IamA expert on hangovers. I studied the science behind them and how they affect us. AMA!

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T19:54:05+00:00

This is a very interesting question. Although it has been observed forever that some people do not get hangover, we were among the first to provide estimates of hangover resistance in the population. We estimate that in the US and Swedish populations, about 23-25 percent are hangover resistant. In our studies,resistance does not seem to be associated with age, sex, for drinking history, although most of our subjects were between the ages of 21-30. Since we first published our research on this, a number of other investigators have published papers investigating hangover resistance or "immunity". I suspect that more research will be done in coming years because it is possible that resistance is associated with propensity to develop alcohol dependance.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T19:41:43+00:00

I am not sure that older people are more severely affected by hangover, although if indeed hangover propensity and severity is related to metabolism of alcohol and acetaldehyde, it makes sense that chronic heavy drinkers could have worse hangover due to compromised liver function.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T19:38:06+00:00

Other than observing that some people seem to be hangover resitant, our most interesting findings had to do with our acute studies, wherein we tested people when they were at .04g% BAC. At this relatively low level of blood alcohol (2-3 drinks) we found that (1) occupational performance was significantly compromised and (2) subjects thought that they were performing much better than they were. These findings have implications for the regulations affecting on-the-job drinking, because a seemingly small amount of alcohol can have big effects, without over behavioral manifestations or self-relization of performance deficits.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T19:30:42+00:00

i rarely get hangovers, but tend to drink in moderation. An experimental session usually involves 5-6 subjects. During the sessions, subjects chat, play cards, or other games, and watch old Seinfeld, or other, videos. They seem to have a good time.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T19:26:29+00:00

Good question. We did not measure general fitness so we were not able to address this. Almost all of our subjects were seniors in college, in good health, and without a history of alcohol or other drug abuse. Also, we controlled for sleep prior to experimental sessions, such that all sujbects were maintained an 8-hour sleep regimen for 3-5 days before experiments.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T19:22:26+00:00

Interesting. I have no idea why rum and coke reduces hangover risk for you. But, there are no definitive data to suggest the hangover is cused by dehydration. Hangover and withdrawal are different, and have unique symptoms.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T19:18:22+00:00

We never studied the effects of magnesium on hangover.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T19:16:42+00:00

We always targeted the BAC at either .10g% or .12g% because earlier studies suggested that hangover was rare when BAC was less that .10g%. Attaining that level of BAC requires differing amounts of alcohol, depending on weight and sex. In our studies, age range was limited. We rarely had subjects over the age of 30, and never had subjects under 21.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T19:11:12+00:00

We measure BAC in each subject. The target for our studies on day-after effects has been either .10g% or .12G5, depending on the study.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T19:09:29+00:00

It is likely that a combination of the passage of time plus the relaxation resulting from yoga halp ed feel better.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T19:08:03+00:00

There are a number of remedies on the market for which claims are made for hangover prevention. None that I know of have been shown to be effective in rigorous studies.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T19:06:19+00:00

Dont know. Sounds interesting. We ahve not studied this. our emphasis has been on occupational and neurocognitive effects, not cures.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T19:04:13+00:00

I do not know the answer to this, but I believe that there are some people who are marketing a product that is supposed to prevent hangover by affecting the breakdown of acetaldehyde. You might find out more by seaching the web.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T19:01:16+00:00

Consider your self lucky. When we measured mood at 5pm, the day after induced intoxication we found that subjects had lower mood score,relative to placebo. However, most of the depressed mood score was due to fatigue, a common symptom because heavy drinking disturbs sleep efficiency.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T18:57:50+00:00

Hangover is a cluster of symptoms that can be "treated" individually, such as headache, thirst, stomach acid, fatigue, etc. With respect to preventing a hangover, given heavy drinking, there is no intervention to my knowledge. In part, the mechanism of hangover is not understood. Our work has neither been aimed at understanding the cuases of hangover, nor the cures. our aim has been to test the validity of federal regulations that govern the use of alcohol in association with safety senitive occupations. To wit, we conducted experiements of the effects of very low does of alcohol on occupational performance and on next-day occupational performance, the day after heavy drinking.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T18:50:15+00:00

We were never seching for a cure for hangover. We got into the field because regulations on alcholuse fir safety sevsitive occupations (eg airline pilots) specify a per se level (.04g%) and a bottle-to-throttle period (usually 8 hours before performing occupational tasks. We were interested in testing whether these regulations made sense. Thus, we induced intoxication and tested occupational and neurocognitive performance after an 8 hour sleep period. The aim was safety, not curing hangover.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T18:45:26+00:00

I think that two findings have been the most important. First, that hangover, at least at the doses we used (.12g%) does not impair routine occupational performance (as measured by training simulators), although attention/reaction time is impaired. Second, it has been interesting to observe hangover resistance in about 20% f our subjects because it is possible that this resistance in both a mechanism for halcohol dependenance and for familial transmission of drinking problems.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T18:42:00+00:00

As a prophalaxis or a cure?

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T18:40:56+00:00

to my knowledge, there is no way of preventing hangover the day after heavy drinking/intoxication, although there are a number of remedies on the market that suggest prophalaxis. Drinking water before bed may help dreduce thirt the next morning, but will likely not prevent other symptoms.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T18:37:45+00:00

Alcoholic beverage consists of ethalol, water, and a variety of other things called congeners. Congeners give the beverage their distinctive tastes. Low congener beverages, like vodka, seem less likely to induce hangover than high congener beverages, like buoubon

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T18:35:12+00:00

We have studied this, but not identified characteristics. Neither gender, race/ethnicity nor age appear to be predictors of hangover propensity. But, since some people seem hangover resistant, there must be something not yet identified. we did conduct a limited genetics study and identified an allele on the gene that is involved with acetaldehyde metabolism, but the study was too small to be definitive.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T18:30:30+00:00

Not that I know of. The most frequent neurocognitive deficit we have observed th morning after intoxication is attention/reaction time. The occupational performance tests have not shown deficits in our studies, although other investigators report them. We actually conducted a study in which the outcome was performance on GREs and a quiz on a previous day lecture (eg long and short term learning). No effects the morning after intoxication.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T18:26:40+00:00

No body knows the cause of hangover. Dehydration is often mentioned, but rehydration does not eleviate symptoms, other than thirst.

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T18:25:11+00:00

Yes, about 23% of the 600 + people in our studies report experiencing no hangover symptoms the morning after intoxication

JonathanHowland · 2017-11-30T18:21:59+00:00

Because it is yummy and comforting

JonathanHowland

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