Gibsons
Lifer
- Aug 14, 2001
- 12,530
- 35
- 91
My post from a previous thread, complete with typos
Hangovers are caused by 2-3 things. Or maybe more...
1 ethyl alchohol - alcohol acts as a depressant and there are perhaps some effects from a 'withdrawal' symptom. it also acts as a diuretic. This results in dehydration, which contributes to the hangover. But it's important to realize that you can be hungover and not dehydrated or dehydrated but not hungover. That is, the symptoms and causes of hangover and dehydration are distinguishable. Alcohol is also processed to an aldehyde and then an acid, both of these might contribute to the symptoms.
2 Congeners - this is the big one. Fermentation by yeast of organic substances (grain, corn, grapes whatever) produces a very very large list of poorly defined chemicals, generically termed "congeners." These lead to headache, photophobia, and lots of other symptoms commonly called hangover. On the plus side, they can taste and smell good...
3 other alcohols - probably not a large contributor, especially these days. will ignore this.
Glycogen metabolism has nothing to do with it. Food stops glycogen metabolism as well as or better than alcohol, but doesn't cause a hangover.
Drinking a lot of fluids during drinking or before you go to bed has two effects. First, it counteracts the dehydration. Second, it gives the kidneys more/better opportunity to process the congeners - they will spend a lot of the night in your bladder instead of washing around your brain.
Aspirin (or ibuprofen etc) helps because it suppresses the formation of prostaglandins. Prostaglandins are probably induced by congeners. If you feel bad simply becuase you're dehydrated, aspirin isn't going to help at all. But aspirin does help hangovers.
Eating food with some water is a great way to avoid a hangover (best that I know of anyway). A lot of the congeners end up passing right through (they get caught up in the food, particularly if it's greasy) instead of reaching the blood stream (and then the brain).
Different alcoholic beverages will give worse hangovers, even given the same amount of alcohol. This is due to different amounts of congeners. Generally speaking, darker beverages will have more, lighter will have less. Highest amounts are found in whiskeys, red wines and beer, lowest amounts in vodka. Obviously there's a lot of variation even within these categories. Some red wines are said to even contain histamines, which is bad to even think about.
Anyway, bottom line is there's a lot more to hangovers than alcohol or dehydration.
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