Ever wake up from a great night of partying and say, ?This is the last time that I'm ever drinking,?? Your head throbs, you're nauseous, you're tired, your body aches and you have diarrhea. These are all symptoms of what could be considered every party goers version of kryptonite, the hangover. But, what if there was a cure to this dreaded party foul?

Some believe that hangovers are caused by the methanol and acetone toxins which are found in some alcohols. Others believe its simply the dehydration, being that alcohol is a diuretic (a drug that increases urination and flushes fluids from the body). However, Mack Mitchell, M.D., vice president of the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation in Baltimore, and assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, believes that the chief cause of hangover is acute withdrawal from alcohol. ?The cells in your brain physically change in response to the alcohol's presence; when the alcohol is gone, you go through withdrawal until those cells get used to doing without the alcohol.? Couple that with the effects alcohol has on the blood vessels in your head (they can swell significantly), and you end up wishing that you had never woke up.

Which alcohol is worse?

From worst to best: bourbon, whiskey, brandy, rum, red wine, white wine, gin and vodka. The British Medical Journal did tests that showed drinking bourbon whiskey is twice as likely to cause a hangover than the same amount of vodka.

Techniques to avoid a hangover:

The best and safest way to prevent hangovers is to limit yourself to 1-2 drinks.

Drink slowly. The slower you drink, the less alcohol reaches the brain (even if you end up consuming more). The reason is simple math: Your body burns alcohol at a fixed rate?about an ounce an hour. Give it more time to burn that alcohol, and less reaches your blood and brain.

Drink on a full stomach. ?This is probably the single best thing you can do besides drinking less to reduce the severity of a hangover,? Dr. Mitchell says. ?Food slows the absorption of alcohol, and the slower you absorb it, the less alcohol actually reaches the brain.? The kind of food you eat doesn't matter much. Eating well before you go out, during alcohol consumption, and sometimes after is important. Breads and pasta particularly slow absorption of alcohol into the blood stream. So do milk and other dairy products.

Take some extra vitamin C before going to bed. Some even suggest taking extra vitamin C for a few days before imbibing a lot.

Drink the right drinks. What you drink can play a major role in what your head feels like the next morning, according to Kenneth Blum, Ph.D. The chief villains are congeners. ?Congeners are higher order alcohols. (ethanol is the one we commonly call ?alcohol? but there are many others.) They are found in essentially all alcoholic beverages,? Dr. Blum says. ?How they work isn't known, but they're closely related to the amount of pain you experience after drinking.?

The least perilous concoction is vodka. The most perilous is bourbon. Cognac and other brandies as well as single malt scotches are close behind. These are followed by blended scotch and other whiskeys and champagnes of all kinds (here it's the bubbles that are the problem). Red wine can be a problem, but for a different reason. It contains tyramine, a histamine-like substance that can produce a killer headache. Gin and white wine are almost as benign as vodka, but in sufficient quantity, any form of alcohol can do you in. Avoid sweet tropical mixed drinks such as zombies and pina coladas, Also, avoid eating sugary foods such as cookies, cakes and chocolate. You tend to drink more than you realize, because the sugar makes it difficult to sense how much alcohol you are consuming.

Avoid the bubbly. And that doesn't mean just champagne. Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Blum agree. Anything with bubbles in it (rum and Coke is just as bad as champagne) is a special hazard. The bubbles put the alcohol into your bloodstream much more quickly. Your liver can't keep up; the alcohol overflow pours into your bloodstream.

Be size sensitive. With few exceptions, there's no way a 110-pounder can go one-on-one with a 250-pound drinker and wake up the winner. So scale down your drinks. To come out even, the 110-pounder can handle about half the alcohol of the 250-pounder.

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Take Alka-Seltzer at bedtime. ?There's no hard scientific data on this, but my own clinical experience and that of a lot of others says that water and Alka-Seltzer before going to bed can make your hangover much less of a problem,? says John Brick, Ph.D. Others claim that two aspirin tablets (which is really Alka-Seltzer without the fizz) can also help. However, non-prescription pain relievers can be tough on the stomach, especially when there is alcohol in the system. Plain water is always a good idea for rehydration. Some recommend flat ginger ale.

Hangover remedies:

Bifidus powder: Put a teaspoon of bifidus powder in a glass of water and drink before going to bed. Bifidus is the "friendly" bacteria that detoxifies acetaldehyde, a digestive byproduct of alcohol that is a major cause of hangovers.

Evening primrose oil: helps prevent hangovers. Take two teaspoons.

Eating a meal high in saturated fat causes the effects of alcohol to peak earlier and last longer than diets high in polyunsaturated fat. Research at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Peanut Butter: Eating peanut butter before drinking is an African remedy.

Sports drinks: High in electrolytes, they will help replenish what the kidneys have excreted during drinking. Take before bedtime.

Tomato juice: To help stop the urge for alcohol drink a tangy drink, such as tomato with the juice of one lemon added.

Water: One of the best preventive measures is to drink 2-3 large glasses of water before you go to bed. Drinking alcohol is very dehydrating and hydrating your system helps counteract the effects of the alcohol.

Folk Remedies:

Activated charcoal Take one tablet of activated charcoal per drink while you are drinking. The charcoal absorbs the impurities in the alcohol which are the cause of the hangover. The charcoal also absorbs important nutrients, so if you are a heavy drinker, don't use this remedy daily as you will end up with nutritional deficiencies.

Apples eaten on an empty stomach the day after drinking is an effective remedy.

Bananas: One of the quickest ways to cure a hangover is to make a banana milkshake sweetened with honey. The banana helps calm the stomach, and with the honey, builds up the depleted blood sugar levels. The milk soothes the stomach and rehydrates your system. Bananas are also rich in the important electrolytes, magnesium and potassium, which are severely depleted during heavy drinking.

B-vitamins: Take the vitamins before you go to bed and let them work their magic while you sleep. If you forget, take them immediately upon arising. B-Vitamins are important in aiding the carbohydrate (alcohol) metabolizing process and in dilating blood vessels. B-vitamins will help restore your energy level. You will need to take a high-potency B-complex supplement for this remedy to work (50-75 mg of B-complex twice a day, hopefully once before bed after indulging).

Chicken soup: Grandma's old stand-by, chicken soup, seems to work as well for hangover problems as it does for colds.

Feverfew: Use feverfew, an herb, in place of aspirin. Aspirin is very hard on the stomach, while feverfew is not.
Ginger Take 500 mg of ginger capsules every few hours, or make a ginger tea. This will help soothe your stomach.

Honey Take 2-6 teaspoonfuls of honey every twenty minutes upon awaking, depending on the severity of the hangover. Continue with the honey until you start to feel better, then take four teaspoonsful with your first meal. The potassium in the honey helps counteract the effects of the alcohol and will decrease the cravings for it. Alcoholic drinks are acidic in reaction and satisfy your natural desire for an acid, the same as coffee and tea do. If you have an alcohol problem, check your body chemistry and make appropriate changes in diet and supplementation. In addition, honey contains fructose, a type of sugar that helps your body metabolize alcohol more quickly.

Kudzu extract(or kuzu) Studies have shown that its isoflavones, diadzin and puerarin, can help relieve hangovers quickly!

Lemon: Add the juice of one lemon to a cup of black coffee and drink it unsweetened and without milk.

Lime: As soon as you wake up on the "morning after" add two teaspoons of fresh lime juice and a teaspoon of sugar to 8 ounces of water. Drink it slowly. This concoction will help stabilize your blood sugar, which will be low after imbibing.

Peppermint The herb peppermint, either in tea form or chewing the leaves, will relax the intestines. Peppermint is a carminative, which is a substance that removes accumulated gas from the stomach and intestines. Make a tea by pouring one cup of boiling water over 1-2 teaspoons of the dried herb; cover; steep for fifteen minutes; strain. Drink 1-2 cups as soon as you can.

Persimmon: Eat a raw persimmon for a headache.

Prickly pear cactus (Opuntia ficus indica) extract has been found to relieve hangover nausea and dry mouth according to researchers at Tulane University and the University of California, San Francisco. Prickly pear is known to reduce inflammation, and hangover symptoms are due to an increase in inflammation. Researchers found that C-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation, was 40% higher in the group that took a placebo. The extract was taken five hours before alcohol consumption.

Raw cabbage: Eat raw cabbage to dissipate a headache.
Sauerkraut juice Drink sauerkraut juice with some tomato juice if you don't like it straight. These drinks replace lost nutrients.
Scalp stimulation Pull your hair in clumps so that your full scalp is stimulated. This remedy brings blood to the scalp and relieves the headache.

Silymarin, better known as milk thistle, protects liver cells from alcohol by preventing toxins from entering them and helps to remove existing toxins. Take two 70 mg capsules with a meal or before or while drinking.

Thyme: Make a tea by lightly crushing five fresh or dried leaves; place in a cup and fill with water cooled to just below boiling; cover and leave to infuse for five minutes; remove leaves and drink.
Tomato juice In addition to being a prevention remedy, tomato juice contains fructose, a type of sugar that helps your body metabolize alcohol more quickly. This is probably why the morning-after Bloody Mary seems to work.

Vitamin C stimulates the liver to break down the alcohol. Take 2-10 gm per day in divided doses. Start at 1,000 mg an hour and built up to bowel tolerance. An excess of vitamin C can cause diarrhea, and since you probably have stomach distress already too much C may cause a problem.

From the medical professionals:

There is no one thing that cures a hangover except time. But there are a few things you can do to relieve the symptoms?the headache, nausea, and fatigue.

1. Drink fruit juice. ?Fruit juice contains a form of sugar called fructose, which helps the body burn alcohol faster,? explains Seymour Diamond, M.D., director of the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago, Illinois. A large glass of orange juice or tomato juice, in other words, will help accelerate removal of the alcohol still in your system the morning after.

2. Eat crackers and honey. Honey is a very concentrated source of fructose. Believe it or not, sauerkraut juice is said by some to neutralize congeners. (More proof that sometimes the cure is worse than the disease!)

3. Get some pain relief. A headache is invariably a part of the package that goes with a hangover. ?You can take aspirin, acetaminophen, or ibuprofen but you don't want anything stronger,? Dr. Diamond says. ?With more potent pain relievers, you run the risk of habituation, and you don't want the first problem to start another problem.?

4. Willow bark is a natural, organic pain reliever, according to Kenneth Blum, Ph.D., chief of the Addictive Diseases Division at the U. of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio. ?It contains a natural form of salicylate, the active ingredient in aspirin.?.

5. Drink bouillon. Broth made from bouillon cubes or any homemade soup broth will help replace the salt and potassium your body loses when you drink, Dr. Diamond says.

6. Replenish your water supply. ?Alcohol causes dehydration of your body cells,? says John Brick, Ph.D., chief of research at the Center of Alcohol Studies of Rutgers State University of New Jersey. ?Drinking plenty of water before you go to bed and again when you get up the morning after may help relieve discomfort caused by dehydration.?

7. Take B-complex vitamins. Drinking drains the body of these valuable vitamins. Research shows your system turns to B vitamins when it is under stress?and overtaxing the body with too much booze, beer, or wine definitely qualifies as stress, says Dr. Blum. Replenishing your body with a B-complex vitamin capsule can help shorten the duration of your hangover.

8. Eat amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Like vitamins and minerals, they can also be depleted by use of alcohol. Dr. Blum says that replenishing amino acids plays a role in repairing the ravages of a hangover. Amino acids are also available in capsule form at most health food stores.

9. Have two cups of coffee. ?Coffee acts as a vasoconstrictor?something that reduces the swelling of blood vessels that causes headache,? Dr. Diamond says. ?Coffee can do a great deal to relieve the headaches associated with hangovers.? But don't drink too much.

10. If you have a headache, cool/cold compresses may help.

11. Eat a good meal. If you can tolerate it, that is. A balanced meal will replace the loss of essential nutrients, explains Dr. Blum. But keep the meal light; no fats or fried foods. Toast, cereal, fruit and yogurt are easier to digest than eggs and dairy.

PANEL OF ADVISORS: a) Kenneth Blum, Ph.D., is chief of the Addictive Diseases Division of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio; b) John Brick, Ph.D., is chief of research in the Division of Education and Training at Rutgers State University of New Jersey's Center of Alcohol Studies in Piscataway, New Jersey; Seymour Diamond, M.D., is director of the Diamond Headache Clinic and the inpatient headache unit at Louis A. Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. He also is executive director of the National Headache Foundation. He has co-written several books on headaches. c) Van Lierer, Ph.D., is director of research and owner of Decision Systems, a research and development firm in Stanford, California. He is a former cognitive psychologist at Stanford U; d) Mack Mitchell, M.D., is a vice president of the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland, and assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University.