The best way to avoid a hangover is not to drink or at least not to drink too much for your body weight and metabolism, but reality dictates that there may come a time you decide to go out and get sloshed. If getting drunk is on your agenda, there are some steps you can take to diminish hangover symptoms.

First, it would be remiss not to say – Never Drink and Drive! The worst hangover in the world pales in comparison to the headache of a fatal or near fatal car crash due to alcohol consumption. Get a designated driver, take a cab, or stay at home and drink, but don’t ever get behind the wheel of a car. The life you save by not drinking and driving may very well be your own.

That being said, once you have made a decision to drink, you are safe and don’t have to drive yourself, let’s look at ways to reduce the chances of suffering a hangover the next day.

Reduce your Hangover – Drink Water While Drinking

Alcohol tends to dehydrate the body when consumed in excess. If you will alternate one or two alcoholic drinks with a glass of water or plain juice you will not only drink less, which will allow you to party longer, but you will be helping combat the #1 cause of hangover symptoms the next day – dehydration.

That pounding head, thick tongue, dry mouth and pain behind the eyes are all symptoms of dehydration brought on by excessive alcohol consumption. Be sure to drink plenty of non-alcoholic fluids while drinking and your hangover will be less severe.

Reduce your Hangover – Pace Yourself

Your body can process or eliminate one ounce of alcohol per hour, on average. If you pace yourself and limit yourself to one alcoholic drink per hour, you can drink all night but never get fully drunk. Even if you limit yourself to one or two per hour, you’re still doing better than if you play drinking games or slamming shots.

Reduce your Hangover – Peppermint or Ginger

One common symptom of a hangover is nausea, and this is especially true first thing in the morning after you wake from a night of partying. When you find it hard to keep anything down the next day, peppermint or ginger tea or ginger ale can help calm your hangover stomach. If you drink a cup of peppermint or ginger tea, or ginger ale, with a piece or two of dry toast, you can help stave off the queasy hangover effects.

Reduce your Hangover – Eat Before You Drink

A meal loaded with starches and protein before you drink and eating snack while drinking will help keep you full, cause you to drink less, and change how your body metabolizes alcohol, and keeps the alcohol from going directly into the bloodstream. Drinking on an empty stomach is a sure-fired way to have a horrendous hangover the next day.

Reduce your Hangover – Avoid Darker Drinks

Darker drinks, red wines, scotches, bourbons, whiskey, dark ales – all those dark red or brown drinks are fermented differently than the lighter colored malts, vodkas, white wines and the like. If you are having one or two drinks, the darker drinks won’t bother you, but if you plan to tie one on that night, sticking with the lighter colored drinks may help reduce your hangover symptoms that next morning.

Reduce your Hangover – Lie Down and Be Still

Your liver will function better if you can rest and lie still for a short period of until the balance of the alcohol is out of your system. That old saying, “Sleep it off” is really true. If you can sleep for a few hours longer than normal after drinking, you may wake up with no hangover at all.

Reduce your Hangover – Don’t Drink Coffee

Coffee is a diuretic, alcohol is a diuretic too! One of the reasons you have hangover symptoms is because you are dehydrated, and drinking coffee in the morning to wake you up and make you feel better will actually have the opposite effect. Drink water or juice, and in fact, tomato juice or beet juice, if you can stomach it, will help the liver process better too.

Reduce your Hangover – “Hair of the Dog…”

Don’t drink more alcohol in order to get rid of hangover symptoms. While it might reduce the symptoms immediately, all you’re really doing is making the body drunk again and thus postponing the hangover that is inevitable.

Reduce your Hangover – Things Not to Do

Do not take aspirin, Tylenol, Advil, or any drugs that contain the same active ingredients. This is tough on the liver and these medications even indicate you should not take with alcohol or if you have consumed more than three alcoholic beverages per day. These drugs will do little to hide the hangover effects and can actually slow down the liver function of eliminating the alcohol that is causing the hangover.

If you think smart before, during and after drinking you can help eliminate or reduce your hangover symptoms. Of course, it should be said again, the best way to avoid a hangover if to not drink at all.