#57. Why are my hangovers so bad?
Is this one of the reasons that 1 in 3 Americans tried to drink less in 2023?
I’ve never been a big drinker. Ever since I was thirteen years old, sitting on the back of my friend’s boat in the setting Minnesota summer sun, passing a Smirnoff Ice back and forth while we looked out onto the glittering water like the sophisticated teenagers we thought we were, I’ve never loved the way alcohol affects my body and mind. As an adult, more than 20 years after I can remember having my first drink that long-ago summer, I’ve become someone who drinks somewhat often, but never very much at a time, and always in a social setting. As a Millennial woman, you might have been able to guess that my drink of choice is white wine, which I’ve landed on simply because of one thing: The severity of my hangovers.
When I was younger, I never got hungover. I never drank all that much to begin with, but I could have two cups full of jungle juice at a party in college and waltz into an 8am class the next day, no problem. I always chalked it up to having a fast metabolism and honestly never really paid that much attention to what I was drinking, how much I was eating, or my water intake. As I got older and felt my body and how it reacts to alcohol begin to change, I approached these three things often with the detail of a mad scientist–no mixing different kinds of alcohol in the same night, drink one glass of water for every glass of wine, procure enough snacks that any sip of alcohol ingested is going down with at least a pretzel or two. Generally speaking, it’s always worked for me.
For the last year or so, though, things have changed. My hangovers, when I do get them, are getting nasty. The old rules I used to live and drink by aren’t working as well as they used to. These days I might not even drink enough over the course of an evening to feel a warm, carefree buzz, but I’ll still jolt awake in the night absolutely on fire with middle-of-the-night insomnia, and wake again in the morning, exhausted, with a pounding headache and sour stomach that lasts into the late afternoon.
Last year, after a red wine tasting at our house on a Thursday evening–during which I only got a tiny little buzz and had a great time–I woke up the next morning with one of the worst hangovers of my life. I made it to my therapy appointment and embarrassingly laid down on my therapist’s couch, apologizing profusely and doing my best to get through the 50 minutes without running to the bathroom. I pulled over on the way home in front of a dormant construction zone and hung my head out the passenger door for a few minutes, breathing deep breaths in the crisp spring air, then made it all the way into my driveway before emptying the contents of my stomach in the front yard. I had four 2.5oz glasses of red wine over the course of about four hours, plus some food and a glass(ish) of water, which should have meant I would be just fine the next morning, according to the “one drink per hour” rule. But I was horrifically not fine, lol. I’ve been very nervous around red wine ever since.
I’ve done enough self-experimentation now to know that red wine causes my absolute worst hangovers (tequila isn’t great either, which I learned only recently after some A+ margaritas my sister made), and white wine is generally the safest thing for me to drink. Water and hydration plays a big part too–not just how much water I drink while drinking, but how much water I’ve been drinking over the course of the entire day. The entire act of drinking is getting kind of exhausting, to be honest. I have to pay so much attention to what I’m doing, and how, and when, that some of the joy and merriment of the act is being overshadowed by the potential havoc that might be unintentionally wreaked on my body the next day.
Some people know exactly what I’m talking about when I tell them about the severity of my recent hangovers, losing what feels like almost an entire Sunday after having two drinks and a great time on Saturday night, while others look at me like I am an alien from a different planet, having never really experienced a hangover themselves. One of those people is my husband.
Paul is a wine lover in his late 30s who has somehow never experienced a hangover in his life. He’ll have three drinks and a great time at a party on a Saturday night, then bound out of bed on Sunday morning and bounce over to his laptop, ready to take on the day. Meanwhile, if I forgot to drink any water, I’ll have just one glass of red wine and stay in bed until noon. Lately I’ve been wondering–what the hell is going on here?
I’m sure all the medical professionals out there are already well aware of this answer LOL please forgive me, but after doing a little research on the world wide web, it seems like all this evil business comes down to acetaldehyde.
Apparently, the liver is responsible for breaking down all the alcohol you drink into acetaldehyde, which your body then needs to get rid of. Some people just have way more liver enzymes that drastically speeds up this process, while others–like me–can’t get rid of this toxin fast enough due to not having very many liver enzymes to do all the dirty work, resulting in too much of this toxin hanging around in our bodies, creating a nasty hangover. Apparently this is mostly genetic.
Added to that, red wine apparently has a ton of tannins that can also cause bad hangover symptoms. Paul absolutely loves a good tannin, but I have come to learn that I do not. Also, the white wine thing isn’t just for funsies–white wines, naturally, have much lower tannins than red (except, apparently, for heavily oaked white wines like Chardonnay, says Paul.) Something called “congeners” might be in play too.
It’s January, so naturally I have been seeing mentions of “dry January” everywhere, which is something I’ve never participated in as far as I am aware. This year feels a little different, though. More people I know personally are drinking less than ever before. We threw a New Year’s Eve party–complete with a sparkling wine tasting (and no hangover for me)–and about 25% of our guests that night either don't drink at all, or aren’t drinking right now. I bought two bottles of NA sparkling wine which were gone an hour into the party, and when I went to check on the huge batch of booze-free apple cider I made that was simmering on the stove all night, all that was left were cut up apples, lemons, and oranges at the bottom of my largest Dutch oven that looked drunk on the apple juice they’d been bathing in for a few hours. Meanwhile, we finished the night with four full bottles of wine and 80% of the beer we had bought that nobody touched.
One in three Americans tried to drink less last year. “Mindful drinking” also seems to still be in for 2024. Demand for interesting non-alcoholic drinks is also increasing every year, and I’ve started to see really decent NA sections pop up on cocktail menus around the Twin Cities. I don’t know about you, but I’m absolutely interested in drinking less–switching between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks–this year. I’m married to an amateur sommelier who considers French Bordeaux one of the greatest pleasures in life and I genuinely enjoy drinking wine two or three times a week, but I really have to do something about these hangovers.
Apparently, I’m not the only one who is feeling like my hangovers are getting worse with age, either. I guess it makes some kind of cruel sense that as we get older, the enzymes in our liver become less efficient at ridding our body of acetaldehyde. Love that for us.
I know there's no “cure” for a hangover other than not drinking at all, but has anyone out there tried H-Proof? I’m not a huge supplements gal, but I’ve been thinking about trying it for a while; supposedly it magically gives you more of the mystical liver enzymes I so obviously do not have enough of, and you’re supposed to take it just when you’re drinking, like how someone who is lactose intolerant might pop a Lactaid when everyone goes out for ice cream. I spent most of last Sunday while the sun was still up finishing A Court of Wings and Ruin in bed while nursing a hangover from yet another not-a-drunken night in at our house. It’s getting old. (Great book, though!)
What are your experiences with hangovers? Are you a fellow sufferer? Found anything that works you want to share with the class? Or have you experimented with drinking less or being sober recently? What are your thoughts on all of this madness?
K bye,
Kelly
I drink maybe once a week at most (sometimes go weeks without drinking), but I don’t normally have just 1 glass of wine, it’s usually 2 or 3. I’ve had similar issues as I’ve gotten older and also want to cut down on calories to get in better shape (also need to work on cutting out how much sugar I have), and have been looking for NA drinks for a “nightcap.” I’d love to know what people do/ consume after a long hard day or to wind down. For me, tea, writing, and watching tv hasn’t really helped. Also, trying to find NA substitutes that aren’t more expensive than alcohol has been hard for me. I’m open to suggestions!!
Also, does anyone else have this odd way of relating drinking something like a glass of wine with feeling like an adult or is it just me? 😂
This has been my exact experience as I’ve gotten older. I can usually have one drink and be ok, but more than one (even if spread out over an entire day, plenty of water, etc) triggers my insomnia and gives me horrible body anxiety the next day. I was never a huge drinker, but I’ve also cut back in the past year just to avoid feeling like shit — the drinks aren’t worth losing a whole day! It’s been nice to see restaurants start to offer more NA options on their drink menus, because I do still love to order a silly lil beverage when I go out, and getting to do it without tempting the hangover gods is great.