RU Hanging Like A Curtain?

So you had a rough one. Again. Now you’re lying in bed (or on the floor next to the toilet) the next morning trying to decide whether or not your life has any worth. This is an important decision and should not be taken lightly considering that it will be the reason you either do or don’t get up. Your head is spinning at a million light-years a second and you definitely aren’t moving anywhere. No matter how important that English tut you’re about to miss is to your future. A hangover is caused by a combination of the toxic by-product of alcohol metabolism (acetaldehyde), dehydration, and Vitamin A, B (particularly B6) and C depletion caused by the chemical action of alcohol on your system. The symptoms are usually a dry mouth, nausea, fatigue, dizziness and headache and are caused by a combination of these factors. “Oh my greatness,” you think while trying to remember how the heck to fix this. Well, Barman Green’s here to help. Read on for the best tips you’ll ever receive:

Hangover Remedies
Most hangover "remedies" simply attend to one or more of the symptoms and don't really provide a cure as such. The hangover won't stop until the alcohol is out of your system, but here are a few things that will ease the suffering a bit:
· Berocca - Puts the vitamin B back in, as well as the big glass of water it's mixed with. It's probably best to do this before you go out.
· Coke - Fizz for the nausea, liquid for the dehydration, and a caffeine and sugar hit to make you feel a bit more lively.
· Coffee - Same as Coke but without the bubbles to help ease the nausea. Try it with honey instead of sugar since the fructose is absorbed quicker than the sucrose in normal sugar, and it's better for you.
· Ginseng - It's been noted that since caffeine is a diuretic like alcohol, it can actually make the dehydration worse, so try the herbal equivalent instead.
· Marmite On Toast - Something in your stomach is good, and salty is even better. Plus you get a Vitamin B top up. The same reasons also make peanut butter a good choice, but the oily nature might make some sensitive stomachs feel a bit yucky. If you do try try this one, skip the butter and just have dry toast.
· Cold Pizza - Who knows, but it seems to work.
· Asprin - Simply attends to the headache and does nothing for the level of alcohol in your system. Don't take them before you go to bed.
· Bananas - Sugar in the form of fructose, and potassium, which is one of the things you lose lots of when you drink. Bananas are also a natural antacid to help with the nausea, and are high in magnesium which can help relax those pounding blood vessels causing that hangover headache. For a variety of reasons try a peanut butter, honey and banana sandwich on white bread.
· Vitamin C - Another thing the alcohol takes out that you're advised to put back in as soon as possible. Orange juice, tomato, a 600mg Vitamin C tablet - doesn't matter, just do it.
· A Hot Bath - The heat will sweat out the toxins that are causing all the problems. You'll feel a bit woozy at first but go with it and you'll feel better afterwards.
· Sauerkraut – Eating raw cabbage has been used right through history for preventing as well as curing hangovers.

Hangover Prevention
· Don't drink. (doh!)
· Take a Berocca before you start drinking. This gets a reserve of Vitamin B into you.
· Alternate fruit juice or water in amongst your drinks to avoid dehydration later on. Avoid fizzy or sugary stuff. The purists reckon that about 200ml of water is needed to effectively counteract each 30ml of alcohol.
· The alcohol in carbonated drinks is absorbed more quickly than in non-carbonated drinks.
· Reduce the amount of sugar you consume with your alcohol. The forced metabolism of sugar AND alcohol by your body will accelerate the depletion of B vitamins and make the hangover worse.
· The 2am pig-out. Pizza or pasta is usually best since cheese and carbohydrates are a good source of amino acids. Actually food is a good idea all round - before, during and immediately after drinking. Food doesn't absorb alcohol, but it does increase metabolism, activates alcohol absorption, and increases the speed with which the body processes alcohol.

Check out more hangover cures on Bek's blog at http://bekk.blogspot.com/2006/12/hangover-cures.html

And there you have it: from a barman’s mouth. Hangovers aren’t fun and neither are some of the remedies mentioned. All I have to say is: you deserve it!!!!

Opinion Piece: Having a Mare...All Year Long!!!!!!

So, first-years are lazy and we drink too much. Got it. I’ll remember to tell my mother that next time she phones for our weekly chat and asks, “How’re things going there, my girl?” I don’t understand assumptions that are made by lecturers at this university, considering that once upon a time they too were first years and they too partied once or twice when they shouldn’t have. Am I missing something here? They graduated didn’t they and I’m pretty sure that they consider their lives a success. Over and over again we are attacked by lecturers and tutors alike who always fail to remember the great mark we received for our last assignment. A little contradictory considering they didn’t spend Wednesday night at home, working. I know this because I shared a cane train with my tutor yesterday. Never did I expect this sort of treatment from grown men and women. Surely, as a lecturer, one comes to sympathise with one’s students when they ask for an extension for the first time in the year only because the course was so badly planned out that all the biggest assignments are left to be done in the last two weeks of the year. Right before we have to hand in possibly the most important application form of our lives – the one for second year Journalism and Media Studies. Rather than wasting our time, why don’t lecturers actually lecture and keep their noses out of our social lives. I don’t think it’s appropriate for a male lecturer to comment on who will be sleeping in my bed with me that night after I have been caught talking. Do you? The School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes states in its mission statement that it aims to uphold the visions of the South African Constitution. Doesn’t Section fourteen D of the Constitution state that everyone has the right to privacy which includes the privacy of their communications? Surely, the letters we write to our friends in lectures form part of our communication, so therefore according to Section fourteen a lecturer has no right to read these letters. When students do arrive for their lectures, shouldn’t we actually be taught about the course work set out in the syllabus instead of being preached to about attending lectures? Doesn’t really make sense considering we are already there. Do our lecturers honestly believe that when we get back to residence, we run into our friend’s room and complain that they weren’t there? Somehow I don’t hear the words, “You’re wasting your parents’ money, Meg!” coming out of my mouth on a Thursday morning. If my friends don’t want to attend Journalism lectures, all it really means is that the chances of me making it into second year Journalism are improved. I apologise if this seems harsh; the stress and difficulty experienced due to my second year application has made me slightly bitchy. As first-years we have come to understand that our success and survival here at Rhodes comes down to time management. If our work is completed on time for the ridiculous deadlines, surely we’re doing something right. If we can balance our social lives and our academics, no matter how unstable the balance may be, I believe we’ve made it. So to every first-year who’s still a first-year, congratulations! I’m glad that’s over. Anyone for a drink?