What is a hangover, scientifically speaking?

By medical definitions, a hangover is not a serious health condition. However try to explain that to anyone who’s ever had a pounding forehead the morning after a night of excessive alcohol debauchery.



By most common sense definitions, hangovers are the result of consuming too much alcohol over the past 24 hours. The more alcohol you consume, the more likely it is you'll have a hangover.

One of the formost reasons a hangover occurs is dehydration. Ethanol (alcohol) is a diuretic, which means that it causes the person drinking it, ironically, to lose water. It then acts on the brain's pituitary gland, stopping the production of vasopressin, a hormone that controls the re-absorption of water by the kidneys. With this important hormone switched off, our bladders fill up with water and we expel more water than we take in. This also explains why drinking makes you want to pee so much.

Your body and its organs need water to work right. We all know that. Without enough water, the cells begin 'to shrivel up' and that includes your brain cells. Your brain is attached to the skull by filaments and as it shrinks, it pulls on these filaments. Thus, you get that pounding headache that is so synonymous with a hangover.

Your mouth also dries out. Most call this as drymouth. When that happens, bacteria can build up, leaving a foul tasting scum on your tongue. Having fun yet?

It's not just ethanol that causes our hangover since it isn't the only alcohol in beer, wine and spirits. Methanol can be present, particularly in cheap wine and that is a poison to humans. When the liver breaks down methanol, formic acid is formed - a really nasty chemical that you don't anywhere near your body.

Want the bad news now? A person with a hangover is likely to feel cruddy for 8 to 24 hours. Want even more bad news? There’s not much you can do to speed up the process.