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The painful truth about what having a hangover really does to your body

by Dr John F. Ashton

 
Dr David Nutt, a professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, who has been studying hangovers for the past year, is publishing a book on alcohol in January. In an interview Dr Nutt is quoted as saying "Given that hangovers cost the economy billions ... they're vastly under-researched and not very well understood." He goes on to say "If alcohol was invented today - and treated like a new food additive coming to the market - the recommended safe dose would be about a glass of wine per year. We're very harsh on new food and drink meeting certain criteria, but we have a blind spot towards alcohol because it's so embedded into our culture."

For the after effects of alcohol "There's dehydration," says Prof Nutt. "There's inflammation of the brain, which is on a par with a bad cold or flu. The pumping headache is caused by an increase in blood pressure. In fact, incidences of strokes go up on a Sunday and Monday due to weekend alcohol consumption."

And then there's hangxiety - hang-over anxiety - which is due to something called Gaba (gamma-aminobutyric acid), explains Prof Nutt. Alcohol targets the Gaba receptor, which sends messages through the brain and nervous system to inhibit the activity of nerve cells, which calms the brain. Alcohol stimulates Gaba, which is why people begin to unwind and feel happy when they drink.

After the first few drinks, the body starts blocking glutamate, which causes anxiety, and this leads to the "devil-may-care stage" that, for example, sees drinkers buying another round and missing their last train. However, the body registers these imbalances and begins to bring Gaba levels down and glutamate back up. So, overnight, the happy, carefree person becomes the anxious, mildly depressed one the next morning.

"Then there's sleep," continues Prof Nutt. "After four hours of going to bed, withdrawal kicks in, so you don't sleep particularly well.

Glutamate also plays a role in memory, and after about seven drinks the glutamate system is blocked. And if a person can't remember what they said in the pub, it further increases anxiety.

Shy people suffer more, according to a study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, which found introverted people suffer more anxiety. "The people who were more shy had much higher levels of anxiety [the following day after drinking] than the people who weren't shy," said Celia Morgan, professor of psychopharmacology at the University of Exeter, who worked on the study. Also "Liver mass reduces with age, so the liver is less effective at metabolising alcohol [ as we get older]."

Following studies by German researchers earlier this year, in September 2019 a German court officially ruled that a hangover should be classed as an official illness.

Adapted from an article by Maria Lally in the Sydney Morning Herald, October 9, 2019

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