Do Certain Drinks Worsen Hangovers?
Hangovers — an inevitable consequence we pay for a heavy night of drinking. Is there a way of decreasing the severity of our hangover? Do certain drinks make us suffer more the next day? And does mixing drinks worsen it?
With hangovers being such a familiar feeling, there is quite a lot of anecdotal theories around what exacerbates hangover symptoms. But, most have no scientific grounding or have not been studied.
There has been some suggestion that certain alcoholic drinks make us feel worse the next day. Congeners are what is responsible for this.
Congeners are biological compounds in alcohol, produced during fermentation. They contribute to the taste, colour and smell of the drink.
High congener drinks include red wine, bourbon and whiskey. Whereas low congener drinks include gin and vodka. You get the idea.
There is some belief that drinks with high congener content result in worse hangovers — so bourbon makes you feel worse than vodka.
Well, is it true?
A classic study investigated this. Participants were either given bourbon or vodka in an experimental ‘party setting’. The amount of alcohol given was controlled for, along with several other factors. Hangover was assessed on a subjective rating scale with a checklist of symptoms.
The results? 33% of those drinking bourbon experienced hangovers, whereas only 3% of those drinking vodka experienced one.
This suggests congeners contribute to hangover severity. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though as the evidence is mixed.
Another study investigated congener content. The researchers were interested in determining whether heavy drinking of high or low congener content had an effect on hangover and next day cognitive performance. Once again, participants were given a set amount of vodka or bourbon.
As you would imagine, cognitive performance was impaired when hungover. However, congener content did not have an influence. Congeners were only related to hangover severity which means participants felt subjectively worse.
What does this all mean?
Different types of alcohol most likely do not differentially affect your hangover. It’s very unlikely the nature of the beverage differentially influences this, especially as there isn’t much scientific grounding for why congener content would make us feel worse.
So why do we feel worse after bourbon compared to vodka?
We may have an expectancy to feel worse after drinking certain things. This would contribute to a more severe hangover, subjectively of course. Expectations are a powerful thing, influencing our hangover even if our objective performance is not any different.
So, what about mixing drinks — does that worsen hangovers?
Lots of anecdotal evidence suggests it does.
A study investigated this in a lab with different combinations and orders of beer and wine on hangover intensity.
They found absolutely nothing — neither order or type of alcohol consumption significantly affected hangover. Mixing most likely does not affect your hangover.
Why do we feel worse after mixing then?
Well, the nights you mix your drinks are probably the same nights when you are consuming a substantial amount of alcohol. So it probably is not the fact you are mixing but because you’ve drank too much — hence the hangover.
The most meaningful association once again is the number of drinks consumed equating to your hangover symptoms.
As you may imagine, hangover research is incredibly difficult to carry out. It isn’t quite as straightforward as alcohol intoxication. Getting people to come into a lab hungover — well, I am sure you can see the problems.
Hangovers have been typically studied in two ways.
The lab setting — you give participants a set amount of alcohol in the lab and once their blood alcohol concentration level reaches 0 (the definition of a hangover), they are given a series of cognitive tests and questionnaires. Although this is problematic as it isn’t very ecologically valid, people usually drink a lot more when they are drinking in a naturalistic setting.
The alternative?
The naturalistic setting — participants are asked to come into the lab the day after they go out and plan to drink heavily. That day you get them to come into the lab that morning, when they are feeling really hungover and you run a series of measures on them.
Foresee the problem with this? For a start lots of people don’t show up because they are hungover — meaning the worst cases never turn up to the lab. And although it is more ecologically valid, you rely on people to recall how much they drank when they were drunk — once again, problematic!
Both of these designs have their benefits and drawbacks — as with any research there is often a trade-off with the way you study something and what you find.
Hangover is also a very subjective experience which makes it difficult to study objectively. It isn’t as straightforward as being intoxicated, we don’t have a test to assess your hangover objectively (even if it is obvious when you are hungover).
As mentioned, expectations cloud a lot. We cannot blind someone experimentally to be hungover, or to what alcohol they are drinking — you can probably tell the difference between bourbon and vodka.
As you can see, there are lots of pitfalls with hangover research. Studying intoxication is a lot easier and thus why there are so many more studies investigating the effects of intoxication.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be studying hangover though. Hangover has an immense impact on our productivity and absence at work. This area requires a lot more attention due to it being so under-researched and we are learning new ways to study and measure hangover.
So, watch this space, as there is still a lot to learn — which is exciting (or at least for me it is).
I hope this article has show you the importance of dispelling hangover myths. It is necessary to not take these theories at face value and to realise that it isn’t what you are drinking that is causing your hangover but rather the quantity in which you are drinking it in.
The only way to avoid a hangover is to lessen the amount you drink!
