New Year's Caution

New Year’s Caution

If you’re headed out for some New Year’s festivities tonight, here’s a fun fact you can use to entertain your fellow revelers: “three sheets to the wind” is a nautical term.

As every sailor knows, the ropes that secure the lower corners of sails are called sheets. If three sheets should come loose in a stiff wind, the sails flap wildly, and the boat lurches like…yep…a drunken sailor.

So if you should arrive home tonight feeling three sheets to the wind, here’s my tip for a happy New Year: Don’t take acetaminophen or aspirin.

To get past a hangover, alcohol has to be fully processed and eliminated from your body. But both of these analgesics can delay the process, extending the period of your hangover and getting your year off to a rough start. Even worse, your liver can be dangerously stressed when alcohol and acetaminophen are combined.

Also, if you can, wait until you’re sober before going to sleep. Your metabolism slows during sleep, so it takes longer for your body to accommodate the alcohol.

But hopefully you won’t have any of these concerns tonight, and all of your “sheets” will stay securely fastened to your sails.