Ask 10 people how they cure a hangover, and you’ll likely get 10 different answers.
Some go for greasy food and hair of the dog; others swig Pedialyte or Gatorade; and a motivated few hit the gym to sweat it out. But do any of these hangover remedies actually work?
Probably not, says Dr. Ed Boyer, a medical toxicologist at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “I don’t think anybody can really tell you with a great degree of honesty what causes a hangover,” he says, adding that theories run the gamut from dehydration to electrolyte imbalance to a buildup of alcohol byproducts. “The bottom line is nobody knows for sure what causes it, so we don’t have a good cure.”
