The Hang Of It.

For $200, A Dallas Doctor Will Come To Your House And Cure Your Hangover.

Hangovers are pretty much the worst. Dr. Lamar Robinson gets that.

That's why, for the past 15 years or so, he's been helping out his friends and patients alike in those instances when the next-day drinking pain becomes a little too much for them to bear — moments when, as he puts it, “a 7-Up and some rest won't cure them,” and a little something extra is needed. That's when Robinson gets called in, mainly because he says he's got the cure for what ails these folks. That cure, he says, is an intravenous drip of Ringer's Lactate, which is essentially just a standard IV drip meant to assist with the fluid levels in one's system.

“Most people,” Robinson says, “just need some hydration.”

Over the years, it's been a pretty simple process: When Robinson gets a call that a hangover is out-of-control, he grabs his gear, drives on over to his ailing subjects' residence, gives the subject a quick physical, checks his or her blood alcohol levels and offers them an hour-long treatment of that drip to get them back on track.

“They usually feel better within an hour,” Robinson reports, rather happily.

His point is that he believes that his hangover therapy offering works. Which is why he's now launched Hangover Help Now, a new business in which he and a handful of his fellow certified Dallas-based physicians make these services available to the public, following the leads of other doctors who are now doing the same thing in New York, Las Vegas and other markets. Robinson's services run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with pricing starting at $200 and factors such a travel distance and the time of the call determining the final costs of the treatment.

“I've been doing this for the longest time,” says Robinson, who describes his hangover treatments as “needed” in the market. “I can fix you.”

Here's how he proposes doing so: “Think of your body as a car. Maybe you're a quart of oil down. I put a quart in you, and you're good to go.”

This is presuming, of course, that you're simply dehydrated and not, say, suffering from alcohol poisoning, which Robinson's services aren't meant to cover. In instances when alcohol poisoning is a concern, Robinson says he directs his clients to head to the nearest emergency room.

Still, since launching Hangover Help Now a few months ago, Robinson says business “seems to be doing well,” and that his clientele — which to date has been a mix of referrals and people drawn in by his company's low-budget TV ad campaign — stretches across a wide swath.

Of course, the same can likely be said about all of Robinson's patients, as the doctor, a gynecologist by trade, appears inclined to revel along the fringes of what's generally accepted by the medical community. Call Hangover Help Now — at its 214-HELP-NOW number, naturally — and you'll be greeted by a voicemail that also mentions another of Robinson's recent ventures, a low-testosterone and erectile dysfunction treatment called Man Up Services.

Meanwhile, even in his more traditional field of practice, Robinson's been no stranger to headlines: Earlier this year, University General Hospital temporarily revoked Robinson's hospital-admittance privileges upon learning that he was performing abortions at separate facilities.

“I would say that some of the things I do aren't that popular with the general population,” Robinson concedes.

As for how his new hangover-cure and Low T/ED businesses factor into that reputation, well, Robinson says he isn't worried about them negatively affecting his professional career.

“I'm happy to be involved in stuff that's less controversial,” he says, laughing. “People don't protest hangovers and erections.”