Warning! Don't Take Tylenol When You Have a Hangover.

One of the most distinct memories that I have of nursing school is some advice that my instructor gave me on our first day. She said:

“If there’s one thing that you take away from this program let it be this. Do not take Tylenol when you have a hangover."

So the reason is that when you drink alcohol your liver becomes very irritated and inflamed because it has to process all of that alcohol. And when you wake up in the morning your liver is under a lot of stress, so the last thing you want to do is give it more stress by taking Tylenol. 

Tylenol is metabolized by the liver. 

Advil is metabolized by the kidneys.

But how can I deal with my headache? Well here's the thing. You can take Advil because it does not get processed by your liver.

Unfortunately this information isn't common knowledge. I'm sure we can all admit that we tend to drink more than a couple glasses of wine. Over your lifetime this adds up to a lot of liver damage and can take years off your life. So this is a simple way to give your body a fighting chance.

Make the switch. Get rid, hide, give away, or just ban Tylenol from entering your house.

The recipe below was given to me from my dear friends Stephanie and Rick. Always on the cutting edge of hangover technology.

Hangover Smoothie

Ingredients

2 Bananas

1 apple

1/2 lemon

1 bunch kale

1 cup coconut water

4 liquid Advil gelcaps

Add all ingredients to blender. Blend. Enjoy. Take a nap.

Bee Hives and Skyscrapers. Are They Really That Different?

Driving out of downtown tonight I looked back at the city-line and noticed something that I've never noticed before. We are like bees! 

For the first time ever our skyscrapers reminded me of bee hives. They are just shaped a bit different. A human hive is made of concrete whereas a bee hive is made of natural material. But in essence they are the same thing. 

So how else are we like bees? Well we have the same hierarchy as well. Every hive has worker bees and a queen bee. For example, a bus driver is definitely a worker bee. He transports other workers around. He is very busy. A teacher is also a worker bee. They show younger workers how to become good worker bees when they grow up. Yoga instructors are also worker bees. They guide other worker bees to become better at calming down their queen bee. 

And then you have queen bees. Well we all know that each family or couple or even individual person has a queen bee. All the workers try to provide a safe life for this queen. They try to protect him or her. When the queen bee is happy then all the workers are happy. But when the queen be is upset we all feel the consequences. 

I consider myself the queen bee for my little hive. But I guess I am also the worker bee. At different times I have to work really hard and get things done so that I can please the queen side of myself. So obviously during the week I am a worker bee. I go to work, go to yoga, write, and create new possibilities. And then on the weekend I get to be a queen bee and reek all of the benefits that my worker self has done. 

We seem to think that humans are very complex and the most intelligent species out there. But then you see how similar we are to other animals and species. It is very grounding to feel this connection. We are all just trying to survive and build a bee hive for our queen bee to love.

I love my bee hive and my worker side and my queen side. xoxo.