Hangovers are one of life's mysteries. Not their origin, that's obvious enough, but rather why we still have to deal with them. We have been to moon, but like the common cold, a true cure for hangovers remains elusive. It's just not fair.

Most doctors will tell you there is no way to cure a hangover, save waiting for your body to metabolize and get rid of the alcohol. While that may be true, there are number of things you can do to speed things up.

Here's out guide to preventing and, failing that, speeding up the departure of a nasty hangover.

===Preventing a hangover===

Obviously not drinking any alcohol would be one option. For those of you not planning to embrace a neo-temperance movement, here are some guidelines to minimizing the lingering effects of too much alcohol.

# Know your limits -- the best way to avoid a hangover is to not drink too much. How much is too much depends on everything body weight to racial type. A general rule of thumb is to make sure you don't have more than three drinks in a two hour span, and no more than five in a single night

# Don't drink on an empty stomach -- Eat something before you go out. Have big dinner or, if you consider yourself a professional, have a big breakfast. Even a snack is better than nothing. There's a reason bars have snacks, the more you eat the slower alcohol will effect you (thus the more you can drink). Eat before you drink and, if you can, eat afterwards too. Fatty foods are better since they slow the absorption of alcohol.

# Drink water -- Much of the hangover feeling is in fact dehydration. Drink water in between alcoholic drinks to make sure you aren't dehydrated when you go to bed. Failing that, at least have a nice big glass of water before you pass out on the bathroom rug.

#Embrace your drunken self -- Interesting, some research suggests that feeling guilty about your drinking or just being depressed in general is a good predictor of how bad your hangover will be. If you're drinking straight from the bottle, sitting alone on the floor of the closet, clutching a photo of your ex, well, we can't help you. But if you're otherwise well adjusted, don't beat yourself up for drinking too much, your body will do that for you.

===Cure your hangover===

Okay, you ignored all of the above advice and now you're lying on the couch in your underwear clutching at the blanket tangled on your chest wishing the day was already over. Here's a few things you can do to speed up the slow and painful process of getting rid of that excess alcohol.

# Drink Water -- yes it makes both lists. Alcohol has dehydrated you and to speed up your recovery the first thing to do is get the water back in your body.

# Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen -- Although all of these are helpful for alleving headaches, you're better off avoiding them when you're hung over. Aspirin is a blood thinner, but so is alcohol, combining the two is a bad idea. Acetaminophen when combined with alcohol can cause liver damage and Ibuprofen is more likely to damage your stomach lining when combined with alcohol.

# Avoid Coffee -- Sacrilege yes, but coffee will just make you more dehydrated. One cup might be okay, but try not to down an entire pot in some misguided quest to wake up. Drink water instead.

# Sleep -- the best way to cure a hangover is to sleep through it. The physical effects of alcohol on your body, combined with the late nights that typically precede a hangover mean that sleep is usually easy to come by. Embrace it.

# Exercise -- frankly this sounds crazy to us, but exercise speeds up your metabolic rate and thus gets the alcohol moving out a bit faster. Not for the faint of heart, but if you feel like going for a run, by all means knock yourself out. Bonus points if you smell like a bar sweating its way down the street.

# Bury yourself up to the neck in moist river sand -- Okay, no don't really do this, (though apparently some people in Ireland swear by it) it's just here to illustrate that all those hangover cures your friends have, well, unfortunately they're all folk tales. There is no easy cure, save toughing it out.

===Conclusion===

Most of the so-called hangover cures you've ever heard of are untrue. The problem is that everyone is different so what works for one person might do nothing for another. That said, if you have a tried and true method don't let us talk you out of it. If it works it works, even if it is the placebo effect.

Now if you'll excuse us, we need a drink.