Hangover myths checked – does counter beer really help against the headache? – Knowledge
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Whether it’s electrolytes or contra-beer: there are many ways to counteract the alcoholic aftermath. Which ones really bring something?
Your head is pounding, your stomach is burning. What was evolution thinking with this reaction to too much mulled wine or beer? Finding a clear answer in science is difficult. To this day, doctors and physiologists disagree on what triggers a hangover.
We have summarized the most important hangover facts for you.
Possible hangover explanations
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Andrew Scholey, for example, Professor of Behavioral and Brain Research at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, has in one Review paper from 2016 summarized the state of research:
One substance that experts have long eyed as a hangover booster is acetaldehyde. This metabolic waste product is produced in the liver when alcohol is broken down. Acetaldehyde is toxic. Until it is converted into acetic acid and finally excreted via the bladder, it can unfold its toxic effects in the body. However, the correlation between the substance concentration and the intensity of the hangover is not clear. And the amount is rather small. Acetaldehyde thus appears to be only partially responsible.
According to Scholey and his colleagues, the free oxygen radicals produced by the breakdown of alcohol – also known as oxidative stress – could be behind this. They have an impact on the immune system, damage cells, change proteins and even the genome.
Alcohol also changes the levels of certain hormones in the body. For example, the release of vasopressin is inhibited. Among other things, this hormone regulates the fluid balance by counteracting water excretion. This is why alcohol consumption leads to an increased urge to urinate. The body loses too much fluid. The hormone aldosterone, which regulates water retention and electrolyte balance, increases. The water content in the blood increases, blood pressure rises and with it the body’s need for water. These processes can lead to dehydration.
Do hangovers get worse with age?
Everything was better before – even your hangover resistance? From a scientific point of view it is possible. But: In most cases, this “only” sets in at the age of 40. Then there are fewer alcohol-degrading enzymes in our liver than at about the age of 20, so it takes longer for the alcohol to be broken down.
In addition, many people react more sensitively to sulphites and tannins as they age. Sulfites are natural preservatives, tannins are vegetable tanning agents – both are found in wine. And many only drink it when they are old.
Is there alcohol that is particularly good for hangovers?
The purer a drink, the less hangover. This is indicated by studies in which some of the participants had to sip vodka (very pure) and some bourbon (very rich in accompanying substances). The latter, also known as “fusel alcohol”, contains a lot of propanol and methanol – the breakdown of which is said to produce a particularly large number of hangover-promoting substances.
That’s why birds tolerate alcohol better than we do
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Did you know that birds – if they are fruit and berry eaters – appear to have developed particularly good metabolic strategies for breaking down alcohol? Ornithologist Roland Prinzinger states in an abstract that they should be able to fly perfectly even with 3.1 per mille. A star the weight of a human could down a glass of wine every single minute without getting drunk.
Evolution offers an explanation: the organisms of carnivores are not equipped to process alcohol, whereas herbivores are more likely to be confronted with fermented fruits and therefore alcohol when searching for food, and have developed metabolic strategies over the course of natural history to break down its toxins.
Does the contra beer really help?
At first glance, studies by the “Alcohol Hangover Research Group” show that counter beer helps – at least temporarily. This is because headaches, nausea and drowsiness reach their peak when the alcohol level in the body has just dropped to zero. Therefore, many still feel relatively good when they get up. Drinking a counter beer (or other alcoholic drink) before the subsequent depression can delay the hangover – but not alleviate it in the long term.
The counter-beer in science
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As described above, an enzyme breaks down the methanol, which is found in many types of alcohol, into formic acid and formaldehyde. Drinking alcohol helps prevent degradation and hangovers. The drinking alcohol ethanol requires the same enzyme as methanol for its breakdown. The crucial difference: ethanol is preferred by our body. Only when it no longer flows out of beer or schnapps does it come to the methanol. Until then, it accumulates.
Anyone who now drinks alcohol in large quantities in the morning can delay the breakdown of methanol. Only: at some point the time will come – and with it the hangover.
Do electrolytes help against hangovers?
The short answer: yes. The length is in this video.
What about the hangover pill?
Throw in two pills before you drink alcohol and no hangover plus liver protection – that’s what a miracle pill from Great Britain promises, which has also been available in Switzerland since July. But what’s the point?
Myrkl – the miracle anti-hangover pill?
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First of all, the pill is a dietary supplement and not a drug. The effect did not have to be scientifically tested and approved by authorities.
The ingredients seem unspectacular: amino acid L-cysteine - important for skin and hair – B12 and the bacterial strains Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus coagulans. In the study cited by the manufacturer, this cocktail worked – no hangover. Only: There were only 24 participants and the study was carried out by the manufacturer of the pills and the founder of the associated company, among others. It is therefore questionable whether these results are independent.
Researchers from the University of Witten/Herdecke have researched the well-known strategy for avoiding hangovers. Her finding: For the hangover, it doesn’t matter in which order you drink beer and wine.
Study participants drank only wine or beer on two evenings and switched to the other drink at 0.5 per mille alcohol in the blood. No difference the morning after.
Do pasta or fries help against a hangover?
Anyone who eats greasy food before drinking feels drunk more slowly, but the alcohol only gets into the blood more slowly. The cat stays. The same applies to carbohydrate-rich fries and pasta: According to some guides, if you eat a lot of them, you don’t have to worry about headaches, since carbohydrates also contain alcoholjust soak up like a sponge.
Last help painkillers?
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Incidentally, acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) or ibuprofen are more suitable for hangover headaches than paracetamol. Both ethanol and acetaminophen are not particularly liver-friendly. They are partially broken down by the same enzyme in the liver, which can slow down the breakdown of alcohol and increase its harmful effects on the liver.
Only: Food is chewed before it ends up in the stomach. So there is no longer a sponge left to “suck up” the alcohol. Even if we swallowed the noodles whole, the alcohol got into the blood.
And now?
As unsatisfactory as it sounds: Less alcohol – and drink a glass of water every now and then.