"I'm nearly 30 so I don't pack away the white wine like I used to," declares Alison Carole as she is hooked up to an intravenous drip by a fully qualified, registered doctor named "Nurse Gentle".

Minutes later, Ms Carole is reclining in her chair, sipping on a vitamin cocktail and checking emails while a litre of "Hartmann's Solution" fluid seeps into her body, via a cannula, to remove the pounding head and body shakes born from the previous night's office Christmas party.

Australia's first IV hydration "Hangover Clinic" has opened in Sydney. As its name suggests, the business claims to offer a new age cure to the age old dilemma: how to beat the dreaded hangover.

Yesterday, while Sydney's suburbs were littered with people downing a greasy fry-up or "hair of the dog" in the hope of feeling human again, others were forking out between $140-$200 on a treatment package that pumps saline, sodium, minerals, vitamins, oxygen and anti-nausea medication through their blood.