1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:03,600 Speaker 1: I'm Kristin Conger and I'm Caroline Irvan, and we're a 2 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:06,400 Speaker 1: host of the podcast Stuff Mom Never told you. That 3 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:08,920 Speaker 1: gets down to the business of being women from every 4 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:14,400 Speaker 1: imaginable angle. That's right. Kristen and I skillfully decode the biology, psychology, 5 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,000 Speaker 1: and sociology of ladies and gents from their evolutionary past 6 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:21,880 Speaker 1: a millennial present to better understand all of that stuff 7 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,360 Speaker 1: Mom never told you. No offense moms, Now be sure 8 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:32,240 Speaker 1: to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to brain 9 00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:40,280 Speaker 1: Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff Christian Sager here. 10 00:00:40,479 --> 00:00:43,120 Speaker 1: Even if you don't drink, you know all about the 11 00:00:43,159 --> 00:00:47,639 Speaker 1: symptoms from TV, film and maybe your friends headaches, malaise, 12 00:00:48,120 --> 00:00:52,920 Speaker 1: loss of appetite, fatigue, nausea, dehydration, and more. If you 13 00:00:53,040 --> 00:00:55,280 Speaker 1: are or were a drinker, then at some point in 14 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:58,400 Speaker 1: your life, the odds are that you have had a hangover. 15 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:02,080 Speaker 1: More than seventy percent of alcohol consumers have had a 16 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:06,800 Speaker 1: hangover at least once, and have had one about once 17 00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:12,880 Speaker 1: a month. Of college students feel the symptoms. Weekly hangover 18 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:16,400 Speaker 1: is like the street name for the more formal term 19 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:21,640 Speaker 1: vasal gia. It derives from cavice a Norwegian word that 20 00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:26,400 Speaker 1: means uneasiness after drinking, and algaea, the Greek word for pain. 21 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:29,920 Speaker 1: But what happens during a hangover? How does alcohol make 22 00:01:29,959 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: you feel so bad the next morning? While scientists still 23 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:36,080 Speaker 1: aren't certain about all the causes, they have a pretty 24 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:38,920 Speaker 1: good idea. So let's talk about what happens when you're 25 00:01:38,959 --> 00:01:42,680 Speaker 1: consuming alcohol. It enters your blood stream and causes the 26 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:47,480 Speaker 1: pituitary gland in the brain to block the creation of vasopressin. 27 00:01:47,840 --> 00:01:51,160 Speaker 1: Vasa pressin is an anti diuretic hormone, and without it, 28 00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:54,960 Speaker 1: your kidneys send water directly to your bladder instead of 29 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:58,040 Speaker 1: reabsorbing it into the body. This is why when you're 30 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:01,840 Speaker 1: drinking you need to pee so much. Drinking about two 31 00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:05,320 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty milli liters of alcohol makes your body 32 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:09,960 Speaker 1: expel about eight hundred to one thousand million liters of water, 33 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:14,200 Speaker 1: one to four times as much liquid lost as gained. 34 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:19,040 Speaker 1: This helps create that hangover, which leads us to dehydration. 35 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:23,040 Speaker 1: After a period of heavy drinking, your body desperately wants 36 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:25,840 Speaker 1: water and sends you all the signals it can to 37 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:30,040 Speaker 1: indicate this. A dry mouth, even a headache. Headaches are 38 00:02:30,440 --> 00:02:33,840 Speaker 1: frightening stuff in this scenario that headache is the result 39 00:02:33,919 --> 00:02:38,079 Speaker 1: of water thieves inside your body. See when you're de hydrated, 40 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:41,120 Speaker 1: the other organs in your body try to compensate by 41 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:44,960 Speaker 1: stealing water from your brain. This makes your brain shrink. Yeah, 42 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:48,440 Speaker 1: it physically shrinks. It pulls on the membranes connecting your 43 00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:54,160 Speaker 1: skull to your brain, and boom, massive pulsing pain. Quote. 44 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:59,960 Speaker 1: Breaking the seal and urinating frequently can also expel potassium, magnese, 45 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:04,280 Speaker 1: seum and salts needed for nerve and muscle function. Without them, 46 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:08,000 Speaker 1: you can get fatigue and nausea. Lack of glycogen can 47 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:12,640 Speaker 1: also contribute to weakness and lack of coordination. However, a 48 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:18,760 Speaker 1: study found no correlation between this and hangovers, so the 49 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:23,280 Speaker 1: hypothesis is contradicted by the data, at least in one case. 50 00:03:23,919 --> 00:03:26,600 Speaker 1: There are a few other factors at play here, such 51 00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:31,320 Speaker 1: as a settled to hide and glutamine rebound which sounds 52 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:34,160 Speaker 1: like a band but it's not. When your liver breaks 53 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:39,160 Speaker 1: down an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase, it creates something called 54 00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:42,360 Speaker 1: a settled to hide. This is a nasty customer, and 55 00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: it's more toxic than the alcohol itself. Luckily, the liver 56 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:51,280 Speaker 1: uses another enzyme called a settled to hide de hydrogenase 57 00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:56,000 Speaker 1: and a substance called glutathione to change this stuff into 58 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:59,440 Speaker 1: non toxic acetate in a short amount of time. If 59 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:02,160 Speaker 1: you've only had a few drinks, that is, when you 60 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: drink more booze, your liver runs out of glutoth ione, 61 00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:09,160 Speaker 1: and that toxic a settled hide can cause some serious 62 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:12,880 Speaker 1: headaches and vomiting. Studies actually show that women have less 63 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:18,480 Speaker 1: glutoth ione and actyla hyde dehydrogenase, making their hangovers potentially worse. 64 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:21,960 Speaker 1: You know how, if someone sleeps while they drank too much, 65 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:25,440 Speaker 1: they won't sleep as soundly as normal. That's because of 66 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:31,080 Speaker 1: glutamine rebound. Alcohol suppresses glutamine, one of the body's natural stimulants. 67 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:34,440 Speaker 1: When the party's over and you stop imbibing, your body 68 00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:38,760 Speaker 1: tries to compensate by making glutamine more than normal. This 69 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: stimulates the sleeping drinker's brain, keeping him or her from 70 00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:46,680 Speaker 1: the deepest levels of slumber. This also contributes to fatigue 71 00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:52,320 Speaker 1: and possibly to tremors, anxiety, restlessness, and increased blood pressure. 72 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:57,159 Speaker 1: And there's your stomach lining. Alcohol gets absorbed directly through 73 00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:00,800 Speaker 1: the stomach and that irritates your stomach cells. Alcohol also 74 00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:06,240 Speaker 1: promotes hydrochloric acid, like don King promotes boxers. Eventually, your 75 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:09,000 Speaker 1: nerves have had enough and they tell your brain, hey, 76 00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:13,479 Speaker 1: get this booze out of here. Boom you vomit. It's 77 00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:17,120 Speaker 1: true that vomiting can lessen some hangover symptoms, but it's 78 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:22,080 Speaker 1: by no means a good life decision. Finally, hangover sufferers 79 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:25,520 Speaker 1: have been found to have high levels of cytokines, which 80 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:30,080 Speaker 1: your immune system normally uses to trigger fever or inflammation 81 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:33,520 Speaker 1: to battle and infection. It seems that too much alcohol 82 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:39,360 Speaker 1: can trigger cytokine release, causing symptoms like muscle ache, nausea, fatigue, 83 00:05:39,839 --> 00:05:43,760 Speaker 1: memory loss, and more. And you've probably heard that some 84 00:05:43,839 --> 00:05:47,320 Speaker 1: drinks can cause worse hangovers, and this is true. It 85 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:51,320 Speaker 1: all goes back to the byproducts of fermentation known as congeners. 86 00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:55,279 Speaker 1: Congeners are essentially various impurities and a given type of 87 00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:59,600 Speaker 1: alcoholic beverage. They combine to create some severe hangover symptoms. 88 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:03,520 Speaker 1: Red wine and dark liquors think like bourbon, brandy, tequila, 89 00:06:03,560 --> 00:06:06,520 Speaker 1: and so on, have the highest amounts of these toxins, 90 00:06:06,520 --> 00:06:10,000 Speaker 1: while white wine and clear liquors have a smaller amount. 91 00:06:11,640 --> 00:06:14,479 Speaker 1: Of People who drank an amount of bourbon relative to 92 00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:18,839 Speaker 1: their body weight reported severe hangovers, while only three percent 93 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:23,400 Speaker 1: of vodka drinkers experience symptoms. So that's how I hangover works. 94 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:27,120 Speaker 1: What actually happens when booze meets the body. The severity 95 00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:30,800 Speaker 1: of hangovers doesn't just depend on the booze, though. Studies 96 00:06:30,839 --> 00:06:33,640 Speaker 1: show that your genes, your gender, your body weight, and 97 00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:35,920 Speaker 1: more can all play a role in whether you wake 98 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:38,760 Speaker 1: up with a pounding headache or just hit the snooze 99 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:42,360 Speaker 1: button a few times. There are ways to manage a hangover, 100 00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:44,760 Speaker 1: and it's one of those things it's easier to prevent 101 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:48,440 Speaker 1: than to remedy. First, you can drink in moderation or 102 00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:51,720 Speaker 1: you know, you could abstain entirely. Second, if you do 103 00:06:51,839 --> 00:07:02,360 Speaker 1: decide to drink, stay hydrated, and eat something. Check out 104 00:07:02,400 --> 00:07:04,560 Speaker 1: the brainstuff channel on YouTube, and for more on this 105 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:21,400 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.