Hangovers: What You Need To Know

You had a great time the night before--but now you're reeling from a combination of extremely nasty after-effects: you feel sick, you ache all over, you keep running to the toilet, you can't stand to see the light, and worse, there's a pain that’s pounding through your head like a pneumatic drill. Welcome to the world of hangovers, which has made many a party animal to question if it was all worth it and swear, "never again!"

Why Alcohol Causes Headaches

So why does drinking alcohol give you a pounding headache afterwards? The main culprit is ethanol, a substance made from fermenting the sugar and starch found in grains. Ethanol mainly used to make alcohol as well as motor fuel.

There are several ways that ethanol can give you a headache. Ethanol can directly cause vasodilation, in which the blood vessels expand, giving you that pounding head. Ethanol is also a natural diuretic, which makes your body lose vitamins, minerals and salt. As a survival mechanism, once it realizes that it is becoming dehydrated, your body diverts the blood supply to your limbs and skin surface to the major organs like your brain, causing the blood vessels in your brain to enlarge and vasodilate, resulting in a headache.

There's also the chance that last night's drink didn't contain just alcohol, but other chemicals called congeners, which are impurities that occur during fermentation and give the alcohol its color and taste. These can also cause headaches and drinking too much of them will give you a hangover. It's always good to remember that the darker the drink, the more congeners it has, unless it happens to be moonshine, which is 70% alcohol, in which case you're in a lot of trouble.

Avoiding Headaches from Drinking

The only guaranteed method to avoid an alcohol-induced headache is not to actually drink, as the old saying goes: "prevention is better than cure." However, for some, no matter how much some people swear off drinking, they start drinking again as soon as the memory of the hangover fades.

Tackling the main cause to cure a headache from over-indulgence can also be done. In this case, it's dehydration, so it makes sense to just drink a lot. While some might get the idea to keep drinking what they had the night before, it's not recommended, as not only it can turn into a dangerous habit, it also won’t do your body any good. The best liquids to drink are either plain water or sports drinks, as they contain electrolytes that make you gain back the minerals, vitamins and salt that the alcohol caused you to lose.

Scientists have recently discovered a gene that helps fruit flies develop a tolerance for alcohol. Appropriately named "hangover", this gene might make hangovers become a thing of the past, making future drinkers imbibe without any aftereffects. While this may be something to look forward to, somehow a good night out just won’t be the same.

For more help on the prevention, treatment and remedies for migraines please see the Complete Guide To Migraine Headaches.