Everything we know about hangovers — and what you can do to make the pain go away

January 01, 2017

Everything we know about hangovers — and what you can do to make the pain go away

Champagne

Happy New Year and welcome to 2017!

Many of us may not be feeling the welcome just quite yet. After all, Newton's third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

And while he was talking about physics, not biology, it certainly feels like hangovers follow that law, though we might rephrase it as "for every moment of inebriated exhilaration, there is an equal and opposite feeling of pain and unease."

But what is it about throwing back a few too many that leaves you feeling only halfway human: your head throbbing, your mouth dry, your stomach on edge? Could that feeling really be explained by dehydration, as so many seem to think? Even more important, is there a cure to hangovers?

Unfortunately — spoiler alert — the answer to the cure question is no. And as for dehydration, it's not the main culprit, hangovers are more complicated than that. In fact, much about hangovers is still a mystery to scientists. But here's what we know.

And just a note: We're looking at hangover symptoms specifically here, not the effects of long term alcohol abuse. Frequent hangovers could be a sign that you should consider cutting back on drinking.

A major component of hangovers has to do with the way our bodies break down alcohol.

The way we metabolize alcohol is at least partly responsible for hangovers, according to Richard Stephens, a psychology professor and member of the Alcohol Hangover Research Group, an organization started to answer questions in what they call the "neglected issue" of hangover studies (unfortunately, it doesn't seem they've made much progress).

Stephens told The Atlantic in 2014 that one thing researchers know is that our bodies first metabolize ethanol, the main alcohol in booze. But we break ethanol down into other alcohols, including methanol, which our body turns into formaldehyde and formic acid — toxins that make you hurt.

This process happens about 10 hours after we stop drinking.

Other byproducts of alcohol might be responsible for part of the pain.

We also produce acetalydehyde when we break down booze.

We break that down afterwords into acetate, which is harmless, but acetalydehyde is known to cause vomiting, nausea, a flushed face, and sweatiness — making it a prime culprit for at least a few hangover symptoms, according to some researchers.

But others have found that hangovers aren't the worst when acetalydehyde levels are highest, meaning they probably aren't responsible for everything.

Some types of alcohol really do lead to worse hangovers than others.

Whiskey might be your drink, but there's some truth to the idea that alcohol with more congeners (a chemical component of booze that's more often found in dark drinks like bourbon, red wine, or dark rum) can lead to a worse hangover.

One study titled "Intoxication with bourbon versus vodka: effects on hangover, sleep, and next-day neurocognitive performance in young adults" found that whiskey did indeed lead to more severe hangovers.

It's not all bad though. One of the authors of the study told Scientific American that some of those congeners in whiskey helped "protect the stomach lining from damage."

See the rest of the story at Business Insider