A Student's Guide on How to Avoid Hangovers

What two words can strike fear into the hearts of any fun-loving, liquor-drinking, college student? Killer hangover.
Just thinking about my last hangover gives me shivers and makes that beer not sound so tasty anymore.
When I typed in “best cure” on Google.com, my first result was “best cures for hangovers.” Evidently this is a pretty commonly requested item. But is there really any way to cure a hangover?
From personal experience, I’d have to say no. However, there are ways to avoid hangovers. Here are my personal favorites.
1. Drink water or Gatorade before you go out and when you get home. The main cause of hangovers is that your body becomes dehydrated. So if you hydrate before you start drinking, stay hydrated by sipping some water while you are out, and drink a little bit more water when you come home, then you are much less likely to feel so dehydrated and hung over the next morning.

2. Eat something. What goes great with beer? Pizza or pancakes. Or even a turkey sandwich. When you eat something before you start drinking or right after you are finished drinking, you have something else in your stomach besides just alcohol. The food absorbs some of the alcohol, allowing less of it to directly enter your blood stream and dehydrate you. Besides, who can really turn down that late night snack-a-thon?
3. Sleep. Go to bed at a decent hour and make sure you have enough time to get those eight hours your mom always preached about. Sleeping will give your body time to process the alcohol in your system and you will feel much better when you wake up the next morning.
4. Take a pain-killer before you go to bed. I don’t recommend this if you have been drinking a lot of alcohol because your liver is already going to be hard at work, but if I’ve just had a few drinks, this always works wonders for me.
5. Chaser pills. Okay, I’ve personally never tried these but I do have friends who swear by them. You can buy chasers at any convenience store. The process seems pretty easy – just take two pills with your first drink. I might try this the next time I plan to indulge but I’ll probably take them with a large glass of water and several slices of pepperoni pizza.
So the next time you decide to drink, take it slowly, don’t binge drink (a sure way to get a hangover) and try one of these hangover prevention techniques. But keep in mind that regardless if these tricks work for you, the best way to avoid a hangover is to always drink responsibly.
And please, if you know any other ways to avoid this dreaded condition, post them below.