With the festive season just around the corner (we know because the John Lewis Christmas ad is on the telly!), we can expect our diaries to start filling with get-togethers.

Christmas parties inevitably mean drinks – often midweek ones at that. And if you’re not content with a solitary glass of mulled wine, preferring  to fully indulge in the Christmas spirit, that also inevitably means hangovers.

Hangovers are the nemesis of booze lovers everywhere and sadly no one is yet to invent an effective hangover cure pill. However, there are a number of ways to ease them. From a full English breakfast to late-night kebab eating, we take a look at the methods that are scientifically proven to work…

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1. Stay in bed with the curtains closed!

If it’s a workday you won’t have this option, but if you can, the best way to deal with a hangover is to simply stay in bed in the dark.

Scientists at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina gave mice alcohol and then monitored their hangovers. Under normal day/night conditions, the animals took about 20 hours to get back to their normal levels of activity and coordination. But mice left to recover in total darkness were fighting fit in just 8 hours.

“Hangovers can break the operation of our internal clock, so darkness could encourage recovery,” researcher Analía Karadayian tells New Scientist. Sleeping also gives our bodies time to recover.

2. Eat a fry up – before a night out

Many believe eating a greasy, stodgy fried English breakfast after a night on the sauce helps ease their hangover pain

However, one doctor says eating a fry-up before drinking could actually lessen the effects felt the morning after, reports The Daily Mail. Professor James Schaefer, a researcher in alcohol metabolism formerly of Union College, New York, said fatty foods, if eaten before drinking alcohol, ‘grease’ the lining of the stomach and intestines, which means the alcohol is absorbed more slowly into the body.

Alternatives to a full English are pizza, chorizo and swallowing a spoonful of olive oil – a tactic favoured by Mediterranean drinkers.

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3. Snack on a pear

After your early evening fry up, try a pear for dessert to even better prepare your body for the alcohol onslaught, reports Medical Daily.

The fruit’s juice decreases the amount of alcohol in your bloodstream, according to Australian government scientists. Pears also reduce a person’s sensitivity to light and sound – just the medicine when you have a cracking headache.

In tests, subjects who had consumed Asian, or nashi pear, (which is available in British supermarkets) before drinking reported feeling up to 21% better than those who had not. A handy trick which could potentially prevent your day going pear shaped!

4. Get drunk on Vitamin Vodka

Yes, you read that right. The world’s first ‘vitamin infused organic vodka’ has recently hit the market and it promises to make hangovers less horrid.

It works by combining organic sugar cane with a copper pot distillation, a diamond filtration process and a vitamin B, C and K infusion that assists with hydration.

“The vitamins help supplement some of the nutrients lost when drinking alcohol,” says the company’s business manager, Bradley Mitton, adding: “The B and C vitamins assist with hydration, as it’s primarily dehydration that creates a hangover. You consume the equivalent of one multivitamin in every four shots.”

However, this too-good-to-be-true tipple doesn’t come cheap, reports NY Daily News. The wholesale price of Vitamin Vodka is €1,400 euros. On second thoughts, I think I’ll just suffer the hangover…

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5. Ditch the diet

While most people think weight loss is a good thing, it actually is not, at least in terms of battling hangovers.

When people lose weight, the body will not be able to distribute all the alcohol consumed therefore resulting in intoxication and hangover, reports the Tech Times.

“Losing weight leads to even worse hangovers,” says Dr Yogesh Batra, senior consultant of gastroenterology at a hospital in New Delhi, India. “The effective alcohol concentration in the body will rise thus people who lose weight should begin drinking less alcohol.” Never has there been a better excuse for that second mince pie!

6. Get that post-party kebab

According to dietitian Susie Burrell, the biggest causes of hangover symptoms are dehydration and low blood glucose levels.

“Your best bet is to eat something before bed and drink as much fluid as you can,” she told The Huffington Post Australia. “Split a kebab, a snack wrap or a small burger – even better is an electrolyte drink and some Vegemite toast.”

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7. Check into a ‘Hangover Clinic’

This is an idea I had several years ago and now someone has actually made it a reality – albeit in Australia.

The new clinic, just launched in Sydney, offers IVs filled with vitamins, painkillers and rehydrating fluids to banish hangovers, as well as help treat jet lag and the flu, reports The Daily Mail.

For a fee of up to $200, Hangover Clinic co-founder Max Petro, 30, said fully qualified, registered and insured doctors would administer one of six ‘remedies’. Despite the hefty price tag, 350 people pre-registered for the clinic before it even opened – clearly we’re prepared to pay the price for our excesses!

8. Breakfast on eggs

Okay, so you may have already eaten a fry up, a pear and a late-night kebab, but – if you can stomach it – now is the time to chow down on some eggs.

Research has found that cysteine, the amino acid found in eggs, counteracts the poisonous effects of acetaldehyde, the chemical produced by the body as it metabolises alcohol. Acetaldehyde is responsible for the headaches, nausea and other unpleasant consequences of drinking one too many cocktails.

The Poultry Site reports that laboratory rats were given a dose of acetaldehyde large enough to kill around 50% of the animals. Those which received cysteine had an 80% survival rate.

Wondering how to have your eggs in the morning? It’s best to serve them boiled or poached rather than fried in fat.

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9. Listen to your favourite music

Although listening to music when you have a pounding headache may not seem an attractive prospect, experts from the New York Headache Centre believe the right tunes can ease your booze-induced suffering.

“We have good proof that music works for pain of any kind,” says Director and Founder Alexander Mauskop. “There is no reason to think that hangovers would be any different. It’s not as powerful as morphine, but it might be as good as Tylenol.”

One of the ways music can help is by distracting us from pain, reports Science Alert. Don’t risk the radio; you might want to think about queueing up songs that put you in a happy mood or remind you of good times. Several studies have shown that music is also capable of reducing feelings of nausea.

Conclusion

All of these scientifically proven methods can help ease the post-party pain you will no doubt experience on several occasions this festive period.

But, remember folks, the most effective way to avoid a hangover is to not to drink too much!