BATTLE BOTTLE-ACHE
Little research has been done about how to prevent dreaded hangovers
The pounding head. The parched mouth. And, worst of all, the crushing sense of anxiety as you cast your foggy mind back to the night before and try to remember if you said or did anything awful.
Most of us have woken up with a hangover at some point and struggled through the day wondering how on earth a few drinks can leave us feeling so wretched (“Can I die from a hangover?” has more than 15 million hits on Google). But the medical definition of a hangover has finally been settled by a German court, which recently ruled it should be classed as an official illness.
The case involved the makers of an anti-hangover shot (not identified), which claimed its product’s “plant extracts with antioxidants, electrolytes and vitamins” could cure the headaches and nausea associated with the morning after. The court in Frankfurt declared that a hangover was an illness and, therefore, the shots were banned from making these claims. (In Germany, it’s illegal to claim that supplements can cure illness or disease.)
“Given that hangovers cost the (U.K.) economy billions of pounds, they’re vastly under-researched and not very well understood,” says David Nutt, a professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, who has been studying hangovers for the past year, and is publishing a book on alcohol in January.
“If alcohol was invented today — and treated like a new food additive coming to the market — the recommended safe dose would be about a glass of wine per year. We’re very harsh on new food and drink meeting certain criteria, but we have a blind spot towards alcohol because it’s so embedded into our culture.”
So what exactly is going on in our weary bodies and throbbing heads the morning after?
“There’s dehydration,” says Nutt. “There’s inflammation of the brain, which is on a par with a bad cold or flu. The pumping headache is caused by an increase in blood pressure. In fact, incidences of strokes go up on Sundays and Mondays due to weekend consumption.
“And then there’s hangxiety — hangover anxiety — which is due to something called Gaba (gamma-aminobutyric acid),” explains Nutt. “Alcohol targets the Gaba receptor, which sends messages through the brain and nervous system to inhibit the activity of nerve cells, which calms the brain. Alcohol stimulates Gaba, which is why you begin to unwind and feel happy when you drink.”
After the first few drinks, you start blocking glutamate, which causes anxiety, and this leads to the devil-may-care stage that sees you buying another round. However, the body registers these imbalances and begins to bring Gaba levels down and glutamate back up. So, overnight, the happy, carefree you in the bar becomes the anxious, depressed one you see in the bathroom mirror the next morning.
“Then there’s sleep,” continues Nutt. “After four hours of going to bed, withdrawal kicks in, so you don’t sleep particularly well. Water before bed to stave off a hangover, or drinking a lot of beer, means getting up early to go to the lavatory, which affects sleep further.”
So do hangovers get worse with age? “There’s no evidence they do,” says Sally Adams, an assistant professor in health psychology at the University of Bath. “Liver mass reduces with age, so your liver is less effective at metabolizing alcohol. But you usually binge drink less in mid-life, compared with university, so you’re less tolerant.”
So is there a cure? “The usual things, like spreading out your drinking and having water in between alcoholic drinks helps,” says Nutt. “Ibuprofen is better than acetaminophen, because it’s anti-inflammatory.”
Nutt also suggests addressing any social anxiety that may lead you to overdrink in the first place. He has developed a drink called Alcarelle, which aims to take the good bits of alcohol, but without the harmful or hangover-inducing ones.
“If you can stomach it, a hefty breakfast may help. But we don’t really know for sure because there’s almost no research into hangovers, despite how common and costly they are . ... But while hangover effects wear off after a day, the effect on your body lasts, and regular drinking takes years off your life.
“Alcohol is a social drug. However, the social benefits are quite enormous. Think about it: the social gatherings of humans over history have been drink-related, from knees-ups in pubs, to wine in churches, beers at sports games and drinking around the Christmas table with loved ones.”
If only it didn’t lead to such wretched hangovers.