For as long as people have been drinking too much, they have been searching for a cure for that dreaded morning after hangover。

只要一個人有過酩酊大醉的時候，他們就一定曾尋找過解決宿醉之后可怕的第二天清晨。

Raw eggs with or without Worcestershire sauce is apparently one cure; others eat chocolate or a bacon sandwich - but the answer could be as simple as to carry on doing what you were doing that caused the hangover – have a drink。

淋上辣醬油的生雞蛋——也可以不加——無疑是辦法之一;還有人選擇吃巧克力或者培根三明治。然而真正的解決方法非常簡單：是什么導致了你的宿醉——飲酒——而它也是解決你宿醉困擾的辦法。

Adam Rogers, the author of Proof: the Science of Booze, is of the opinion that the 'hair of the dog' makes you feel better, but the question is why it does this, and importantly whether it's really a good idea。

《論證：暢飲的學問》的作者亞當·羅杰斯認為醒酒液會讓人感到更舒服一些，然而問題在于為什么它會如此起作用，而且喝醒酒液到底是不是個好主意。

Every alcoholic drink contains, as well as ethanol, small traces of the poisonous methanol. In high doses methanol can make people go blind or even die because the body converts it to formaldehyde, a poison used as a preservative in some laboratories. Doctors treat methanol poisoning by giving patients ethanol to prevent its change into formaldehyde。

每種酒精飲料除了包含乙醇，都會有微量的有毒甲醇。甲醇攝入量過高會致盲或致死，因為人的身體會把它轉化成甲醛——在實驗室里作為防腐劑使用的有毒物質。針對甲醇中毒，醫(yī)生們通常會開出含有乙醇的處方，以防它轉化為甲醛。

'If methanol poisoning is at least in part responsible for a hangover, having a drink the next morning may alleviate symptoms,' said Mr Rogers although he was at pains to point out that the theory was 'hypothetical' at best。

“如果甲醇中毒是宿醉的原因之一，那么第二天早上再喝一杯有可能緩解癥狀。”羅杰先生如此說道，盡管他仍需要承認該理論尚處于假設階段。

Lauren Owen, a psychopharmacologist at Keele University and a member of the Alcohol Hangover Research Group, agreed that there was some scientific support for the idea. 'Alcohol acts on a number of chemicals in the brain to increase feelings of pleasure. Reduction of hangover symptoms by "hair of the dog" may also be due to the activity of alcohol on neurotransmitter systems.'

勞倫·歐文是基爾大學的精神藥理學家，同時也是宿醉研究小組的成員之一。她認為喝酒解宿醉的方法是有科學依據的，“酒精會使大腦產生化學反應，從而增加愉悅的感覺。通過飲用醒酒液的方法減輕宿醉很可能同樣基于酒精對腦神經元的刺激。”

One thing that appears to have no scientific basis is rehydration. Mr Rogers said: 'You can get rid of the dehydration and you are still hungover.'

然而目前并沒有科學證據證明喝水可以解酒。羅杰先生說道：“你可能會因此擺脫脫水癥狀，不過宿醉卻不會因此得到緩解。”