Subscribe to our RSS FeedBlog

• 

  The science of a Hangover July 11th, 2005 Posted by Hunter Wilson

  It"s around 3 am and I am drunk as Tara Reid at an open bar. I was out all night doing scandalous things with beautiful people in a fabulous place!  At this point of the night, I am in "drunk limbo".  Crazy thoughts cross my mind like : "I"m okay to drive", "Wow, the cab driver is looking pretty hot!", and "Man, I didn"t know I was such a good singer!"  And while I may get a chuckle from these amusing yet fleeting thoughts, there is one in the back of my mind that starts to make me cringe.  That thought would be: "Wow, you are going to feel like shit when you wake up!"  Acting like a retard is not the only consequence of getting this drunk.  Tiredness, sickness, blood-streaked eyes, dry mouth and a sweaty, pale complexion await you in the morning. You awake feeling like death warmed-up, and then you solemnly promise yourself never to take another drink. That"s what’s known as a hangover.   The best cure for a hangover is to prevent them by drinking in moderation, but who in the hell goes to clubs to do that" Even so, it’s possible to take certain precautions which may reduce the next day"s agony. There are one or two remedies before going to bed (if you manage to get to bed) and one or two more for when you wake up in the morning. Applying a little science to the problem can help you feel and look a bit less like a moving corpse.

  Every drink worthy of the name contains ethanol (ethyl alcohol, C2 H5 0H, if you remember your school chemistry) and this is the stuff that gets you drunk. Beer has about 3 to 5%; wine 8 to 14%; most spirits, 40%. These days it’s easier to understand the alcoholic content of what you’re about to drink because it’ll be marked with the percentage of alcohol by volume. It’s a whole lot easier than the old system of degrees proof, which was idiotically complicated. If you do have any bottles marked in the old way, you might like to know that 100 degrees proof spirit is 57% alcohol by volume. Why this is so has got to do with gunpowder, but there’s no space here to go into that now. Ethanol makes the drinker drunk. It gets at those centers of the brain which affect balance and memrory, it dilates the cerebral arteries and also the blood vessels beneath the skin. In addition, it depresses feelings of pain and fatigue and other areas of the brain which exercise caution over our actions - hence the widely held view that alcohol is a stimulant. It is not: it’s a depressant. When the "buck-o-five" weakling picks a fight in the bar, it isn"t because he’s stimulated by alcohol; it’s because the part of his brain which would normally tell him not to be such an idiot, has been numbed into total silence.

  Ethanol is a carbohydrate and a food, and as such is broken down in the body by a complicated metabolic process. Ethanol becomes acetaldehyde, then acetic acid and then carbon dioxide and water. This cycle (the Krebs cycle) is very delicate, and if it is upset, toxic acetaldehyde can remain in the system. Studies have shown that acetaldehyde is present in excess during the hangover period.

  So now that you are at this point, what can you do" Before going to bed, go for a brisk walk around the block, breathing in lots of fresh air, but this is probably too much to ask. It would help to sober you up, stop the ceiling from slowly rotating after you’ve got into bed, plus the blast of oxygen will undoubtedly reduce the depth of the following morning"s hangover. You could try drinking lots and lots of cold water. Alcohol dehydrates the body and you might as well start putting the water back. Tablets of vitamin A and C are said to be beneficial, possibly because they aid the Krebs cycle of breaking down the acetaldehyde. Salt tablets also help some people.

  So what happens if you wake up in the morning and there’s a small army of men with jack-hammers inside your skull. All precautions have failed - you have a hangover. There are instant remedies by the dozen: Black coffee, a serious hit of carbohydrates, or for the professionals out there, another drink. It works, but you’re just postponing the hangover. My own remedy is to sleep for as long as I can. If it’s a day off after the party I suggest you do the same. Time is the best healer - at least, until the next party.

  • Filed Under:
  • Reviews & News
  • 
  • Post a Comment
  • 6 Comments
  

  Hunter Wilson

  Owner, CarolinaNightlife.com1 Posts

  Charles is the Executive Director of Carolina Nightlife and very involved in the nightlife industry in NC and SC. He has been working with venues of all sizes, different brands and products, and countless events across NC and SC for over 8 years.

Post a Comment