Thirty Years in the Marines

I spent ten years as an enlisted Marine before commissioning as an officer — thirty years of service in total. That’s a long time to develop a research mindset, a tolerance for discomfort, and an appreciation for what it means to be responsible for other people’s welfare.

As an officer, part of the job was looking out for the people under my command — all of it, including the parts nobody talks about at dinner parties. I conducted alcohol-related line-of-duty investigations. I had difficult conversations. I watched what happens when drinking stops being recreational and starts costing people things they can’t get back.

That experience is part of why this site exists the way it does. HangoverStan is built for people who enjoy drinking socially and want to do it smarter. It’s not a workaround for something more serious — and I take that line seriously.

The Day Job

After the Marines, I spent years as a Big 4 consultant doing federal CIO advisory work — specifically Capital Planning and Investment Control, or CPIC. In plain English: I helped senior federal executives make well-informed decisions about major technology investments.

Decision support for high-level government officials sounds a long way from hangover science. But the core skill is the same — cut through the noise, find what the evidence actually says, and give people actionable guidance they can use. That’s what I try to do here.

Why I Built This

HangoverStan has been rattling around in my head for about five years. The idea was simple: there’s no good resource for people who drink socially and want practical, science-backed advice about preventing and recovering from hangovers.

Medical sites are accurate but stiff — they can’t recommend specific products or speak to you like a human being. Reddit is entertaining but unreliable. The gap between “here’s the clinical research” and “here’s what to actually do about it” has been sitting wide open for a long time.

So I built the bridge. Every article on this site is grounded in real research, written in plain English, and aimed at giving you something you can actually use — with a side of humor, because hangovers are miserable enough without the content being miserable too.

How I Approach the Content

I’m not a doctor, pharmacist, or nutritionist. I’m someone with a research-driven background, a lot of firsthand experience with the subject matter (past tense, mostly), and a genuine interest in getting it right.

Every claim on this site needs to be backed by something real — a study, a credible institution, a mechanism that actually makes sense. When the evidence is thin or mixed, I say so. When something is popular but doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, I say that too. See our Editorial Guidelines for the full breakdown of how we handle sourcing and accuracy.

I still drink — beer, almost always at home, nothing dramatic. I’m exactly the audience this site is built for: someone who enjoys it, doesn’t overdo it, and occasionally wants to know how to feel better the next morning without spending an hour digging through PubMed.

One Thing I Mean Sincerely

Anyone who’s led people in the military knows you don’t get to pick which problems walk through the door. Some of the most capable people I’ve served with had complicated relationships with alcohol. That’s not a judgment — it’s just the reality of what I’ve seen.

This site is for social drinkers. If it’s become something more than that for you or someone you care about, the content here isn’t the right tool. There are people who can actually help.