How to cope with your post-Super Bowl hangover

Let's be real, you and I: Whether the game went your way or not, If you spent Sunday night stuffing yourself with wings, beer and Super Bowl hype, you're probably not feeling your best this morning. Rick Drescher, who owns Shooters Sports Grill, has bartended the country's biggest night of football 11 times, and some of them have nearly drained the bar's alcohol reserves. That's not surprising -- Americans buy enough alcohol in the lead-up to drive overall consumption up 9 percent, not to mention the purchases they make on the day itself. "It's our busiest day of the year," Drescher said. "In-house, we're full from the bar to the tables and the booths." All that drinking can make for a fun night of partying when done responsibly, but its equal-and-opposite counterpart -- the morning after -- can be downright miserable. "When alcohol is in your system, it's sedating a lot of nerve types," Dr. Philip Hartman of St. Elizabeth Healthcare said. "There's rebound activation of those. That's why people wake up early the day after they've been drinking; that's why people get shaky after they've been drinking; that's why your blood pressure is up the day after you've been drinking." And then there are symptoms such as headache, nausea and sensitivity to light that come along with heavy indulgence. There's an obvious way to avoid them -- alternate drinks with water and know your own limits -- but if you didn't manage it, Hartman said he recommends a few simple steps to lessen the effects.