January 4, 2020 • 7 mins
One unpleasant effect of drinking alcohol can be the collection of symptoms known as a hangover -- a pulsing headache, dry mouth, nausea, and more. Learn what's actually happening to your body -- and whether there's any way to fix or prevent it -- in this episode of BrainStuff.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff.
I'm Lauren Boke Obama and this is a classic episode
from former host Christian Sager. With the holiday season coming
to a close and lots of buzz about dry January
in the air, I thought this one would be appropriate
the topic what happens when I have a hangover? Hey
(00:26):
brain Stuff? Christian Sager? Here. Even if you don't drink,
you know all about the symptoms from TV film and
maybe your friends. Headaches, malaise, loss of appetite, fatigue, nausea, dehydration,
and more. If you are or were a drinker, then
at some point in your life, the odds are that
you have had a hangover. More than seventy of alcohol
(00:49):
consumers have had a hangover at least once, and fift
have had one about once a month. Of college students
feel the symptoms weekly. Hangover is like the street name
for the more formal term vasal gia. It derives from cavice,
a Norwegian word that means uneasiness after drinking, and algaea,
(01:12):
the Greek word for pain. But what happens during a hangover?
How does alcohol make you feel so bad the next morning?
While scientists still aren't certain about all the causes. They
have a pretty good idea, So let's talk about what
happens when you're consuming alcohol. It enters your blood stream
and causes the pituitary gland in the brain to block
(01:33):
the creation of vasopressin. Vasa presson is an anti diuretic hormone,
and without it, your kidneys send water directly to your
bladder instead of reabsorbing it into the body. This is
why when you're drinking, you need to peace so much.
Drinking about two hundred and fifty millileaters of alcohol makes
your body expel about eight hundred to one thousand million
(01:57):
liters of water, one to four times as much liquid
lost as gained. This helps create that hangover, which leads
us to dehydration. After a period of heavy drinking. Your
body desperately wants water and sends you all the signals
it can to indicate this, a dry mouth, even a headache.
(02:17):
Headaches are frightening stuff. In this scenario, that headache is
the result of water thieves inside your body. See, when
you're hydrated, the other organs in your body try to
compensate by stealing water from your brain. This makes your
brain shrink. Yeah, it physically shrinks. It pulls on the
membranes connecting your skull to your brain, and boom, massive
(02:39):
pulsing pain. Quote. Breaking the seal and urinating frequently can
also expel potassium, magnesium, and salts needed for nerve and
muscle function. Without them, you can get fatigue and nausea.
Lack of glycogen can also contribute to weakness and lack
of coordination. However, a study found no correlation between this
(03:04):
and hangovers, so the hypothesis is contradicted by the data,
at least in one case. There are a few other
factors at play here, such as a settled to hide
and glutamine rebound which sounds like a band but it's not.
When your liver breaks down an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase,
(03:25):
it creates something called a settled to hide. This is
a nasty customer, and it's more toxic than the alcohol itself. Luckily,
the liver uses another enzyme called a settled to hide
de hydrogenase and a substance called glutathione to change this
stuff into non toxic acetate in a short amount of time.
(03:47):
If you've only had a few drinks, that is. When
you drink more booze, your liver runs out of glutath ione,
and that toxic a settled to hide can cause some
serious headaches and vomiting. Studies actually show the women have
less glutathione and acetyla hyde dehydrogenase, making their hangovers potentially worse.
You know how if someone sleeps while they drank too much,
(04:10):
they won't sleep as soundly as normal. That's because of
glutamine rebound. Alcohol suppresses glutamine, one of the body's natural stimulants.
When the party is over and you stop imbibing, your
body tries to compensate by making glutamine more than normal.
This stimulates the sleeping drinker's brain, keeping him or her
(04:30):
from the deepest levels of slumber. This also contributes to
fatigue and possibly to tremors, anxiety, restlessness, and increased blood pressure.
And there's your stomach lining. Alcohol gets absorbed directly through
the stomach and that irritates your stomach cells. Alcohol also
promotes hydrochloric acid, like don king promotes boxers. Eventually, your
(04:54):
nerves have had enough and they tell your brain, hey,
get this booze out of here. Boom, you vomit. It's
true that vomiting can lessen some hangover symptoms, but it's
by no means a good life decision. Finally, hangover sufferers
have been found to have high levels of cytokinds, which
your immune system normally uses to trigger fever or inflammation
(05:18):
to battle and infection. It seems that too much alcohol
can trigger cytokine release, causing symptoms like muscle ache, nausea, fatigue,
memory loss, and more. And you've probably heard that some
drinks can cause worse hangovers, and this is true. It
all goes back to the byproducts of fermentation known as congeners.
(05:39):
Congeners are essentially various impurities and a given type of
alcoholic beverage, they combine to create some severe hangover symptoms.
Red wine and dark liquors think like bourbon, brandy, tequila,
and so on, have the highest amounts of these toxins,
while white wine and clear liquors have a smaller amount.
Thirty three of people who drank an amount of bourbon
(06:01):
relative to their body weight reported severe hangovers, while only
three percent of vodka drinkers experience symptoms. So that's how
I hangover works. What actually happens when booze meets the body.
The severity of hangovers doesn't just depend on the booze, though.
Studies show that your genes, your gender, your body weight,
and more can all play a role in whether you
(06:23):
wake up with a pounding headache or just hit the
snooze button a few times. There are ways to manage
a hangover, and it's one of those things it's easier
to prevent than to remedy. First, you can drink in
moderation or you know, you could abstain entirely. Second, if
you do decide to drink, stay hydrated and eat something.
(06:49):
Today's episode was written by Ben Bollin and produced by
Tyler clang. Brian Stuff is a production of iHeart Radios
How Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of
other Hair of the Dog topics, visit our home planet,
hows toff works dot com. Plus for more podcasts for
my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff.
I'm Lauren Boke Obama and this is a classic episode
from former host Christian Sager. With the holiday season coming
to a close and lots of buzz about dry January
in the air, I thought this one would be appropriate
the topic what happens when I have a hangover? Hey
(00:26):
brain Stuff? Christian Sager? Here. Even if you don't drink,
you know all about the symptoms from TV film and
maybe your friends. Headaches, malaise, loss of appetite, fatigue, nausea, dehydration,
and more. If you are or were a drinker, then
at some point in your life, the odds are that
you have had a hangover. More than seventy of alcohol
(00:49):
consumers have had a hangover at least once, and fift
have had one about once a month. Of college students
feel the symptoms weekly. Hangover is like the street name
for the more formal term vasal gia. It derives from cavice,
a Norwegian word that means uneasiness after drinking, and algaea,
(01:12):
the Greek word for pain. But what happens during a hangover?
How does alcohol make you feel so bad the next morning?
While scientists still aren't certain about all the causes. They
have a pretty good idea, So let's talk about what
happens when you're consuming alcohol. It enters your blood stream
and causes the pituitary gland in the brain to block
(01:33):
the creation of vasopressin. Vasa presson is an anti diuretic hormone,
and without it, your kidneys send water directly to your
bladder instead of reabsorbing it into the body. This is
why when you're drinking, you need to peace so much.
Drinking about two hundred and fifty millileaters of alcohol makes
your body expel about eight hundred to one thousand million
(01:57):
liters of water, one to four times as much liquid
lost as gained. This helps create that hangover, which leads
us to dehydration. After a period of heavy drinking. Your
body desperately wants water and sends you all the signals
it can to indicate this, a dry mouth, even a headache.
(02:17):
Headaches are frightening stuff. In this scenario, that headache is
the result of water thieves inside your body. See, when
you're hydrated, the other organs in your body try to
compensate by stealing water from your brain. This makes your
brain shrink. Yeah, it physically shrinks. It pulls on the
membranes connecting your skull to your brain, and boom, massive
(02:39):
pulsing pain. Quote. Breaking the seal and urinating frequently can
also expel potassium, magnesium, and salts needed for nerve and
muscle function. Without them, you can get fatigue and nausea.
Lack of glycogen can also contribute to weakness and lack
of coordination. However, a study found no correlation between this
(03:04):
and hangovers, so the hypothesis is contradicted by the data,
at least in one case. There are a few other
factors at play here, such as a settled to hide
and glutamine rebound which sounds like a band but it's not.
When your liver breaks down an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase,
(03:25):
it creates something called a settled to hide. This is
a nasty customer, and it's more toxic than the alcohol itself. Luckily,
the liver uses another enzyme called a settled to hide
de hydrogenase and a substance called glutathione to change this
stuff into non toxic acetate in a short amount of time.
(03:47):
If you've only had a few drinks, that is. When
you drink more booze, your liver runs out of glutath ione,
and that toxic a settled to hide can cause some
serious headaches and vomiting. Studies actually show the women have
less glutathione and acetyla hyde dehydrogenase, making their hangovers potentially worse.
You know how if someone sleeps while they drank too much,
(04:10):
they won't sleep as soundly as normal. That's because of
glutamine rebound. Alcohol suppresses glutamine, one of the body's natural stimulants.
When the party is over and you stop imbibing, your
body tries to compensate by making glutamine more than normal.
This stimulates the sleeping drinker's brain, keeping him or her
(04:30):
from the deepest levels of slumber. This also contributes to
fatigue and possibly to tremors, anxiety, restlessness, and increased blood pressure.
And there's your stomach lining. Alcohol gets absorbed directly through
the stomach and that irritates your stomach cells. Alcohol also
promotes hydrochloric acid, like don king promotes boxers. Eventually, your
(04:54):
nerves have had enough and they tell your brain, hey,
get this booze out of here. Boom, you vomit. It's
true that vomiting can lessen some hangover symptoms, but it's
by no means a good life decision. Finally, hangover sufferers
have been found to have high levels of cytokinds, which
your immune system normally uses to trigger fever or inflammation
(05:18):
to battle and infection. It seems that too much alcohol
can trigger cytokine release, causing symptoms like muscle ache, nausea, fatigue,
memory loss, and more. And you've probably heard that some
drinks can cause worse hangovers, and this is true. It
all goes back to the byproducts of fermentation known as congeners.
(05:39):
Congeners are essentially various impurities and a given type of
alcoholic beverage, they combine to create some severe hangover symptoms.
Red wine and dark liquors think like bourbon, brandy, tequila,
and so on, have the highest amounts of these toxins,
while white wine and clear liquors have a smaller amount.
Thirty three of people who drank an amount of bourbon
(06:01):
relative to their body weight reported severe hangovers, while only
three percent of vodka drinkers experience symptoms. So that's how
I hangover works. What actually happens when booze meets the body.
The severity of hangovers doesn't just depend on the booze, though.
Studies show that your genes, your gender, your body weight,
and more can all play a role in whether you
(06:23):
wake up with a pounding headache or just hit the
snooze button a few times. There are ways to manage
a hangover, and it's one of those things it's easier
to prevent than to remedy. First, you can drink in
moderation or you know, you could abstain entirely. Second, if
you do decide to drink, stay hydrated and eat something.
(06:49):
Today's episode was written by Ben Bollin and produced by
Tyler clang. Brian Stuff is a production of iHeart Radios
How Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of
other Hair of the Dog topics, visit our home planet,
hows toff works dot com. Plus for more podcasts for
my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H
BrainStuff News
Hosts And Creators
Josh Clark
Jonathan Strickland
Ben Bowlin
Lauren Vogelbaum
Cristen Conger
Christian Sager
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