The Common Hangover
The most universal and dreaded type of hangover stems from drinking too much alcohol. Binge drinking leads to dehydration and an inflammatory response, causing classic symptoms like:
- Throbbing headache
- Nausea
- Dizziness
- Fatigue
- Sensitivity to light and sound
- Irritability and mental fogginess
- Muscle aches and weakness
- Increased heart rate
- Loss of appetite
- Stomach pain and diarrhea
This toxic hangover is your body’s way of responding to high alcohol intake, impaired sleep, and depleted vitamins and electrolytes. The severity depends on personal alcohol tolerance but hitting more than 4-5 standard drinks can put most people at risk.
What Causes a Common Hangover?
The primary culprit is ethanol, aka pure alcohol. As you drink more, ethanol builds up in your bloodstream. This has widespread effects like:
- Dehydrating the body - Increased urine output causes loss of fluids, electrolytes.
- Irritating the stomach lining - Can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea.
- Changing glucose metabolism - Causes blood sugar spikes and drops.
- Promoting inflammatory response - Causes additional pain, nausea, dizziness.
- Impairing sleep quality - Disrupts sleep rhythms and REM sleep.
- Toxic metabolite production - Body converts ethanol into acetaldehyde and other toxins.
You may also have less of important B vitamins because alcohol impedes their absorption and increases excretion. Other contributors like lack of quality sleep, mixing alcohol types, not eating enough, genetics, and environmental factors can worsen a hangover too.
Relieving a Common Hangover
While time is the only true cure, you can relieve common hangover symptoms with:
- Rehydrating with water and electrolyte drinks
- Eating bland, easily digested foods like toast or broth
- Taking over-the-counter pain relievers if needed
- Getting light exercise like walking to improve circulation
- Trying ginger, mint, or caffeine for nausea
- Sleeping it off more if possible
- Avoiding “hair of the dog” with more alcohol, which only prolongs misery
The Wine Hangover
Wine hangovers get their own category due to a distinctive excess histamine effect. Red wine contains high levels of histamines, compounds released by your immune system during allergic reactions. Too much histamine can cause symptoms like:
- Flushed, red appearance
- Hives or itchy skin
- Runny nose and sneezing
- Headache
- Dizziness
- Rapid heart rate
These uncomfortable signs usually peak about 30 minutes to 1 hour after drinking wine. Antihistamines like Zyrtec, Claritin or Benadryl can counteract them. Sticking to low-histamine varietals like Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon can help too.
Why Does Wine Cause Hangovers?
Along with natural histamines, compounds like tannins and sulfites make wine more likely to spur hangovers. Possible mechanisms include:
- Histamines trigger inflammatory response
- Tannins strip away protective mucus in stomach
- Sulfites form compounds that irritate blood vessels
- Impurities produce toxin acetaldehyde
- Sugars and compounds cause fluid imbalance
The purer the wine, the less likely it is to spur a nasty hangover. Other factors like lack of food, dehydration, and individual tolerance also influence wine hangover occurrence.
Treating a Wine Hangover
For relief, try:
- Antihistamines like Claritin or Zyrtec
- Hydrating well with water
- Eating foods rich in vitamin B6 like bananas, chicken, and pistachios
- Drinking vegetable juice for electrolytes
- Taking activated charcoal or milk thistle supplements to remove toxins
- Using a saline nasal spray for congestion
- Getting fresh air and light exercise
The Congeners Hangover
Not all types of alcohol are created equal when it comes to hangovers. Darker spirits like bourbon, brandy, and rum contain chemical impurities called congeners that can worsen hangovers. Congeners are natural byproducts of fermentation and include chemicals like acetone, acetaldehyde, and tannins.
Higher congener spirits make you more vulnerable to:
- Headache
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Fatigue
- Impaired motor skills
- Vertigo
Research confirms the types of alcohol with the most congeners - bourbon, brandy, tequila, rum and whiskey - lead to more severe hangovers than vodka, gin or clear liquors with fewer impurities.
How Congeners Promote Hangovers
Congeners contribute to hangovers through:
- Irritating the lining of arteries and tissue
- Interfering with electrolyte balance
- Depleting vitamin B6 needed to break down alcohol
- Containing toxic chemicals like methanol that the body must detoxify
- Slowing the metabolism of alcohol, prolonging its effects
The more impurities you consume, the more unpleasant the resulting hangover. Other factors like drinking on an empty stomach make symptoms worse too.
Relieving a Congeners Hangover
Ways to bounce back from a congener-fueled hangover include:
- Drinking plenty of water and electrolyte sports drinks
- Replenishing vitamin B6 with food sources or a supplement
- Taking milk thistle to support liver detox
- Using ibuprofen, acetaminophen or aspirin for pain relief
- Eating easily digestible carbohydrates like toast, rice, crackers
- Getting light exercise to boost circulation and clear toxins
Sticking to clear liquor with minimal congeners can help prevent repeated misery. But moderation is always key, even with purer alcohols.
The Sugary Drinks Hangover
It's not just straight alcohol that can bring on hangover hell. Sugary bottled cocktails, wine coolers, hard seltzers with natural fruit flavors, and other mixed drinks can also leave you with a wicked headache. These beverages often contain:
- High fructose corn syrup
- Refined cane sugar
- Natural grape and fruit sugars
- Artificial sweeteners
The crash after excess blood sugar and metabolic stress from these sweeteners produces symptoms like:
- Headache
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Dehydration
- Stomach pain
- Increased thirst
- Irritability
Why Sugary Drinks Cause Hangovers
Reasons these sweet cocktails can spur hangovers include:
- Sudden blood sugar spike, then sharp drop as alcohol impairs glucose metabolism
- Dehydration from fluids pulling water into cells to cope with sugar rush
- Inflammation and vasodilation (expanded blood vessels) caused by excess sugars
- Toxins formed when sugars ferment in the gut due to alcohol slowing digestion
- Impurities from artificial sweeteners and dyes
The body goes through major ups and downs trying to restore normal blood sugar balance after you overdo sweet cocktails.
Recovering From a Sweet Drink Hangover
To feel better after too many sickly sweet alcohol drinks, try:
- Replenishing electrolytes with sports drinks, broth, banana
- Eating complex carbs like oatmeal, sweet potato, quinoa to stabilize blood sugar
- Taking B vitamins to improve energy and brain function
- Drinking pineapple juice to reduce inflammation
- Using milk thistle to detoxify the liver
- Getting light exercise to improve circulation
Moderating intake of sugary alcohol drinks and choosing options made with natural sweeteners can prevent this unpleasant aftermath. Hydrating well with water between drinks helps too.
The Gluten Hangover
Think only food causes gluten issues? Think again. Many beers contain gluten, meaning they can leave those with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity with serious stomach woes and other symptoms like:
- Bloating
- Gas
- Abdominal pain
- Diarrhea
- Headache
- Brain fog
- Fatigue
In fact, studies show 50% of celiacs react to the gluten in beer. The pain, diarrhea and fatigue resemble an awful hangover.
Why Beer Causes Gluten Hangovers
Most beers contain gluten from barley and wheat used in brewing. Gluten triggers immune reactions and gut inflammation in sensitive people. Specifically:
- Gluten damages intestinal villi, hampering nutrient absorption
- Inflammation releases cytokines that cause symptoms
- FODMAPs in beer ferment in the gut, producing gas
Those with celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity endure the worst effects. But gluten can bother anyone's digestive system.
Relieving a Gluten Hangover
To counteract a gluten beer hangover:
- Choose gluten-removed or gluten-free beer alternatives
- Take digestive enzymes to help break down gluten
- Use activated charcoal to absorb gluten and toxins
- Try bone broth to heal gut lining irritation
- Take anti-inflammatory supplements like quercetin, milk thistle, ginger
- Get light exercise to boost circulation and energy
Avoiding gluten-containing beers in favor of ciders, gluten-free beers, and some liqueurs can help prevent repeat episodes.
The Low-Quality Alcohol Hangover
Drinking dirt-cheap alcohol often leaves you paying the price with next-day misery. Poorly made and processed spirits—especially dark liquors like whiskey, rum, tequila and brandy—contain more hangover-inducing congeners and other contaminants.
Symptoms from low-quality booze include:
- Intense headache
- Nausea and vomiting
- Stomach pain
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Rapid heartbeat
- Anxiety
- Brain fog
- Mood swings
- Flushing and sweating
How Low-Quality Alcohol Causes Hangovers
In addition to extra congeners, cheap alcohol can contain:
- Methanol and ethylene glycol from improper distillation
- Propylene glycol to enhance flavor
- Artificial dyes and chemicals
- Pesticide residue on base grains
- Lead and other heavy metals from equipment
Your body must work overtime to detoxify these contaminants, causing more inflammation and toxicity.
Overcoming a Low-Quality Alcohol Hangover
Give your body the support it needs to bounce back:
- Drink water and electrolytes to flush out toxins
- Take activated charcoal and milk thistle to bind toxins
- Eat nutritious foods high in antioxidants and vitamins
- Use rehydration powders or drinks
- Take anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen
- Get light physical activity for circulation
- Take a B-complex vitamin to replenish depleted B vitamins
The simplest solution--stick to high-quality alcohol without additives and impurities.
Preventing Different Types of Hangovers
While you can't always avoid a hangover, using these preventive strategies can help:
Pace Drinks & Alternate Alcohol
Drink water or non-alcoholic beverages between each alcoholic drink. Alternate drinks containing congeners with lighter drinks.
Eat Before and While Drinking
Consuming foods with carbs, protein and fat helps slow alcohol absorption and provides energy.
Supplement Key Vitamins & Minerals
Take a B-complex vitamin, drink coconut water for electrolytes, and use milk thistle before and after to prepare the body.
Choose Higher Quality Alcohol
Select well-distilled, additive-free liquors. Check purity indicators like labeling.
Avoid Sugary Mixers & Shooters
Skip sugary juices, sodas, and flavored liquors. Opt for soda water, tonics, lemon/lime.
Check Alcohol Content
Higher proof and volume drinks make hangovers more likely. Stick to 12oz of beer, 5oz wine, or 1.5oz liquor.
Hydrate Before Bed
Drink a glass or two of water at the end of the night to counteract dehydration.
Knowing Your Personal Hangover Thresholds
While these general tips help, you'll need to learn your own hangover thresholds for maximum prevention. Things that influence individual susceptibility include:
Add Comment