\nNearly everyone who has overindulged on alcohol on New Year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Eve has woken up on Jan. 1 with the tell-tale signs of a hangover, including bleary eyes, nausea and the classic pounding headache.\n<\/p>\n
\nWhile there are plenty of theories and superstitions about how to get over a nasty hangover, people may not know the actual science behind that pounding feeling in your head. For this New Year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Eve (and day), we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re breaking down the actual science of a hangover.\n<\/p>\n
\nWhat Causes a Hangover? \nDr. Crystal Lantz-DeGeorge, an internal medicine physician at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, said whether or not you have a bad hangover depends on how your body breaks down alcohol.\n<\/p>\n \nFirst, the body absorbs the alcohol through the intestines into the blood stream. As the liver filters the blood, it uses chemicals, including an enzyme, to break down the alcohol first into acetaldehyde and then acetic acid, which is removed in your waste. Lantz-DeGeorge said it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the build-up of acetaldehyde \u00e2\u20ac\u0153that causes all the hangover symptoms.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\n<\/p>\n \nLantz-DeGeorge said if your body isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t making these chemicals fast enough to break down acetaldehyde into acetic acid, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to have an even worse hangover.\n<\/p>\n \nHow Do You Get Over a Hangover? \nLantz-DeGeorge said an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory can help mitigate the symptoms, but most people will just have to wait until their body finishes processing the alcohol.\n<\/p>\n \n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no magical quick fixes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lantz-DeGeorge said of hangover cures. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no special food, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no evidence that hair of the dog would do anything except lead to another hangover.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\n<\/p>\n \nShe warns against taking acetaminophen as it is processed through the liver and can strain the organ already working to breakdown alcohol in the blood.\n<\/p>\n \nDehydration can make hangovers seem worse, so drinking water is key since alcohol is a diuretic.\n<\/p>\n \nWhy Do Some People Have Worse Hangovers Than Others? \nNot all drinkers are created equal and some people are more prone to terrible hangovers than others. Lantz-DeGeorge said people of certain ethnicities, including people of East Asian descent, can be more likely to have a whopper of a hangover the day after drinking due to genetic factors.\n<\/p>\n \n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They have mutation in their gene, that first step is very efficient,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lantz-DeGeorge said of breaking down alcohol in to acetaldehyde.\n<\/p>\n \nHowever, she said they often have less ability to then break down the acetaldehyde quickly, meaning the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153alcohol gets them to a toxic hangover.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\n<\/p>\n \nIs One Booze Better for Avoiding Hangovers?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \nIn terms of the alcohol breakdown, there is no magic drink that will protect you from a hangover unless it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nonalcoholic. Lantz-DeGeorge said unsurprisingly the more alcohol you drink, the more likely you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have a bad hangover.\n<\/p>\n \nLanz-DeGeoge said some liquors have compounds that can actually worsen an already bad hangover. She explained that some darker liquors like scotch or bourbon have chemicals that arise from fermentation that, when broken down, can make a drinker feel even lousier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nearly everyone who has overindulged on alcohol on New Year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Eve has woken up on Jan. 1 with the tell-tale signs of a hangover, including bleary eyes, nausea and the classic pounding headache. While there are plenty of theories and superstitions about how to get over a nasty hangover, people may not know the actual Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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