July 1, 2023

"Getting an IV at home after a hangover is like a flex. It’s like, 'Look at me. I’m pretty bougie. I don’t need to sit and suffer.'"

Said  Dr. Abe Malkin, the chief executive and founder of Drip Hydration, quoted in "Does It Help With the Regret, Too? Hangovers Meet IV Drips. High-powered revelers are trying to hack their hangovers with concierge infusions" (NYT).
Most [anti-hangover] IV drips are packed with a combination of saline, vitamins, headache relief and anti-nausea medications. It’s a cocktail after cocktails. A flush, for the flush.... Some regular users compared the drips to a post-marathon massage. Companies and influencers pitch them as virtuous aftercare. 
The marketing builds off a national obsession with staying hydrated and detoxing, and also nods to an online “biohack” conversation, a body-as-machine approach to physical enhancement.... The expense may be part of the appeal. Influencers post about their IV bags just hours after they show off V.I.P. passes. Status symbols compound in the conspicuous consumption of fun....

One influencer laughs: "I can’t say I walk around the office saying that I have a hangover. I frame it as my self-care."

Drinking is funny until it's not. Does this IV bag extend the funny phase or expedite the tragic? The need to say things like "self-care," "virtuous aftercare," and "biohack" sounds desperate, but that can be part of the funny, especially for the drunkards. 

27 comments:

Kate said...

This sounds like an Ab-Fab episode. Jennifer Saunders was prescient.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

Jeeves serves his "master" Bertie Wooster in the P.G. Wodehouse novels. There is one kind of libation, a "snortful of the needful" (a weird echo of Scripture) as the afternoon and evening wear on. There is another kind of libation for the morning after. Tomato juice and tobasco sauce may both be involved. As for hydration, I used to find it was quite effective to take some tall glasses of water in the night, even after going to bed. You may be up to pee in any case. No harm in taking some pain killer with the water, but don't overdo it. Your body may reject some or all of this, making dehydration worse.

There was more than one case when my friends envied me for being in pretty good shape on the Sunday morning of a weekend convention. Sometime later I would more or less crash and burn.

Larry J said...

A hangover is your body’s way of saying that you’re drinking too much and you should take better care of yourself. If you’re drinking so much that you routinely need IVs for your hangovers, you either are on the road to alcoholism or are already there.

tim in vermont said...

It's more like dying your beard so it's dark again. When you are young and you have a hangover, it's like "Oh gosh, I have a hangover," and then you just set about your day and it clears pretty quickly, maybe some alka-seltzer. But when you get *old*, who wants to be perceived as old?

Narayanan said...

have soup via IV

Leland said...

I haven't had an IV that didn't involve sitting and suffering.

re Pete said...



"....if whiskey dont kill me,

Then I dont know what will"

gilbar said...

this is DUMB.. There is Only ONE thing that Will cure a hangover; Heroin. SHOOT UP people!!!

Wince said...

Althouse said...
The need to say things like "self-care," "virtuous aftercare," and "biohack" sounds desperate, but that can be part of the funny, especially for the drunkards.

Who are you to question "binge-affirming care"?

mikee said...

The AirBnB renters who abused my Austin house for a SXSW rave set up three IV hydration stations in the master bedroom, complete with a RN doing the sticks. The partiers hired a commercial service here in Austin for the IVs. The partiers also had Amazon deliver electric massage chairs to use with the IV stands, doubling the pleasure, I guess.

My drugged up, still-intoxicated and IV-rigged primary guest explained on Sunday at noon they would not be out on time, an hour earlier, and drunkenly paid me a wad of hundreds for two more days of recovery and cleanup. They sobered up, brought in a pro cleaning crew at company expense, and left the place spotless, except for the rare bits of glitter that I find to this day. Sort of like The Cat in The Hat, he was. I wasn't even mad. I was impressed.

Tom T. said...

You could just drink some Gatorade.

cassandra lite said...

Good thing these drips weren't available in 1940. The funniest part of The Philadelphia Story was Katharine Hepburn's hangover on her wedding day.

Hangovers are always funny on film. Rich twits suffering consequences for their actions is a subtle but clear message. It makes them sympathetic. But seeing rich twits infuse their way out of the pain would only make us hate them.

Patrick said...

I may have appreciated this back in my younger days but it's probably a good thing it wasn't available. Working too hard to alleviate rather than avoid hangovers leads to trouble.

Freeman Hunt said...

Status symbol? For what status? Getting so drunk you need an IV in the morning is status pathetic.

Freeman Hunt said...

If a friend told me she was getting an IV for a hangover, I'd say, "What's wrong with you? What are you, some kind of wino? Get it together, man."

Birches said...

Feels very Hunger Games at the Capitol.

traditionalguy said...

That’s nothing. Now getting a liver transplant would be something.

JAORE said...

Women's health care = abortion
Trans health care = surgical removal of healthy organs

Drunkard's health care? An IV drip?

Where is the government funding?

Rusty said...

Just go to your oxy/acetylene outfit and turn on the oxygen. Put the tip close to your nose and open the valve. Coupe of deep breaths and hangover gone. Let the oxy run for a few seconds first in case the guy who used the set before you didn't clear the lines.

dbp said...

For a lot less money, you could just take some aspirin and drink some electrolytes. Even cheaper: have a couple fewer drinks.

Zavier Onasses said...

Or save the cost of the PHT (personal hangover therapist) AND cost of the booze. Enjoy the party with your full capacities.
- Zavier the .........

Gospace said...

Had too much to drink a few times- never had a hangover.

But after reading about it- B1 and a quart of water before hitting the rack. Either it really works or it's a great placebo...

From reading about it it seems dehydration is the primary cause of hangovers. One really sweltering night in Fort Lauderdale had the waitress bring me a glass of water with each glass of wine I ordered. Not certain how many that was... Gulped the water down and handed the glass back, then enjoyed the wine. How sweltering was it? IIRC, I hit the restrooms only once. Everyone there was glistening with sweat.

RigelDog said...

With minimal discipline, you can minimize hangover by having at least one glass of water/soft drink alternating with each alcoholic drink. Also tends to reduce the number of drinks you consume over the evening because you don't have the first couple of drinks immediately insisting that what you really need is to immediately have two more.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I remember sometimes I would get like a second wind when I used to go out for days. There was nothing I can remember doing, consciously to get that second wind of energy. It was like found money, because the only two things that would send me back home were running out of money and having to get back to work.

I’m revisiting this post after reading the fatigue post.

rcocean said...

Hangovers are for young people and drunks. Stick to wine and beer, drink lots of water, and have your beer and wine with lots of food.

No hangover. Or best of all: GIve up Booze.

Dave said...

What's wrong with Dave? Ah, he put on a four-bagger last night.

Interested Bystander said...

If you drink so much you need an IV you drink too much. If you need more than 2 cups of coffee to shake off the night before you’re likely putting yourself into dangerous situations, especially if you’re a young female.