For the music artist it can interfere with a next-day performance. For the herds of bachelor party participants visiting Nashville, it can disrupt a long-awaited weekend with friends. And for those who took it too far on a weeknight, it can mean an ugly day at work.
The hangover, accidental or anticipated, is a condition that some are eager to altogether avoid. Now they can.
The Recovery Room, a Nashville business, has brought concierge hangover fixes, conducted through IV rehydration, to the local market. Demand is high. In the past year, the business has been hired more than 1,000 times to expel the toxins from pained party-goers and address headaches and nausea.
“About half of your hangover is simple hydration,” said Matt Wesseling, who leads the company. “Toxins build up and there is no way to get that out of your body. It just sits there. The hydration allows you to flush all of that out.”
The Recovery Room is a part of Pro-Hydration Therapy, a startup company born out of a class assignment at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. Wesseling, a former triathlete, and four other co-founders sought to offer hydration healing at endurance events, such as marathons and IRONMAN competitions. When two Nashville nurse anesthetists who created Recovery Room were looking for a partner, the Pro-Hydration team saw it as counterpart to its athletic focus and bought the business.
The combined company is a team of six that contracts with a dozen nurses and includes Recovery Room co-founder, Amanda Orrand. The Recovery Room nurses bring the hydration solutions to the afflicted individuals, who are typically averse to leaving their home.
Most clients rate their physical well-being as a 3 or a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10 before treatment. Within 25 minutes, they report feeling about 4 points higher or more, Wesseling said. Going from feeling like a 1 or a 2 to an 8 can make a significant difference. “The worse you feel, the bigger the swing,” he said.
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