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‘Tis the season to have a hangover. But of course, they’re not unique to Christmas – the average Brit spends more than a year of their life hungover, according to research by cancer charity MacMillan.
A hangover doesn’t just make you feel physically ill: research from the University of Bristol has found that people who drank the night before performed worse on maths and memory tests the next day, and were also less able to control their emotions. .
Dr Craig Gunn, a professor of psychological sciences who led the study, said: “Hangovers appear to affect most aspects of executive functions (key skills such as problem solving). This substantial impact on individuals and society in general should be considered a public health problem.’
Here, we look at how alcohol affects you from the first sip and how to minimize hangover symptoms.
TWO MINUTES AFTER STARTING TO DRINK:
Alcohol is absorbed through the mucous membrane lining the stomach and intestine and enters the bloodstream.
“Approximately a quarter is absorbed through the stomach; the remainder is absorbed along the digestive tract,” explains Debbie Shawcross, professor of hepatology and medical adviser to the British Liver Trust.
“How quickly alcohol is absorbed depends on factors such as its concentration (drinks with a higher concentration of alcohol are absorbed more quickly) or whether the stomach is empty (food slows absorption).”
A hangover doesn’t just make you feel physically ill: research has found that people who drank the night before performed worse on math and memory tests the next day.
AFTER FIVE TO TEN MINUTES:
Alcohol very quickly crosses the blood-brain barrier (the protective barrier surrounding the brain) where it stimulates the release of dopamine and serotonin, feel-good chemicals.
This upsets the balance of these key chemical messengers (which are responsible for regulating mood and rational thought), lowering inhibitions and causing impulsive behavior.
AFTER 30 MINUTES:
A single unit of alcohol (about a small glass of wine or a pint of beer) will have been completely absorbed by the intestine and passed into the bloodstream, which is when you start to feel drunk.
AFTER ONE HOUR:
The body treats alcohol as a toxin, something that must be eliminated, and that is the function of the liver.
The liver processes alcohol at “a constant rate of 60 minutes per unit”, explains Professor Shawcross. Most alcohol is broken down by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase and converted to acetaldehyde.
“This chemical is what can cause the skin redness, nausea and palpitations that are often associated with drinking,” he says.
“Other enzymes then break down acetaldehyde into acetate, which breaks down into carbon dioxide and water and is eliminated from the body,” mostly through urine (which is why trips to the bathroom become more frequent after one hour). drink). “Some of the acetate is also expelled with breath and sweat,” says Professor Shawcross (the reason someone might smell the drink the day after a heavy night).
“The liver cannot accelerate this detoxification process, even with excess alcohol,” he adds. “So even after you stop drinking, alcohol can remain in your blood for up to six hours and in your breath for 12 to 24 hours.”
AFTER TWO HOURS:
If you continue drinking, you will begin to move more slowly, your balance will be affected, and your speech will become slurred, as alcohol reduces the production of a chemical messenger called GABA in the brain.
AFTER FOUR HOURS:
As your liver struggles to process the alcohol still entering your system (further impairing coordination and thought processes), the alcohol acts as a sedative, so you begin to feel drowsy or pass out.
Hangover symptoms are the result of alcohol and acetaldehyde lingering in your body:
HEADACHE: This is mainly a result of dehydration from urinating more. “Urinating a lot means you also lose electrolytes (like sodium and potassium), which exacerbates headaches,” says Dr. Gunn.
NAUSEA: Acetaldehyde irritates the lining of the intestine, which can cause diarrhea and nausea.
PAINS AND TIREDNESS: After excessive alcohol consumption, the immune system releases cytokines (the same protein that makes you feel sick when you have a cold) to counteract the damage caused by acetaldehyde.
“But this immune response can also cause feelings of fatigue and muscle pain,” says Dr. Gunn.
And because the liver is busy breaking down alcohol, it doesn’t produce as much glucose to maintain normal blood sugar levels, causing fatigue.
FOOD CRAVINGS: Research shows that people tend to choose unhealthy foods the day after drinking, possibly due to low blood sugar and tiredness.
SLEEP PROBLEMS: Alcohol consumption can affect our biological clock and lead to fragmented sleep, and that has a knock-on effect on mood and fatigue. In 2019, researchers at Claude Bernad University in France found that after heavy drinking, it can take several days for the body to return to normal sleep patterns.
ANXIETY: Alcohol is a relaxant, so the more you drink, the more relaxing brain chemicals, like dopamine, are released.
This causes your confused brain to try to restore balance the next day by releasing chemicals that have a stimulating effect, such as cortisol. This leads to an increased heart rate and feelings of anxiety.
“Studies show that people who are hungover view normally pleasant images (cute bunnies, for example) less favorably,” says Dr. Gunn. “Your normal ability to regulate emotions and how you experience pain seem important, and the more an individual catastrophizes pain and emotions in general, the greater the severity of their hangovers.”
Generally, the more you drink, the worse you feel the next day.
“But now we think this is different for each person and may be related to how drunk you think you are, rather than simply the amount of alcohol consumed,” says Dr. Gunn.
Alcohol also affects women more, as they have lower levels of alcohol dehydrogenase, the enzyme that breaks it down. And hangovers get worse with age because “the activity of the enzymes that break down alcohol is reduced, so it is metabolized more slowly and acetaldehyde levels take longer to combat,” says Professor Shawcross.
As for hangover remedies, do any work? “In short, no,” says Dr. Gunn. “The best way to limit hangovers is to consume alcohol in moderation.”
But the following may help:
- Do not drink on an empty stomach;
- Sip water or non-carbonated beverages between alcoholic drinks to reduce the load on the liver;
- And drink plenty of water before going to bed.