Skip to main content.

Hungover? Go Lighter on the Alchohol (Lighter Color, That Is)

by Mikhail Keyserman

Most college students are well acquainted with the symptoms of a morning hangover. Over consumption of any type of alcohol can cause dehydration, lethargy, nausea, sensitivity to sunlight and noise, and headache the morning after. A recent study reported in The British Medical Journal suggests that the type of alcohol consumed can have a significant impact on the effects of a hangover.

Experts say that the type of alcohol you drink does make a difference, but for various reasons [1]. Hangover symptoms are multi-causal. Ethanol has dehydrating and lethargic effects; it causes the brain to shrink away from the skull. Also, alcohol’s impact on the stomach lining may account for nausea due to the increased NADH production during metabolism of ethanol. Another manifestation of a hangover is the closing of capillaries in the skin, contributing to the headache and fatigue that is often experienced.

Among the most important determinants of hangover severity is the amount of congeners, or complex organic impurities produced during fermentation, in a particular drink. Impurities in poorly refined spirits, such as cheap vodka, can also play a role, but congeners, which are common in darker liquors, seem to have the greatest effect. According to one report in The British Medical Journal, which looked at the effects of different types of alcohol, the drink that produced the most hangover symptoms was brandy, followed by red wine, rum, whiskey, white wine, gin and last vodka [2]. Another study showed that bourbon was twice as likely to cause sickness as the same amount of vodka [2].

It is worth noting that there is a wide variation within some types of drinks, especially wine. Wines that come from countries where there is very little climate change actually contain more hangover-inducing compounds when the wine was made in a bad season [3]. Thus it is important to check the country of origin of wines. Inexpensive red wines, in particular, have a reputation for causing sickness. But that may be because some people suffer from a syndrome called red wine headache, whose cause is still unknown. What scientists do know is that the wines that cause it vary from person to person, and across brands, grapes and price [2].

References:
1) 2006 Sept 15. Causes of a Hangover. Drink Focus. <http://www.drinkfocus.com/hangovers/causes.php>. Accessed 2006 Nov 13.
2) O’Connor, Anahad. 2006 Nov. The Claim: Some Types of Alcohol Cause Worse Hangovers Than Others. NY Times. <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/health/07real.html?ex=1163826000&en=c16c8ae8b0a709bd&ei=5070&emc=eta1>. Accessed 2006 Nov 15.
3) BBC. 2006 Nov. Hangover. BBC Health. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/hangover1.shtml>. Accessed 2006 Nov 13.