Editor's Note: Former Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Kryzhanovska in 1999 offered up her remedies for the day after drinking too much.Here's her Kyiv Post Classic:
It’s a mystery why most Kyiv nightclubs and restaurants plan to serve a nasty concoction of vodka and champagne on New Year’s Eve.
This has got to be one of the worst combinations of alcohol ever mixed in the modern age and it’s a guaranteed hangover.
We can’t prevent nightclubs from offering this drink. And we can’t prevent readers from imbibing it.
But we can offer some hangover remedies for those who do consume too much of the wrong thing on the eve of the millennium.
Hangover remedies can be divided into three categories: the hair-of-the-dog remedies containing alcohol; the medicinal remedies; and the natural remedies based on folklore, family recipes and random lapses in common sense.
Alcoholic remedies
Beer, Bloody Marys, mimosas and screwdrivers are the best drinks in the morning, but a general principle is to drink what you had been drinking the night before. The problem is that you think you’re cured when, in fact, you’re just drunk again and have merely delayed your hangover.
It’s a vicious circle that sometimes takes years to escape.
Medicinal remedies
This is more socially acceptable way to deal with a hangover than simply consuming more alcohol. Aspirin and other pain relievers will take the edge off your headache and charcoal tablets, called aktivirolvannyi ugol in Russian, will absorb all the nastiness in your stomach and alleviate nausea.
All medical remedies can be found at the local pharmacy.
Natural remedies
For the dawning of the millennium hangover, you might need something a bit more unconventional.
Wet bed: Before you go to sleep, drink as much water as you can and take a light sleeping pill. The idea is to rehydrate and then sleep while youХre body recovers on it’s own.
Red Diablo: Mix 20 grams of Tabasco, one raw egg, 50 grams of vodka and a teaspoon of sugar. Those who try this cocktail once, refuse to use any other remedy. How does it work? It’s called the placebo effect. You have to believe.
Alarm: Put one teaspoon of coffee granules (real, not instant) into the glass and pour in Coke or Pepsi. Drink it through a straw as fast as possible while it’s still foamy. This is not only a good hangover remedy but it also makes you perfectly sober after a few hours of drinking.
Rassol: Drink pickle juice. The vinegar and other ingredients in the juice neutralize the alcohol.
Sweet remedy: A champagne hangover should be treated with champagne and ice cream. Ice cream is considered by many as a good remedy because it is refreshing and made of milk. Milk also neutralizes alcohol, but don’t drink pure milk — that’s too hard on the stomach. It’s Kefir. (Ukraine’s version of yoghurt) also works.
Olga Kryzhanovska
