The Biology Behind Hangover Cures

There are many popular hangover cures floating around including drinking a little more alcohol, eating burnt toast or consuming large amounts of black coffee. There are also commercial products that claim to be hangover cures such as “Chaser”. What is the biology behind these cures?

Cure # 1 – Consuming a little more alcohol. This is a fictional cure. It does not work. It only postpones the inevitable. The liver will only have more toxins to break down and your eventual symptoms will worsen.

Cure #2 – Burnt Toast

The cure is based on the carbon in the burnt toast. The theory is that the carbon will act like a filter in your body. It is true that activated charcoal (treated with carbon) is used to treat some types of poisonings; it is not currently being used to treat alcohol poisoning. Alcohol poisoning is NOT a hangover. The carbon found on burnt toast is NOT the same as the activated charcoal, nor is it the same as the products advertised for hangover remedy that say they contain carbon.

This cure is also fictional and will not work against hangover symptoms.

Cure #3 – Consuming large amounts of black coffee contains a high amount of caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant and does help fight fatigue. However, when the caffeine wears off, the drinker becomes even more tired. Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor, so it does reduce the size of blood vessels in the head, therefore it does aid in the relief of headaches. Caffeine however is also a diuretic, like alcohol it can make a drinker dehydrated, which, then worsens the symptoms of a hangover. When all things are taken into consideration coffee is not a good hangover cure.

Coffee as a hangover cure is fictional and overall it will increase symptoms rather than relieve them.

Cure #4 – Fatty or greasy foods taken the morning after will only irritate a drinker’s stomach when it is already irritated by the alcohol. Eating them however BEFORE you start drinking can actually be helpful. Fatty foods will stick to the lining of the stomach longer than other foods and will therefore slow down the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream. This will give the body longer to process the byproducts of alcohol and will allow the drinker to perhaps feel better in the morning. Taking a spoonful of olive oil prior to drinking alcohol is a Mediterranean folk tactic that actually has some validity. It is a good idea to eat lighter foods such as a fruit smoothie that will also provide you with energy and help to alleviate some of the symptoms by replenishing the electrolytes that the body loses from dehydration.

Fact – this cure is actually an excellent prevention but as a cure (remedy) it is fictional (does not work).

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