9 Unusual Uses for Aspirin by wilgubeast
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Step 9: Treat a hangover

aspirin-hangover.jpg
Acetaminophen + alcohol = vicious, liver-destroying poison. Don't take Tylenol when you've been drinking.

After a long night out on the town, if you are in any condition to do so, take two aspirin before bed. These will help decrease the severity of the hangover in the morning by inhibiting prostaglandins. (You know you don't want those prostaglandins running around inside of your body like evil elves while you have the spins.) Then take two more in the morning with some breakfast. It'll decrease the severity of the morning headache and decrease the elf- or prostaglandin-related swelling.

If it's one of those mornings where the hair of the dog sounds as appetizing as actual canine fur, aspirin's your ticket to a productive day.
 
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Mig Welder says: Dec 11, 2011. 11:49 AM
Basically, this (and your barf one) is my all-time favorite Instructable. Also, you are my favorite Instructable author. The sense of humor, usefulness, and diverse vocabulary, all coupled with correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation makes for a winning Instructable. Finding people on the internet that know how to spell is oh so difficult.
I learned a bit and had some good laughs while reading your 'ibles.
Thanks!
wilgubeast (author) says: Dec 12, 2011. 11:09 AM
Thanks MW. I'm working on unusual uses for disposable diapers right now, and it should come out by the end of the week. Or simply a week. The article is somewhat in question.
jibblesmgee says: Sep 15, 2011. 9:42 PM
The only truly safe cure for hangovers is to quit drinking... but you'll still need an asprin once in a while. This is a nice instructable, I learned alot!
FlatLinerMEDIC says: Sep 20, 2011. 3:37 PM
YESSSSS! agreed. Quit drinking. Or if you do... 1 or 2 is enough alcohol is a drug not a hydrating drink...dont even get me started on how bad soft drinks are for you!
LogM813 says: Mar 20, 2011. 8:33 AM
Best hangover cure is weed. Don't say it isn't if you haven't tried it.
iamjello7 says: Jul 14, 2011. 6:03 PM
Indeed.
jooijen says: Jul 13, 2011. 2:26 PM
the best cure for a hangover is...... to keep drinking lol!!!
Hades di Angelo says: Apr 3, 2011. 12:42 PM
weed?your'e using a drug to get rid of the side effects of a drug. That's like shooting into a bullet wound to get the bullet out
tverma says: Jun 12, 2011. 7:01 PM
Aspirin is a drug too.
Hades di Angelo says: Jul 4, 2011. 6:50 PM
Sorry i meant a drug with negative effects to get rid of a drug with negative effects
tkjtkj says: Sep 11, 2011. 8:52 AM
Aspirin can have some rather serious negative side-effects, including:
1) gastritis : irritation with possible bleeding in the stomach
2) make a disease-based or drug-induced 'anti-coagulant' state into a serious problem.
3) make worse a cerebral bleed type of stroke
4) cause gout (as it competes with uric acid for the kidney's method of ridding your body of uric acid (urate). So, the urate increases and in some individuals gout can onset.

I'm not aware of anything ingested that can't have any negative side-effects ... yes, including food and water!
tverma says: Sep 11, 2011. 9:37 PM
too much water is a very bad thing.
ustina says: Aug 21, 2011. 5:36 PM
weeds not bad
kretzlord says: Sep 8, 2011. 12:23 PM
and weed makes you thirsty, so you drink more water. Haven't tried the aspirin, but a 32 oz powerade helps me every time!
mattyfu says: Mar 22, 2011. 10:22 AM
It cures the nausea and makes drinking a ton of water more likely.
wilgubeast (author) says: Mar 22, 2011. 3:02 PM
A bit on the expensive side, as the aspirin will only set you back about $1.29 for 100 325mg tablets whereas weed is often a bit more expensive. Even assuming a bottle of aspirin will last you 25 hangovers max (4 pills/hangover), the price differential is astronomical. Aspirin is also more convenient. In California, you can get aspirin over the counter, even without a medicinal use card.
m1ndtr1p says: Mar 20, 2011. 11:48 AM
No, not even close... If anything, weed makes it worse. No offense, but please know what you're talking about before suggesting something as ridiculous as that.

The best cure for hangover is not going overboard with your drinking, if you must get trashed, drink quality liquor instead of the cheap $10 bottle of vodka... The reason you have hangovers is due to the way the liquor was distilled, lower quality liquor is usually only distilled once, so there's still methanol left in the final product after the distillation process, which is what causes hangovers... Higher quality liquors are distilled multiple times (usually 4-5 times, but some have been known to be distilled up to a dozen times) to further reduce the amount of methanol left after the distillation process, and therefore the higher quality liquor is less prone to cause hangovers...

If you must drink cheap booze, drinking lots of water throughout the night and eating a couple slices of bread before you go to bed helps avoid or reduce the intensity of your hangover in the morning as well
bonecholampworks says: Dec 11, 2011. 8:10 AM
The medical benefits of marijuana have only recently been realized...
As a lifelong migraine sufferer (albeit, slightly different than a hangover...) I've use weed as a pain reliever, and as a preventative. It's been found to have so many medical benefits - right down to relief of irritable bowel syndrome...so whose really to say that it might not work for hangovers? Until unbiased medical studies are done, no one can attest to that.
Roflolommo says: Sep 26, 2011. 11:29 AM
Hangovers are caused by dehydration/Fusel oils. There's less fusel oils in higher quality liquors due to more distillation cycles. Darker liquors have more fusel oils (they purposely leave them in whiskey to give it taste) whereas vodka their going for just ethanol and water. According to scientific studies marijuana reduces nausea and dulls headaches. So yes it is effective to reduce a hangover.
alsports2000 says: Jul 12, 2011. 11:39 AM
That's new information for me and I am not a chain drinker of liquor but I would like to know what liquors are considered higher quality liquors??. Thanks. AL.
Ndawg says: Apr 4, 2011. 10:56 PM
I disagree, weed is a great cure for hangovers. I've used it many time.

That being said, If you have the 'spins' at all, weed will just make you spin more and eventually throw up.

At least this is what I've found to be true.
Smoke weed everyday.
TogetherinParis says: Mar 20, 2011. 7:20 AM
30 tylenol tablets will kill you.

Ingesting water after alcohol enhances elimination of alcoholic derivatives/metabolites.

Dissolved aspirin has been used to control mosquitoes in India, as it messes up their pheromone transmission/reception.

Taking aspirin for pain after childbirth increases the likelihood of physical child abuse. Taking anything for pain after childbirth generally increases the likelihood of physical child abuse by a few percentage points.
Eye Poker says: Mar 21, 2011. 6:50 PM
I watched a young girl die of Tylenol poisoning. The docs had the chopper in the air to airlift her to U of M, but she passed before it arrived. I was the last person she talked to. She did it as a plea for attention all over a silly argument with her grandmother. Keep your Tylenol under lock and key if you have teenagers.
Crispie J says: Mar 20, 2011. 9:02 AM
Other studies have shown that childbirth itself generally increases the likelihood of physical child abuse as compared to a control sample who never had children.
jtpoutdoor says: Mar 21, 2011. 12:26 PM
lol
TogetherinParis says: Mar 20, 2011. 2:08 PM
Nicholson B. 2011 Of Love textbook of medical science: exocrinology.

"Moreover, plant allomones like aspirin, cinnamon, quinidine, and dozens of others have similar beneficial cardiac effects that must be based, at least in part, upon their natural anti-herbivory semiochemical function. (Indeed, common antibiotics are naturally allomones, it is often how they were discovered in the first place.)" Nicholson B. 2011 Of Love textbook of medical science: exocrinology.

Robson and Kumar27 found that during labor, doses of more than 125 mg. of meperidine, (or Demerol) a powerful analgesic, delayed the onset of bonding. Hollenbeck and his coworkers75 found that among other factors observed during feeding in the first month, higher doses of all types of medication, including aspirin, received by mothers during the first four postpartum days were associated with mothers kissing their infants less often.
psbuckley says: Mar 20, 2011. 10:52 AM
THIS JUST IN!!!
cancer is inherent in white mice!
timpiglia says: Mar 20, 2011. 9:38 AM
Of course, if you dont have a child, its harder to find one to abuse!
;)
cwickenkamp says: Mar 20, 2011. 7:52 AM
Taking pain killers after child birth may actually be the sign of a person who has less capacity to endure discomfort, hence one who is more likely to try to quiet or discipline a child who is being annoying or disobedient.
AbstractDragon says: Mar 20, 2011. 11:01 AM
It can also be a sign of vaginal tearing, severe muscle strains from labor, a strained bowel from labor, torn/strained muscles in the back or any number of serious conditions that can be caused by childbirth and are extremely painful.
On the other hand, bossing a new mother around too much about whether she's really in pain after childbirth can not only raise the chances of child abuse, it can raise the chances of her knocking you silly while she's at it. ;P
Crispie J says: Mar 21, 2011. 3:02 PM
My doctor only ordered me plain acetaminophen after the birth of my first child. The nurse mused "I wonder why he did that?" and I responded venomously through gritted teeth, "Because he's a MAN, isn't he!!" She laughed and said, "Yeah, what do they know about stretched vaginas!" BTW said child is now 19 and unabused.
KedaDibandion says: Mar 20, 2011. 8:18 AM
Agreed. That statistic is classic "damned lies" material.
moose2good says: Mar 20, 2011. 7:46 PM
After a bender at my last batchelor party and doing 7 lemon drop shooters, 4 melon balls, 3 black russians, 5 shots of Te-killya, I would need to drink 32 glasses of water. This would DEFINITELY erase the hangover, as I would be giving my bladder the Iron Man Triathlon of usage. I would be a frickin' busted fire hydrant....
tkjtkj says: Mar 21, 2011. 2:50 PM
ya, or dead: a condition called 'hyponatremia' could result from all that water .. and it's a potentially deadly condition .. really an 'E.R.' event!

Deaths from the drug 'Ecstasy' are mostly due to hyponatremia : the electrolyte dilution consequence of too much water in your blood system ..
jtpoutdoor says: Mar 21, 2011. 12:33 PM
aspirin causes irritation and bleeding of the stomach lining , so taking aspirin on top of alcohol may not be such a good idea- especially if you are a chronic alcoholic with an already irritated stomach lining!
but you should definately avoid paracetomol like the plague- people have died from mixing alcohol and paracetomol due to the increased liver toxoicity.

If you wake up feeling really yeurgh due to your overindulgence the night before I can recommend ( :-) snigger) dropping two fizzy soluble aspirin in a glass and chugging it back- you will instantly be sick thereby removing a large quantity of undigested food and any undigested alcohol from your stomach. This may make you feel a bit better- you will still have all the absorbed alcohol swilling around in your bloodstream tho and a massive hangover, NB if tyou are dumb enough to try this no responsibility is taken for any ensueing consequences - especially the cleaning bills or any medical problems which occur
geneorama says: Mar 20, 2011. 8:09 PM
I noticed your selection of alcohol for the hangover section includes 2 buck chuck and Malibu rum... funny choices indeed as they are both clear headache inducers!
wilgubeast (author) says: Mar 21, 2011. 11:26 AM
I found both under the counter here at Instructables HQ.
anotheryou says: Mar 20, 2011. 11:14 PM
Too Right!
Honora says: Mar 21, 2011. 12:06 AM
Aspirin is good for deodorizing smelly clothing. I have a pal who runs outdoor courses for teenagers. He supplies the polypropylene thermal gear. Soaking the clothing in water which has had aspirin dissolved in it removes the B.O. However soaking the clothing in baking soda would do the same trick I'm sure, and be cheaper. If you come across a free source of aspirin, it's worth remembering the deodorizing trick. I found an ancient bottle of expired aspirin in a back country hut and snaffled it home for that purpose.
anotheryou says: Mar 20, 2011. 11:13 PM
Agreed out of much experience. Water!!! 2-3 glasses of water before going to sleep helps big time. Pain killers aren't necessary. Also during the drinking episode try to throw in a glass of water now and again. If you don't do any of that and you wake up hungover then the best cure is "the hair of the dog". I'm sure most of you know what that is but if you don't have another drink or two in the morning like a bloody marry. You'll feel tip top after that!
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