This Study Disproves a Common Myth About Hangovers

Hangovers are virtually unavoidable for the drinking public. But despite how common they are, scientists don’t fully understand how to cure or prevent hangovers, or even what causes them. In the absence of evidence, people have come up with plenty of their own rituals, from pre-bedtime routines (chugging water) to strict rules about when to drink which type of alcohol (beer before wine). A new study, however, provides novel insights into hangovers. No matter what type of booze you drink first, it finds, your hangover will be just the same. Hangovers are “one of these things that are not tackled by science a lot at all,” says Dr. Kai Hensel, a senior clinical pediatrics fellow at the University of Cambridge in the UK. So he and his colleagues planned a fun but rigorous study over the course of two years — often over beer, he says. They specifically wanted to explore whether the advice to drink beer before wine, and not the other way around, truly helped people avoid feeling sick. To test the theory, they recruited 90 German medical and psychology students from ages 19 to 40. For a more accurate comparison, each person was compared to two others with the same sex and roughly the same age, body mass index and drinking habits. After everyone ate a hearty meal, one member of each group of three drank about 2.5 pints of lager beer (until they reached a breath alcohol concentration, or BrAC, of 0.05%), followed by about four glasses of white wine (until th...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthytime Research Source Type: news