternoon was to bring a faculty-student seminar with a visiting scholar — at our house!

After crawling out of bed Sunday morning with deep regrets, I wondered what to do. I decided a dip in the swimming pool on this very cool Albuquerque morning in April might be just the thing.

The initial plunge in the very cold water was like an electric shock, but the desired effect came quickly and was little short of miraculous.

I’ve learned it’s far better to avoid hangovers in the first place, but short-term cold stress on the body mobilizes its defenses.

A: There is surprisingly little research on hangover remediation listed in the medical literature. We are intrigued that your method worked so well.

We imagine, though, that some people would rather try a solution that was recently subjected to a double-blind placebocontrolled trial in Germany (BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health, April 30, 2020). The researchers found that a solution containing plant extracts together with vitamins and minerals worked better than the vitamin-mineral solution or placebo alone.

The plants they used were ginger, ginkgo, willow, prickly pear and acerola (Barbados cherry). Volunteers who took the treatment before and after drinking alcohol had less headache, nausea and restlessness the next day.