Hangovers Explained: How Alcohol Affects Your Brain and Body | Dr. Mark Hyman
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Coming up on this episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. There are no benefits to alcohol consumption. There is no health benefit. There's no heart benefit. The data is really clear that it's bad for you, especially cancer. It does increase the risk of cancer. So I don't think alcohol should be considered a health-promoting substance in any way. However, having a drink or two once in a while is not going to kill you, and it's not a bad thing.

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with the code DRHYMAN30, D-R-H-Y-M-A-N-3-0. I know you're going to love it as much as I do. Before we jump into today's episode, I'd like to note that while I wish I could help everyone by my personal practice, there's simply not enough time for me to do this at this scale. And that's why I've been busy building several passion projects to help you better understand, well, you. If you're looking for data about your biology, check out Function Health for resources.

real-time lab insights. If you're in need of deepening your knowledge around your health journey, check out my membership community, Hyman Hive. And if you're looking for curated and trusted supplements and health products for your routine, visit my website, Supplement Store, for a summary of my favorite and tested products. Welcome back to another episode of the Doctor's Pharmacy and Health Bites, where we take juicy little bites into current health topics. And today, I want to tackle a topic that many of us have experienced, but few truly understand.

Hangovers. Whether it's after a night of celebrating with friends or an unexpected overindulgence, hangovers kind of leave us feeling drained, anxious, and downright miserable. In this episode, I'm going to unpack the science behind hangovers and explore what happens for bodies during this really unpleasant aftermath and discuss effective strategies to prevent and manage them if you need them. Maybe you won't need them if you take care of yourself, but just in case you have a fun night, how do you get over this? Well, hangovers are more than just a headache and fatigue. They're a complex process

physiological response to alcohol consumption that affects our brain, our liver, our gut, and our overall health. In fact, alcohol is a poison and the dose makes the poison. I'm going to delve into how alcohol disrupts our sleep, dehydrates our bodies, messes with our electrolyte balance, and leaving just feeling pretty out of sorts. Obviously, all this is a bummer. No one likes a hangover. So how do we prevent it? Quite frankly, the best way to avoid a hangover, the

Don't drink. Okay. Now we know, just to be clear, there are no benefits to alcohol consumption. There is no health benefit. There's no heart benefit.

The data is really clear that it's bad for you, especially cancer. It does increase the risk of cancer. So I don't think alcohol should be considered a health-promoting substance in any way. Just to be clear, the data doesn't support it. However, having a drink or two once in a while is not going to kill you, and it's not a bad thing. Of course, don't drink is easier said than done, I know, but here's the facts.

The standard recommendation is one drink per day for women and two drinks a day for men. That's way too much, right? According to the WHO, the World Health Organization, there is no safe consumption of alcohol for human health. Say that again.

According to the World Health Organization, there is no safe consumption of alcohol for human health, period. Alcohol is a neurotoxin, it's psychoactive, and it can cause dependence and addiction. Now, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the IARC, has classified alcohol as a group one carcinogen, which is the highest risk group, along with asbestos, radiation, and tobacco.

Just saying. Nobody's got asbestos anymore in their house. You don't really want to get radiation if you can avoid it. And certainly, we know tobacco and cigarettes cause cancer. Now, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, even light to moderate consumption has consequences. It also increases your risk for dementia and Alzheimer's. And why? Because it shrinks your brain and reduces neuroplasticity. If you see an alcoholic's brain,

On a brain scan, I used to see it all the time when I was in the ER. They just like shriveled and shrunken up brains. It was pretty sad. Alcohol increased the risk for cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, as I mentioned. And the alcohol-free movement is gaining popularity, and the younger generation is catching on to the harms of alcohol. In fact, I just went to a party, 40th birthday party, and there was no alcohol. There was no alcohol. And I just had an office party for my office, no alcohol. I think people are kind of coming wise to the dangers of alcohol.

So more and more people are kind of just stop drinking and turning to mocktails. However, if you do drink, and I'm going to give you a few things that might help. One, pace yourself, right? Go slow. This is going to help your body metabolize alcohol more effectively. Remember, it can only deal with one ounce an hour, right? One ounce an hour of hard liquor, probably five ounces of wine an hour,

or 10 ounces of beer an hour. You drink more than that and you are just upping the toxic load your liver has to deal with and it just can't keep up. The speed at which you drink plays a huge role. Your body can process, like I said, about one standard drink per hour. Now, I want you to keep in mind though that this can vary based on the type of alcohol you drink, right? Your physical health and your genetics. Now, drinking more than this is likely gonna increase

the risk of a hangover. Also, you can avoid congeners. Now, what are those? Those are byproducts of alcohol fermentation that are found in higher concentrations in darker liquors, like whiskey or things like that. These are found in cognac, whiskey, bourbon, and red wine. It creates methanol, tannins, histamine reactions, all kinds of stuff. So not great. Now, these compounds, these congeners, give these types of alcohol their distinct flavors,

but they hang around in the system long after you drink, which can make the hangover a lot worse. Now, research shows that high congenital darker colored liquors, which is a bummer because those are the ones I like, they lead to more severe hangovers than lighter colored clear liquors like vodka, gin, rum, sake, and even maybe white tequilas. But also note that I'm not recommending these types of alcohol either.

The more distilled the spirit is, the lower the congeners. This is why drinking top shelf liquors doesn't result in as much of a hangover to some people as lower price alternatives. I found that true. It's also worth noting that the amount of alcohol consumed is more critical than the type of alcohol in determining the severity of your hangover. So while the congeners are important, it's really the amount of overall alcohol. Now drinks with higher alcohol concentrations like shots of liquor are

put a greater burden on the liver and are more likely to cause hangovers. Conjurors add complexity to the detox process too. They stimulate the release of stress hormones, they cause an inflammatory response, and it worsens your hangover symptoms. Now, some people actually may be very physiologically sensitive to specific conjurors. For example, those with histamine intolerance, which is more and more common,

experience worse hangovers from red wine, which is high in histamine compared to clear liquor. So I noticed that when I have red wine, I don't feel good. If I have white tequila, I'm fine. Avoid sugary mixers, which is all sugary mixed drinks. When you combine sugar and alcohol, bad news. So stay away from those sugary mixed drinks. The other thing you want to do is stay hydrated.

Drink water and electrolytes before, during, and after drinking. Drink at least half your weight in ounces of water with a sugar-free electrolyte powder such as E-Lite or Element.

which contains a balanced ratio of sodium, potassium, magnesium, really important. Or sugar-free coconut water contains natural electrolytes and help hydrate you as well. Something called Liquid IV and Gatorade. They're big no-nos. They're loaded with unnecessary sugar, dyes, flavors, enhancers. Just stay away from all that colorful sports drink crap, and that's terrible. Maybe you want to drink a glass of water

And at least for every drink you have, right? For every alcoholic drink, you have just one, maybe two glass of water with electrolytes. And you can bring individual travel electrolyte packets with you. I do that all the time. It's really great. Also eat before you drink. And why do you want to do that? Well, a balanced meal actually slows the absorption of alcohol. Fat, protein, fiber slows the empty immune stomach and that actually can

help reduce the effect and the speed of alcohol and reduce its toxicity on your system. Things like guacamole or a phytonutrient salad, chicken, steak, or fish, all that's going to be great.

It's also going to help you prevent low blood sugar or hypoglycemia. And you also want to eat hydrating and micronutrient-rich plant foods like non-starchy veggies, cucumbers, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, fruit, and lots of fruit, bananas, avocados, guava, grapefruit, which is full of magnesium, potassium, and sodium. Really important.

So make sure you get water and electrolytes for hydration. You also want to potentially take some minerals like zinc and also niacin, which is a B vitamin, vitamin B3, critical cofactors.

in alcohol metabolisms. So when you have to make those enzymes work, you need these cofactors like zinc and niacin to actually make them work to detoxify the alcohol. Now, research suggests that they could lower hangover severity, although we need to do more research on it. Still seems promising and it's low risk to do. You can eat zinc-rich foods, right? Meat, shellfish, legumes, pumpkin seeds, oysters, nicotinic acid-rich foods, meat,

nicotine acids, niacin, like meat, fish, poultry, avocados, mushrooms are full of niacin. The next thing you want to do is feed your gut bacteria. You want to load up in the early parts of your day with fermented foods like yogurt, pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, get your microbiome healthy, eat a polyphenol-rich diet,

for your microbiome and immune system like blueberries, apples, cherries, raspberries. Also include vitamin C rich foods, great antioxidant, red bell peppers, kiwi, citrus fruit. And don't eat all those inflammatory foods. They really are bad for you in general and they make the alcohol problem worse. So fried foods, refined foods,

carbohydrates, sugars, processed, ultra-processed food, all that's going to irritate your gut even more and won't slow down alcohol absorption. That's diet, lifestyle, hydration. Okay, what can you do to actually help you support detoxification?

and take the right supplements that have the right nutrients that are commonly depleted with alcohol consumption. So what I like is an herb called milk thistle, before and after drinking, and a B-complex vitamin.

Milk thistle is an herb, which is great. It helps liver detoxification. B vitamins are depleted when you drink alcohol, like thiamine, I mentioned that, B6, niacin, or B3, B12, and folate. All these can cause headaches and fatigue. So if you preemptively supplement, you can actually reduce the effects of alcohol on your system. Zinc, magnesium. You can also take something called N-acetylcysteine, or NACC.

N-acetylcysteine helps your body make glutathione. Now what is glutathione? Glutathione is our master detoxifier, our master antioxidant, and our master anti-inflammatory compound. Now research shows that low dose snack can help with nausea and weakness and hangover symptoms in women, but more researchers need it, but it's promising. There's even actual research on this. And we know it can have a lot of toxins. For example, if you have liver failure from Tylenol overdose,

The treatment is NAC. If you get an IV contrast dye for a kidney study, for example, it can cause kidney failure. You give NAC beforehand. It prevents the kidney damage from the dye. Also, stop drinking at least three hours before you go to bed, which minimizes alcohol's negative impact on your sleep. It gives your body enough time to detoxify. The half-life of alcohol

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Now the effects of alcohol can still affect your sleep up to six hours after you stop drinking. Okay, so once you've had a little too much drink, now you're really feeling the next day, here's what not to do. Do not drink more alcohol. Don't have the eye opener in the morning, right? The hair of the dog approach. It just delays and worsens the hangover. Coffee, don't drink it. It dehydrates you more. Use ibuprofen sparingly or Advil. It can kind of affect your GI tract and your kidneys.

But here's what you should do to deal with your hangover symptoms. One, hydrate, but not just any hydration. Drink clean water with electrolytes. Now, it doesn't guarantee you'll get over a hangover faster, but it's going to help restore hydration. Also, eat a balanced meal. Eggs and nutrient-dense foods with protein and fat and fiber are really important. Now, eggs are also rich in something called L-cysteine, which actually gets made into

and acetylcysteine made included with thione which helps the liver detoxify acetyl aldehyde also high fiber carbohydrate foods like vegetables nuts and seeds beans whole grains they really help stabilize blood sugar levels also there's sometimes herbs and vitamins and supplements that can help so we'll talk about those so what are those ginger can be good for nausea

Chamomile tea helps anxiety, it's calming. Red ginseng helps acetyl aldehyde metabolism and B-complex replenishes the depleted vitamins and helps energy. Now, red ginseng will not cure a hangover, but it can help reduce symptoms when it's taken soon after drinking by increasing acetyl aldehyde metabolism. So you can get red ginseng and have it with your drink, basically. Now, randomized crossover study, that means they basically gave

the same group of people, different things at different times. So they took 25 guys, they gave them red ginseng, that reduced plasma alcohol and also expired alcohol, as well as hangover severity after consuming whiskey. Now, the study concluded that red ginseng positively affects alcohol metabolism and alleviates hangover symptoms. Of course, that's cool, but I think more research is needed on that.

Cold shower is going to make you feel more alert or a cold plunge. That's good. Now, cold shower might help you feel alert. It also increases some of your adrenaline hormones and increasing adrenaline can make you more alert and speed up alcohol metabolism and even clearance of alcohol from the brain and from the butt. Also, get some rest. Make sure you get sleep and that mitigates hangover symptoms. An observational study of 578 college students found that reduced total sleep time was associated with more

severe hangovers. And students who slept more than seven hours consumed more alcohol and experienced longer hangovers. But their hangovers were less severe compared to those who slept less than seven hours. So overall, reduced total sleep time was associated with more severe hangovers. In the end, time is really the best medicine, right? It's the best cure for hangover. Your body needs time to process and eliminate the alcohol and all those toxic byproducts.

So that's a lot, okay? Alcohol, we know, is a toxin. There's no safe dose. If depleting vitamins and minerals, it affects your liver, affects your brain, affects your hormones, your microbiome, your immune system. But, you know, occasional drink's okay. Just be careful and understand that there's things you can do to mitigate its harmful effects, like eating beforehand with lots of high-fiber-fat protein foods, drinking more slowly over time.

having water and electrolytes after each drink, and having the right vitamins and minerals, including B-complex zinc and magnesium, as well as also herbs like milk thistle. All that can help. So I hope you found today's episode enlightening and packed with useful, good information to help you better understand and manage hangovers. We covered a lot of ground from the science of how alcohol impacts our bodies, two of those practical tips I mentioned on how to mitigate those horrible symptoms,

But remember, the key to healing hangovers starts with prevention. Don't drink too much. Hydrate. Proper nutrition goes a long way in making sure your next morning isn't a total write-off.

Now, if you found these tips helpful, I encourage you to start incorporating them into your routine. And of course, always listen to your body and make choices that support your overall well-being. Our health is for sure a precious asset. And taking care of it means we can enjoy life celebrations without paying a hefty price the next day. Thanks again for joining me today on The Doctor's Pharmacy. And don't forget to rate, review, and follow The Doctor's Pharmacy wherever you get your podcasts.

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