Nutrition Bites

The Science Behind Hangovers - Can We Do Anything About Them?

September 16, 2021 Maggie Clark Season 1 Episode 16
Nutrition Bites
The Science Behind Hangovers - Can We Do Anything About Them?
Show Notes Transcript

If you've ever experienced a hangover you're sure to have asked yourself the following question "Dear God, how can I make this stop?" A hangover is your body's way of not-so-politely telling you that you've been poisoned. Despite your liver  working overtime to try and clear out all the toxins from your previous night of drinking, sometimes it's just not enough. So is there anything you can do to try to prevent a hangover, or ease the pain the next day? Tune into Episode 16 to find out.

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Credit to MonoSheep for the theme music.

Welcome to Nutrition Bites. The no nonsense podcast where you get the truth about food so you can eat what you want and be healthy. I’m your host Maggie and welcome to Episode 16 of this series! Last episode I covered caffeine - the perky little molecule that fires up our nervous system. So it’s only fair to talk about its polar opposite - alcohol - and more specifically, its notorious effects on us the day after. On the menu today, hangovers. 

Being relatively home-bound for the past year and a half has been a pretty unique time to form new habits and break old ones. Some people focused on becoming at-home chefs and mastering YouTube yoga, and others dedicated serious sofa time to streaming services and supporting local restaurants. Amongst my peers, one habit change I’ve noticed is with alcohol. During lockdown, some of my friends regularly capped off their night with a bottle of wine, after all it’s a lot easier to show up to work not feeling or looking the best when your job is online. And others, like myself, almost stopped drinking altogether. But this summer, thanks to the science of vaccines, my bubble opened up and I began socializing in person more often. The most popular activity? Hanging out in the park with a pack of brewskis. That’s Canadian slang for beer. And oh boy, after a year of barely drinking, my tolerance has really dropped, and I have rudely been reminded of a past adversary of mine: the hangover.

A hangover is a bundle of symptoms that result from drinking more alcohol than your body can process. The medical name is veisalgia (vess algae-ah), originating from a combination of Norwegian words which means “the suffering and pain after debauchery”. Very poetic and accurate. The common menu of hangover symptoms include: fatigue, thirst, headache, body aches, nausea, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea, vertigo, anxiety, irritability, and sensitivity to light and sound. An experience that is not for the faint of heart. A hangover generally develops the day after an episode of drinking, or more specifically, when the concentration of alcohol in the blood hits zero. Hangover symptoms can last a few hours to a few days and as anyone who is past their early 20s can attest to, it only gets worse.

Now before diving too deep into hangover talk, I’m going to put on my public health hat for a second. Getting a hangover is your body’s way of not-so-politely telling you that you’ve been poisoned. Excessive drinking is a serious health problem, and as much as I don’t want to sound like those anti-drug campaigners from high school, regular alcohol consumption is the cause of an insane amount of health issues including: liver failure, heart damage, cancer, dementia, depression, weight gain, accidental injury, addiction, and death. At the end of the day alcohol is a drug, and despite its cultural normalization, we do need to proceed with caution. The less you drink the better. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

To understand the science of hangovers, and what we can, or can’t do about them, we need to better understand alcohol. An alcoholic beverage is a drink that contains ethanol, a molecule made from the fermentation of grains, fruits, or any carb-rich source, like honey or potatoes. Ethanol is a water-soluble molecule, which means it is easily absorbed from the stomach to the bloodstream and rapidly transported around the body. Ethanol acts as a depressant to your nervous system, telling your brain to slow things down. In as little as 10 minutes you can begin to feel the relaxing effects that this drug is famous for. And while the brain is busy getting buzzed, your liver is trying to keep you alive.

Like I covered in Episode 2 of the podcast, the liver is your built-in detox warehouse. One of it’s main jobs is to detect and eliminate poisonous substances by metabolizing, or transforming, a toxic molecule into something safe. Metabolism relies on special proteins called enzymes, which kind of act like Cinderella’s fairy godmother transforming a tragic outfit into a tremendous one. Weird metaphor but just role with it.  Alcohol metabolism is a 2-step process. First, an enzyme converts toxic ethanol into a molecule called acetaldehyde, and then a different enzyme transforms that middle molecule into acetate. Acetate is further processed and safely exits your body via your urine. But here’s the thing, that middle molecule - acetaldehyde - is really toxic, even more than ethanol itself. And it’s also partially responsible for your nasty hangover.

Research has shown that those with a buildup of acetaldehyde in their system generally have worse hangovers. It also gives that famous face glow or redness that some people experience after only a few drinks. High levels of this toxic metabolite can occur because of a genetic enzyme deficiency, where the liver is either converting alcohol to acetaldehyde too quickly or acetaldehyde to acetate too slowly. You can also just get a buildup of acetaldehyde simply because you drank too much and your liver is like a non-profit employee, overworked and understaffed. But we can’t place all the blame on this toxic metabolite. The wide variety of hangover symptoms are due to 4 other key factors: dehydration, poor sleep, gastrointestinal distress, and a messed up nervous system. 

Ethanol suppresses, or blocks, the release of a hormone which helps the body retain fluid. This means you’re more likely to pee when drinking and therefore become dehydrated. The result? Fatigue, thirst and a pounding headache. And despite alcohol making you feel drowsy and sleepy it actually prevents you from getting good quality sleep, causing you to feel fatigued and irritable the next day. Alcoholic beverages are also known stomach irritants and increase the release of stomach acid soon after you begin drinking, which contributes to some wicked nausea. Ethanol also agitates the intestines which causes food to rush through your system leading to diarrhea. And finally, while small amounts of alcohol can make you feel calm, relaxed and happy, the mini-withdrawal of this substance on your nervous system can have the opposite effect - making you feel anxious and restless. Not a particularly fun dynamic duo. 

Now the main reason you get a hangover is simple - you drank too much. Your liver only has a set number of enzymes that can metabolize ethanol, and when they’re maxxed out, there are no back-up reserves to call in. The more you drink, the longer it takes to process, and the more ethanol and acetaldehyde you have floating around your body causing a ruckus. Factors like weight, biological sex, genetics, age and medication use can all affect how efficiently you metabolize alcohol, but generally speaking, your liver can process one standard drink per hour. And unfortunately, a long island iced tea is far from standard. This generic formula counts one regular bottle of beer, 5 oz of wine, or 1 shot of hard liquor as a drink. 

But let’s just imagine for a moment, that you know you are going to have a day or evening where you won’t be counting your drinks by the hour. It may not be a public health recommendation, but it’s a reality. So is there anything you can do to lessen a hangover? Your best strategy to prevent a hangover is to keep your blood alcohol concentration at a low level. This means, eating before you drink, so that alcohol is absorbed more slowly into the bloodstream, alternating your beverages with water to help keep you hydrated, and nursing your drink as opposed to chugging, draining, or funneling from a second story window. But there also may be an impact in the choice of liquid courage itself. 

While the main rule of thumb is: the less you drink the better you’ll feel, there is some evidence that points to certain beverages potentially being worse for wear. Congeners are a group of small compounds that provide flavour to alcoholic beverages, and are also thought to be culprits in your hangover. They naturally occur as part of the distilling and fermenting process and are found in large amounts in dark liquors, like brandy and rum, and red wines. One of the nastiest congeners is a molecule called methanol which is a highly toxic substance. It’s metabolized by the same liver enzymes as ethanol, but one of its by-products is formaldehyde - yes, the substance used to preserve dead bodies. So it’s no wonder that some studies have shown that hangovers after consuming high-congener beverages are far worse than those from congener-free liquors like vodka. 

Another hangover, and more specifically headache, suspect are sulfites - compounds used to help maintain the freshness and flavour of wines, and other foods like dried fruit. Wines naturally contain sulfites, but winemaking usually includes additional sulfites to help the beverage last longer. Despite being used for centuries, sulfites have recently been blamed for wine headaches, but this is more fiction than fact. Those with a sulfite allergy will react to exposure with respiratory problems, like difficulty breathing, or hives - not by developing a headache. There are other suspects to blame for that.

High amounts of histamine are found in red wine. This molecule comes from grape skins, and in large quantities it can dilate blood vessels in the brain, which is one way to cause a gnarly headache. Tannins are another group of molecules originating from grape skins, along with the stem and seeds, and they also can contribute to your pounding head after too many glasses of red vino. You may have heard of tannins if you’ve participated in fancy conversations with sommeliers or your bougie wine friends. This group of molecules is known to give wine it’s unique mouthfeel and texture - but they may also cause some unfortunate side effects. One specific tannin, called tyramine, is a well known trigger for people who are sensitive to migraines. But just because a wine contains tannins, does not guarantee it will give you a headache. Depending on where and how a wine is made, it’s histamine and tannin levels will vary. Similarly, genetics and the use of specific medications, like anti-depressants, may impact a person’s ability to metabolize these molecules. So really, how likely a wine is to give you a headache is a mystery only many glasses of wine can solve.But one new trendy type of wine may provide a starting point. Natural wines are a category of drink produced with as little modern intervention as possible, including fewer or no additives like sulfites. Often, but not always, natural wines are made with organic grapes, or from biodynamic vineyards which use more natural methods to take care of the soil and vines. Now you may have heard whispers from the grape vines that natural wines don’t cause headaches or hangovers because of the lack of added sulfites, but we’ve already disproved that myth. Where natural wines have an advantage however, is that they generally have a lower alcohol content than conventional wine. That’s because your standard winemaking often uses added sugar during fermentation in order to speed up production and increase the alcohol level. So without the added sugar, many natural wines have a lower alcohol content, which makes it a safer bet to lessen that hangover. Sometimes, it pays to be trendy. 

Sparkling wines are another interesting category to talk about. While it won’t affect a hangover, carbonated alcoholic beverages, like champagne or cava, may impact how quickly you feel the effects of alcohol. The science is kind of weak, but some studies have shown that carbon dioxide can speed up the rate at which alcohol is absorbed into the blood. This means that your fresh flute of champers may affect you a lot sooner than you realize. But overall whether you’re sipping back Dom Perignon with Diddy, a Carlsberg in Copenhagen, or a Lagavulin in solitude, a la Ron Swanson, what matters the most for your hangover is how much and how quickly you’re drinking. Even the age old rhyme “beer before liquor never been sicker, liquor before beer you’re in the clear” doesn’t hold up. Health researchers have disproved this advice, and the American science show Mythbusters have coined a more accurate phrase to replace it: “no water plus booze, tomorrow you’ll lose”.

I know this is not the answer you want, but it’s the only answer we have. And besides, if I were to find the magic cure for a hangover, you think I would shout about it on this podcast? Absolutely not. I’d patent the hell out of it and become Jeff Bezos level rich, but without the hate for the environment and fair labour practices. 

The best cure for a hangover is rest and hydration. You need time for your body to continue metabolizing ethanol and acetaldehyde, and you need plenty of water to replenish all the fluids lost. And despite any personal testimonies, hair of the dog, or another drink during your hangover, actually just increases the time it takes for your body to recover. While a cup of black coffee may help you feel more awake after a night of poor sleep, the acidity may actually irritate your stomach even more. And despite the allure and pop culture directive to gorge on greasy foods, this just causes extra strain on your poor liver, who now has to process all that fat in addition to alcohol. It’s better to stick with easy-to-digest carbs like rice, bread and crackers. And if you really want to avoid a hangover, well my friends, just don’t drink at all. It’s your only guarantee.

That’s been the bite for today. Stay hungry.