Taking acetaminophen (sold as Tylenol in the US) in large quantities with alcohol can lead to liver damage as the liver is left unable to process the toxic metabolites of either.Īnd dealing with dehydration? Most importantly, dehydration is not so much a cause of a hangover, but rather a symptom of it. On top of this, many painkillers have some worrying side effects: for instance, ibuprofen risks causing severe gastrointestinal bleeding if taken on an empty stomach.
Additionally, like other painkillers, ibuprofen risks further burdening an already struggling liver and other parts of the body working to clear out the aftermath of alcohol consumption.
However, it merely suppresses the manifestation of that inflammation, rather than breaking down the root cause of that inflammation - acetaldehyde. A particularly effective painkiller for those suffering a hangover is ibuprofen: as an anti-inflammatory it usefully helps manage the inflammation caused by acetaldehyde and any other additional toxins.
What about painkillers? Though they can help deal with the following day’s suffering, pain killers still would not count as a ‘cure’, as they only work to suppress the symptoms, rather than the root causes of a hangover, and indeed the damage caused by alcohol consumption. Every moment they remain in your system, the more time they have to cause damage - the next day, the damage has been done. As noted previously, the main problem has already occurred - the accumulation of ethanol and acetaldehyde. A hangover cure suggests that you can treat and cure a hangover after you already ‘contracted’ this ‘adverse medical condition’. There is no such thing as a hangover cure. The goal, then, is to break down ethanol (EtOH) and acetaldehyde as quickly as possible - the longer these remain unprocessed in the body, the more time they have to cause damage.ĭo They Work? In short, no. It acts as an inflammatory agent, causes trouble across your system, is behind the infamous ‘Asian flush’, and it is this inflammatory property that causes long-term damage.Īs you drink alcohol, it is fairly rapidly (within half an hour) turned into acetaldehyde - naturally the more you drink, the more acetaldehyde accumulates. The latter is the first byproduct of alcohol (ethanol) when it is broken down by the liver, and is approximately forty times more toxic than alcohol itself. Included are the usual suspects: dehydration, fatigue, depletion of important vitamins, minerals, and compounds - to the more exotic: an imbalance in blood sugar levels, the glutamate rebound effect, variations in different alcohol types, and the addition of extraneous toxins in the alcohol distillation or fermentation process, such as sulphites, tannins, and congeners.Īrguably, the most crucial and important factor behind hangovers - as well as a lot of the long-term damage behind alcohol consumption, is even less well-known by laymen: acetaldehyde.
Though considered an ‘adverse medical condition’ in the UK and other countries, the ‘hangover’ is a complex affliction - it is vague in its definition, and involves a number of factors in and around the consumption of alcohol. To answer this question, we must first succinctly establish what constitutes a hangover, which is no easy task.
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