What is a hangover and why does my head hurt?

Answer 1

Hope this helps Good Luck !

Anyone who has gotten drunk knows that drinking eventually leads to multiple trips to the bathroom. This is because consumption of alcohol causes a decrease in a substance called anti-diuretic hormone (ADH). As blood alcohol levels rise, less ADH is available, and more water is excreted by the kidneys. This situation reverses itself, however, when blood alcohol levels begin to fall, and your body begins to compensate for the temporary, alcohol induced dehydration. ADH levels rise, urinary output decreases, and you become thirsty. By the time the hangover gets into full swing, you are actually retaining fluid, as evidenced by the puffy eyes and face that some people get after a night of drinking. I suspect that this fluid retention, also known as edema, contributes to the hangover headache.

Some of the other effects of hangover appear to be caused by a condition known as metabolic acidosis. Acidosis is when your blood becomes more acidic than it should be. There are a number of reasons why alcohol causes this, but suffice it to say that alcohol interferes with the normal metabolism of some acids, and actually produces others. The end result is a slight increase in the acidity of your blood. This increase reaches its peak during the hangover period, and the level of acidity is strongly correlated with the severity of the hangover symptoms. It takes your kidneys and lungs about 18-24 hours to return the blood acid levels back to normal. It seems likely that the symptoms of nausea and sweating are related to this temporary increase in blood acidity.

The third cause of hangover symptoms is a disruption of some of your normal daily (circadian) rhythms. I have found some studies which observed that alcohol consumption that leads to drunkenness can change the normal daily rhythm of body temperature and brain activity. In those cases, the subjects body clocks were set back about 6 hours; that means that if they woke up at 9:00am after a night of drinking, their body thought it was 3:00am. This could definitely account for hangover grogginess and irritability.

Lastly, some people believe that certain impurities or toxins that can be found in alcoholic drinks, called congeners, can cause hangover. In fact, there is a brand of vodka that used to market itself as so pure that it was hangover free; I believe some governmental agency has since made them stop saying that. In any event, drinks like vodka and gin have fewer congeners, and are supposed to produce less of a hangover, whereas drinks like whisky and red wine, which have lots of non-alcohol ingredients, are supposed to insure a big headache. Along these same lines is the idea that a toxic byproduct of alcohol metabolism (acetaldehyde), builds in the bloodstream and causes hangover.

I suppose I just have a couple of things to say about congeners and acetaldehyde. First, the acetaldehyde hypothesis simply is incorrect; blood levels never really get very high, the levels aren't correlated with hangover symptoms, and it's all gone by the time you actually have the hangover. Regarding the congeners, most of the studies done on hangover used pure alcohol as the drink, so its pretty clear you can get a whopper of a hangover just by drinking alcohol. Second, the scientific studies are all over the map on this point. Some say congeners definitely make a difference, other found no difference whatsoever. It could be that some people are more susceptible than others, or that people get the result they expect to get. Scientifically though, the question hasn't been adequately answered yet in my mind.


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Hangover Treatments
Once you have a hangover, there really isn't anything you can do except wait for it to go away. Ibuprofen may help the headache, but the rest just needs time. Of course, one answer would be to avoid the hangover altogether by not overdoing it...

... but most of us at least occasionally do overdo it. And so most of us have our favorite home remedy: a couple of glasses of water and an aspirin before bed; some fruit juice the next morning; another drink (hair of the dog) when you wake up. Or, on the prevention side, not drinking on an empty stomach, not mixing drinks or drinking only "clean" drinks like gin. The question is, is there any scientific reason to believe that any of these really work?

Well, here's what I think about, based on the research I've done.


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‘hair of the dog": this works by reintroducing alcohol into your system. Remember, hangover is caused by the elimination of alcohol, so if you put alcohol back in, it relieves the symptoms. The problem is that you are only delaying the inevitable. Unless you plan on staying permanently drunk, you'll have to come down sometime, so this seems a pretty silly, and possibly dangerous, treatment to me.

Eating/fruit juice: Some studies have shown that eating fruit sugars along with the alcohol reduces the subsequent metabolic acidosis a bit, but it didn't affect the severity of the hangover symptoms at all. Fruit sugars taken during the period of hangover didn't help at all, which suggests the remedy of drinking fruit juice the next morning has no real basis. Its probably a good idea to eat before or while you are drinking. It will slow the absorption of alcohol, and it will likely reduce the level of later acidosis, which certainly can't hurt. You should be careful about highly sugary drinks though. The sugar masks the taste of the alcohol, and makes it easier to drink more than you intended.

water and aspirin: It seems like the water is a good idea. Perhaps the best idea would be to drink a glass of water every-so-often throughout the evening. It should reduce the initial dehydration, and therefore likely reduce the rebound edema. It might also keep you from drinking too fast. I would probably choose something like ibuprofen over aspirin, since both aspirin and alcohol can irritate the stomach. I would stay far away from acetaminophen when drinking alcohol; the combination can damage your liver

Answer 2

It can cause a hangover. Any alcoholic drink can cause a hangover. Different alcoholic concoctions affect people differently. The best way to prevent a hangover is make sure you drink plenty of water while you’re drinking and take two Aleeve before you go to bed. Since you’re already hungover there’s not much you can do besides rest, maybe hair of the dog, or take prescription medications you probably don’t have access to.

Answer 3

A hangover is the result of the alcohol leaving your system at a rapid rate after having been used to constantly consuming it over a period of time and suddenly stopping. Thus, the best cure for a hangover (when possible) is to take maybe a shot an hour so that the alcohol is not leaving your blood stream so quickly.

Answer 4

Many years ago the chemistry students at Colorado State University did an experiment with different kinds of booze that they analyzed with a mass spectrometer. They discovered that the more expensive the booze, the less impurities in it. Their conclusion (and one which I have tested and whole heartedly agree with) is that if you are going to drink, drink the most expensive booze you can afford. (Also, skip the additions and drink it straight or on the rocks.) And drink some water and get some sleep lol.

Answer 5

a hangover is a measure of how crazy you got the night before....if you've just got a headache, you were probly a little too loud and a little to happy....if your moaning in bed , unable to keep your lunch down, you should probably avoid the crowd you saw last night for a few weeks andmaybe get a pregnancy test lol

Answer 6

a hang over is the result of dehydration and poisoning. If you start with a glass of water and finish with two, it wont hurt so bad the next day.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

It is nature's way of telling you not to drink.