"From red wine headaches to mixing drinks, here's what to know about hangovers ahead of New Year's Day.
Bouts of amnesia, throbbing headaches, extreme lethargy and nausea that's cruelly combined with overwhelming hunger – when you list them out, the symptoms could describe a terrible new medical condition. But of course, this is just a classic hangover.
After a night of consuming humanity's favourite toxin, as dawn breaks across the globe on New Year's Day, millions of people will awake with a groan and a feeling of nagging curiosity about exactly what they got up to the night before. To help others through this annual alcohol-induced reckoning, we have nobly curated some key findings about hangovers, from the folk wisdom that's genuinely backed by scientific evidence to the surprising power of expectation.
The ethanol in alcohol is normally converted to acetaldehyde in the body, which the enzyme ALDH coverts to acetate. It’s not always the type of alcohol to blame, sometimes it's down to individual differences in the way our bodies metabolise alcohol. Some people have enzymes that don't process this as efficiently, and the levels of noxious acetaldehyde build up, causing those famous red wine headaches.
According to popular wisdom, not all alcoholic drinks are created equal – at least in terms of the severity of the hangover they cause. And there are certainly some differences in the substances that alcohol beverages contain which can influence a hangover.
And the higher the alcohol content of a drink, the easier it is to drink more of it in a short space of time, especially if you are having cocktails that mask the taste with flavoursome mixers.
There are other substances lurking in your favourite tipple that can also contribute to how rough you feel the next morning. And they help to explain why certain beverages can leave some of us feeling worse than others.
Chief among these are chemicals the beverage industry calls congeners, which are produced during the fermentation process. These include substances such as acetone, fusel oil and tannins, which give darker drinks such as whiskey and red wine their colour and astringent taste.
So while moderating the total amount of alcohol you drink will be most effective at avoiding that hangover, it might be best to lay off the dark stuff if you are having a few.
Others swear by a plate of greasy food after a night out or a hideous concoction known as a Prairie Oyster – a mixture of raw eggs, tomato juice and hot sauce. But in truth, hangovers are generally not caused by a nutritional deficiency.
Our decision to drink more during social occasions is often driven by the behaviour of our friends and family. Our brain is constantly picking up on cues from other people to inform the way we act.
"Anything our friends do influences us in ways that we are conscious of or not. Their presence can decide whether we act on that health information or ignore it," says Christin Scholz, assistant professor in persuasive communication at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
"Say I have a conversation with a friend the day before about some of the negative sides of alcohol but the next day I am in a bar with other people – I would still argue that conversation has some form of influence on me," says Scholz.
So, the best way to avoid a hangover? Well, it's drinking less alcohol. But there are some tricks to make this easier, such as discussing the adverse effects of drinking with friends beforehand, and playing on your expectations to experience some of the pleasant social effects you're after with less – or perhaps even no – booze. If you do have a heavy night planned, steering clear or whiskey or red wine can also help."