What Exactly is a Hangover?

Two individuals can be at the same party, drinking the same alcoholic beverage, the same number of glasses, over the same amount of time and one will become drunk and have a wicked hangover the next day and the other one won't. What causes one to have a hangover and not the other?

A hangover follows a night or possibly day of drinking too many alcoholic drinks. More alcohol than your system can handle. The result of this overload of alcohol is that your body becomes depleted in nutrients and water. The result is that you become dehydrated. Your body makes up for this dehydration by taking water from where it can, basically your brain. The brain then shrinks and the result is a really bad headache. Dehydration also gives you what is referred to as "cotton mouth". Many individuals experience nausea and vomiting as a result of all the alcohol and sugar that has now upset the stomach.

Symptoms of a hangover:

Signs of dehydration

Dry mouth

Fatique

Headache

Nausea

Weakness

Anxiety

Irritability

Negativity

Difficulty concentrating

Light and sound sensitivity

Difficulty sleeping

Two individuals can be at the same party, drinking the same alcoholic beverage, the same number of glasses, over the same amount of time and one will become drunk and have a wicked hangover the next day and the other one won't. What causes one to have a hangover and not the other?

There are a number of factors that play a role in why one person experiences a hangover after drinking alcohol and another individual won't. Other than the amount of alcohol consumed and the type of alcohol ingested, how fast you drink it and how many you have in what time frame can also have a role in whether or not you become drunk. There is also the factor of how well your body metabolizes alcohol. Our bodies metabolize the things we drink and eat in different ways. Metabolism depends on what is being consumed and if it being consumed with other things like are we eating at the same time we are drinking alcohol? The body absorbs alcohol faster when we eat food at the same time.

Water has an effect on the impact of alcohol on our bodies too. When we drink lots of water before we start drinking alcohol, during the time we are drinking and after we are finished with our drinking event then the water that we drink can lessen the effect that alcohol has on our system and we become less dehydrated than what we would have become had we not had the water. Alcohol contains ethanol, which is what causes the dehydration.

Alcohol consumption causes chemical reactions within the body including the way the liver has to work to break down the ethanol contained in the alcohol. The reaction in the cells of the liver when it is trying to breakdown the ethanol impairs the liver's ability to supply glucose to the tissues within the body such as the brain tissue. Glucose in the brain is how the brain gets energy. When the brain does not receive the glucose, we experience fatigue, weakness, moodiness and sometimes it can affect our ability to concentrate.

Congeners are the chemical by-products of the process of alcohol fermentation. These congeners can exaggerate (make worse) the symptoms of a hangover. Dark alcoholic drinks contain more congeners, which is why those who drink dark alcoholic beverages have more intense hangovers than those who drink clear colored alcoholic beverages.

Cheaper alcoholic beverages have more impurities and are thus more likely to cause greater hangover symptoms.

Those who smoke while they drink exacerbate their symptoms because of the nicotine.

There are always the psychosomatic effects of...if you thing you will have a hangover, you likely will think yourself right into one.

Latest News Concerning Hangovers!

08/29/2008
WEB EXCLUSIVE 8/29 ... Rep. Schwartz talks convention, Palin (The Ambler Gazette)
Fresh off the morning-after excitement hangover of a historic Democratic National Convention, U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-13, was preparing to leave Denver when news broke Friday that Sen. John McCain had chosen dark horse and little known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.

WEB EXCLUSIVE 8/29 ... Rep. Schwartz talks convention, Palin (The Ambler Gazette)

08/28/2008
The Start of China’s Post-Olympics Hangover? (New York Times)
The Olympic party may be over. But the happy music keeps on playing in China, despite signs of serious economic trouble on the horizon. In Shanghai, the World Financial Center skyscraper finally opened after years of controversy over its design and utility.

The Start of China’s Post-Olympics Hangover? (New York Times)

08/29/2008
Giant Hangover (Daily Record)
DRINKS firm Diageo cooled celebrations over £2billion profits yesterday by warning growth may be weaker in the current year. Headline annual profits of £2.09billion were broadly in line with last year, while at an operating level the figure was nine per cent higher.

Giant Hangover (Daily Record)

08/28/2008
Tequila Hangover (Portfolio.com via Yahoo! Finance)
A lot of dead cacti in Mexico are causing a headache for the maker of Southern Comfort and Jack Daniels. The liquor company Brown-Forman said today that quarterly earnings fell 7.5 percent after the cost of dead or dying agave ...

Tequila Hangover (Portfolio.com via Yahoo! Finance)

08/29/2008
WEB EXCLUSIVE 8/29 ... Rep. Schwartz talks convention, Palin (The Ambler Gazette)
Fresh off the morning-after excitement hangover of a historic Democratic National Convention, U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-13, was preparing to leave Denver when news broke Friday that Sen. John McCain had chosen dark horse and little known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.

WEB EXCLUSIVE 8/29 ... Rep. Schwartz talks convention, Palin (The Ambler Gazette)

08/29/2008
Giant Hangover (Daily Record)
DRINKS firm Diageo cooled celebrations over £2billion profits yesterday by warning growth may be weaker in the current year. Headline annual profits of £2.09billion were broadly in line with last year, while at an operating level the figure was nine per cent higher.

Giant Hangover (Daily Record)