Why hangovers occur

Dehydration accentuates the symptoms of a hangover. Other factors that contribute to an alcohol hangover include consumption of larger quantities of alcohol than the person can tolerate. Individuals who drink alcohol rapidly, or without food, or without diluting it with nonalcoholic beverages, are more prone to developing a hangover. Mixing different alcoholic drinks can also cause a hangover.

Additionally, smoking, loud music, flashing lights and decreased quality and quantity of sleep can exacerbate hangover headaches. One can diminish the severity of the hangover by paying attention to the amount and type of alcohol consumed, as well as controlling other factors mentioned above.

It is not clear that sugar-containing foods ease hangover symptoms, but sugar and fluids can help overcome hypoglycemia and dehydration, and antacids can help alleviate nausea.

To reduce headache, anti-inflammatory drugs should be used cautiously. Aspirin may irritate the stomach and alcohol can amplify the toxic effects of acetaminophen on the liver. Other drugs have been used to treat hangovers, but most have questionable value. Propranolol, a beta blocker drug, has no beneficial effect on the symptoms of hangover. When we drink, the imbalance between GABA and glutamate — that is, too much GABA and too little glutamate — has been shown in rodents to correlate with the intensity of withdrawal.

Chronic inflammation is believed to be a significant factor in many long-term health conditions, from diabetes to cancer and liver cirrhosis. By harming the blood vessels and your gut, alcohol causes the body to turn on itself. The inflammatory response is unpleasant — symptoms include nausea, vomiting, headache, confusion and tremor, as well as clinical depression, which induces mood changes, cognitive impairment and learning and memory deficits.

Alcohol also damages mitochondrial DNA, particularly in the liver. Mitochondria, the energy-producing machines in our cells, are susceptible to damage from the free radicals produced by alcohol via acetaldehyde.

Even slight damage to the mitochondria can lead to toxicity in brain regions. This is linked to glutamate rebound. Alcohol suppresses glutamate activity in the brain, and after you stop drinking, your body tries to compensate for this by increasing glutamate production.

This may also be linked to glutamate rebound, plus acetaldehyde dilates the blood vessels in our heads. New research also suggests alcohol may cause your immune system to attack your body and release chemicals that cause irritation in blood vessels and nerves, leading to pain including headaches. Headaches may also be tied to dehydration caused by the diuretic effects of alcohol. Alcohol damages the stomach and intestine lining, so it can give you diarrhea and leave you feeling nauseated.

It may cause a tiny bit of inflammation in your pancreas too. It takes about an hour-and-a-half for our bodies to process a standard drink. Other ways to dilute alcohol are to add more ice to drinks; soda to wine or lemonade to beer; or more non-alcoholic mixers to spirits. Flat liquids are better since fizzy drinks could make you absorb alcohol faster. The simplest and most familiar explanation is that drinking alcohol causes dehydration, both because it acts as a diuretic , increasing urine production, and because people who are drinking heavily for multiple hours probably aren't drinking much water during that time period.

But studies examining the link between dehydration and hangovers have turned up some surprising data. One, for instance , found no correlation between high levels of the hormones associated with dehydration and the severity of a hangover. It's most likely that dehydration accounts for some of the symptoms of a hangover dizziness, lightheadedness and thirst but that there are other factors at work as well.

Most scientists believe that a hangover is driven by alcohol interfering with your body's natural balance of chemicals in a more complex way. But this hypothesis, too, has been contradicted by data: In studies , people with severe hangovers weren't found to have lower levels of electrolytes or glucose in their blood.

The most compelling theory, at the moment, is that hangovers result from a buildup of acetaldehyde , a toxic compound, in the body. As the body processes alcohol, acetaldehyde is the very first byproduct, and it's estimated to be between 10 and 30 times as toxic as alcohol itself. In controlled studies, it's been found to cause symptoms such as sweating, skin flushing, nausea and vomiting.

Hangovers could also be driven by the way alcohol messes with your immune system. Studies have found strong correlations between high levels of cytokines —molecules that the immune system uses for signaling—and hangover symptoms. Normally, the body might use cytokines to trigger a fever of inflammatory response to battle an infection, but it seems that excessive alcohol consumption can also provoke cytokine release, leading to symptoms like muscle aches, fatigue, headache or nausea, as well as cognitive effects like memory loss or irritation.

Life, alas, isn't fair. Some people are extremely prone to hangovers, and some can drink with impunity. It seems that genetics are partly to blame. Some people disproportionately those of East Asian descent have a mutation in their gene for the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase that makes it much more effective in converting alcohol into the toxic acetaldehyde.

What causes the typical symptoms of a hangover? And the question perhaps as old as hangovers themselves—are there any real remedies? A hangover refers to a set of symptoms that occur as a consequence of drinking too much. Typical symptoms include fatigue, weakness, thirst, headache, muscle aches, nausea, stomach pain, vertigo, sensitivity to light and sound, anxiety, irritability, sweating, and increased blood pressure.

A hangover can vary from person to person. Alcohol is the main culprit in a hangover, but other components of alcoholic beverages might contribute to hangover symptoms or make a hangover worse.

Because individuals are so different, it is difficult to predict how many drinks will cause a hangover. Any time people drink to intoxication, there is a chance they could have a hangover the next day. Hangover symptoms peak when the blood alcohol concentration in the body returns to about zero.

The symptoms can last 24 hours or longer.