WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: What Happens When I Have A Hangover?

0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:07.200
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff.

0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:09.920
<v Speaker 1>I'm Lauren Boke Obama and this is a classic episode

0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:13.600
<v Speaker 1>from former host Christian Sager. With the holiday season coming

0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:16.200
<v Speaker 1>to a close and lots of buzz about dry January

0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:18.480
<v Speaker 1>in the air, I thought this one would be appropriate

0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:26.640
<v Speaker 1>the topic what happens when I have a hangover? Hey

0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.120
<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff? Christian Sager? Here. Even if you don't drink,

0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:33.279
<v Speaker 1>you know all about the symptoms from TV film and

0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:39.559
<v Speaker 1>maybe your friends. Headaches, malaise, loss of appetite, fatigue, nausea, dehydration,

0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:42.639
<v Speaker 1>and more. If you are or were a drinker, then

0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:44.879
<v Speaker 1>at some point in your life, the odds are that

0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:49.159
<v Speaker 1>you have had a hangover. More than seventy of alcohol

0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:52.440
<v Speaker 1>consumers have had a hangover at least once, and fift

0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:57.800
<v Speaker 1>have had one about once a month. Of college students

0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:02.240
<v Speaker 1>feel the symptoms weekly. Hangover is like the street name

0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:07.760
<v Speaker 1>for the more formal term vasal gia. It derives from cavice,

0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:12.640
<v Speaker 1>a Norwegian word that means uneasiness after drinking, and algaea,

0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:16.680
<v Speaker 1>the Greek word for pain. But what happens during a hangover?

0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:19.880
<v Speaker 1>How does alcohol make you feel so bad the next morning?

0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:23.280
<v Speaker 1>While scientists still aren't certain about all the causes. They

0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.319
<v Speaker 1>have a pretty good idea, So let's talk about what

0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:30.000
<v Speaker 1>happens when you're consuming alcohol. It enters your blood stream

0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:33.319
<v Speaker 1>and causes the pituitary gland in the brain to block

0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:38.640
<v Speaker 1>the creation of vasopressin. Vasa presson is an anti diuretic hormone,

0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.720
<v Speaker 1>and without it, your kidneys send water directly to your

0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:45.440
<v Speaker 1>bladder instead of reabsorbing it into the body. This is

0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.120
<v Speaker 1>why when you're drinking, you need to peace so much.

0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.840
<v Speaker 1>Drinking about two hundred and fifty millileaters of alcohol makes

0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:57.200
<v Speaker 1>your body expel about eight hundred to one thousand million

0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.800
<v Speaker 1>liters of water, one to four times as much liquid

0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:05.640
<v Speaker 1>lost as gained. This helps create that hangover, which leads

0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:09.760
<v Speaker 1>us to dehydration. After a period of heavy drinking. Your

0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:13.399
<v Speaker 1>body desperately wants water and sends you all the signals

0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:17.160
<v Speaker 1>it can to indicate this, a dry mouth, even a headache.

0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:21.400
<v Speaker 1>Headaches are frightening stuff. In this scenario, that headache is

0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:25.240
<v Speaker 1>the result of water thieves inside your body. See, when

0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:28.000
<v Speaker 1>you're hydrated, the other organs in your body try to

0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.840
<v Speaker 1>compensate by stealing water from your brain. This makes your

0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.320
<v Speaker 1>brain shrink. Yeah, it physically shrinks. It pulls on the

0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:39.400
<v Speaker 1>membranes connecting your skull to your brain, and boom, massive

0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:45.359
<v Speaker 1>pulsing pain. Quote. Breaking the seal and urinating frequently can

0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:50.600
<v Speaker 1>also expel potassium, magnesium, and salts needed for nerve and

0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:54.119
<v Speaker 1>muscle function. Without them, you can get fatigue and nausea.

0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:58.639
<v Speaker 1>Lack of glycogen can also contribute to weakness and lack

0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:04.399
<v Speaker 1>of coordination. However, a study found no correlation between this

0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:09.520
<v Speaker 1>and hangovers, so the hypothesis is contradicted by the data,

0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:12.960
<v Speaker 1>at least in one case. There are a few other

0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.560
<v Speaker 1>factors at play here, such as a settled to hide

0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:20.760
<v Speaker 1>and glutamine rebound which sounds like a band but it's not.

0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:25.760
<v Speaker 1>When your liver breaks down an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase,

0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:29.200
<v Speaker 1>it creates something called a settled to hide. This is

0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:33.840
<v Speaker 1>a nasty customer, and it's more toxic than the alcohol itself. Luckily,

0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:38.200
<v Speaker 1>the liver uses another enzyme called a settled to hide

0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:43.240
<v Speaker 1>de hydrogenase and a substance called glutathione to change this

0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:47.040
<v Speaker 1>stuff into non toxic acetate in a short amount of time.

0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:50.120
<v Speaker 1>If you've only had a few drinks, that is. When

0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.440
<v Speaker 1>you drink more booze, your liver runs out of glutath ione,

0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:56.360
<v Speaker 1>and that toxic a settled to hide can cause some

0:03:56.640 --> 0:04:00.480
<v Speaker 1>serious headaches and vomiting. Studies actually show the women have

0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:06.480
<v Speaker 1>less glutathione and acetyla hyde dehydrogenase, making their hangovers potentially worse.

0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:09.960
<v Speaker 1>You know how if someone sleeps while they drank too much,

0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:13.480
<v Speaker 1>they won't sleep as soundly as normal. That's because of

0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:19.120
<v Speaker 1>glutamine rebound. Alcohol suppresses glutamine, one of the body's natural stimulants.

0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.120
<v Speaker 1>When the party is over and you stop imbibing, your

0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:26.240
<v Speaker 1>body tries to compensate by making glutamine more than normal.

0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:30.280
<v Speaker 1>This stimulates the sleeping drinker's brain, keeping him or her

0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.080
<v Speaker 1>from the deepest levels of slumber. This also contributes to

0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:40.400
<v Speaker 1>fatigue and possibly to tremors, anxiety, restlessness, and increased blood pressure.

0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:45.159
<v Speaker 1>And there's your stomach lining. Alcohol gets absorbed directly through

0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:48.839
<v Speaker 1>the stomach and that irritates your stomach cells. Alcohol also

0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:54.320
<v Speaker 1>promotes hydrochloric acid, like don king promotes boxers. Eventually, your

0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:57.039
<v Speaker 1>nerves have had enough and they tell your brain, hey,

0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:01.560
<v Speaker 1>get this booze out of here. Boom, you vomit. It's

0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:05.200
<v Speaker 1>true that vomiting can lessen some hangover symptoms, but it's

0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:10.080
<v Speaker 1>by no means a good life decision. Finally, hangover sufferers

0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:13.599
<v Speaker 1>have been found to have high levels of cytokinds, which

0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:18.120
<v Speaker 1>your immune system normally uses to trigger fever or inflammation

0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:21.560
<v Speaker 1>to battle and infection. It seems that too much alcohol

0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:27.440
<v Speaker 1>can trigger cytokine release, causing symptoms like muscle ache, nausea, fatigue,

0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:31.720
<v Speaker 1>memory loss, and more. And you've probably heard that some

0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:35.360
<v Speaker 1>drinks can cause worse hangovers, and this is true. It

0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:39.360
<v Speaker 1>all goes back to the byproducts of fermentation known as congeners.

0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:43.320
<v Speaker 1>Congeners are essentially various impurities and a given type of

0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:47.640
<v Speaker 1>alcoholic beverage, they combine to create some severe hangover symptoms.

0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.560
<v Speaker 1>Red wine and dark liquors think like bourbon, brandy, tequila,

0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:54.520
<v Speaker 1>and so on, have the highest amounts of these toxins,

0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:58.080
<v Speaker 1>while white wine and clear liquors have a smaller amount.

0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:01.760
<v Speaker 1>Thirty three of people who drank an amount of bourbon

0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:06.159
<v Speaker 1>relative to their body weight reported severe hangovers, while only

0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:10.560
<v Speaker 1>three percent of vodka drinkers experience symptoms. So that's how

0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:14.239
<v Speaker 1>I hangover works. What actually happens when booze meets the body.

0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:18.040
<v Speaker 1>The severity of hangovers doesn't just depend on the booze, though.

0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:21.560
<v Speaker 1>Studies show that your genes, your gender, your body weight,

0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:23.680
<v Speaker 1>and more can all play a role in whether you

0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.440
<v Speaker 1>wake up with a pounding headache or just hit the

0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:29.840
<v Speaker 1>snooze button a few times. There are ways to manage

0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:32.200
<v Speaker 1>a hangover, and it's one of those things it's easier

0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.280
<v Speaker 1>to prevent than to remedy. First, you can drink in

0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:39.400
<v Speaker 1>moderation or you know, you could abstain entirely. Second, if

0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:44.680
<v Speaker 1>you do decide to drink, stay hydrated and eat something.

0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:51.839
<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by Ben Bollin and produced by

0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:54.800
<v Speaker 1>Tyler clang. Brian Stuff is a production of iHeart Radios

0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:56.840
<v Speaker 1>How Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of

0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:59.200
<v Speaker 1>other Hair of the Dog topics, visit our home planet,

0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:02.240
<v Speaker 1>hows toff works dot com. Plus for more podcasts for

0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.160
<v Speaker 1>my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:18.200
<v Speaker 1>or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H