For anyone who has ever suffered the nausea and headaches after a night of drinking, a recent study offers new hope for a cure, or at least the motivation to look for one.
The study of hangovers has been a much neglected area of research, according to "The Alcohol Hangover," published this June in the Annals of Internal Medicine, a professional journal.
The research team, headed by Dr. Jeffrey G. Wiese, conducted an exhaustive review of 4,700 studies published on alcohol intoxication since 1965, but found only 108 dealing with hangovers.
Despite this lack of literature, hangover-related absenteeism and poor job performance cost $148 billion annually in the United States alone, according to the report.
"Although hangovers might be considered trivial -- just deserts for the overindulgent -- it has substantial economic consequences," the report says.
The health risks associated with hangovers are equally, if not more, significant than the monetary ones.
Although most people shrug hangovers off as temporary discomfort, sufferers are at increased risk for injury and poor job performance, the study cautions. Hangovers caused impairment among pilots, skiers and anyone behind the wheel of a car, according to the study.
Even with a normal blood alcohol level, hangover sufferers "may pose substantial risk to themselves and others."
Moreover, the study found that light-to-moderate drinkers suffer the most, claiming 70 percent of all hangovers.
Several studies cited in the report further attested the high prevalence of hangover symptoms.
One survey found that 25 percent of college students had experienced a hangover in the previous week, while another revealed that 75 percent of men and women who had consumed alcohol said they had experienced a hangover at least once, with 15 percent having them monthly.
Thus, if a cure for the common hangover could be found, it would save billions, not to mention ease a lot of pain.
"[I]t's a safe bet that if someone could cure hangovers and the product was available over the counter, there's no question it would make millions," Dr. Michael G. Shlipak, one of the study's collaborators, said in a December New York Times article.
In order to find a cure however, the medical community needs to first find the cause.
It is well-known that dehydration plays a big part in inducing hangovers, but recent research is looking beyond that one factor.
One theory, supported by Dr. Wiese and Dr. Shlipak, involves cytokines, tiny molecules that indicate inflammation in the body and are released when a person gets the flu, producing symptoms of nausea, headache, diarrhea and weakness.
The study points out that these are some of the same symptoms associated with a hangover, and a similar elevation in cytokines also accompanies an alcohol hangover.
But because the body's immune system can flush out the alcohol byproduct that stimulates the release of cytokines--called congenres--a hangover ends much sooner than the flu.
"Our interest is to figure out a way to block inflammation so that the person doesn't feel the adverse effects while they're waiting for the impurities to be cleared," Dr. Shlipak told the New York Times.
The anti-inflammatory properties in products such as ibuprofen, a popular home-remedy for a hangover, don't seem strong enough to ease the inflammation of a hangover, he added.
Another theory points to acetaldehyde, a chemical created by the liver as alcohol is processed, as a inflammation factor.
Other possible contributors to a hangover include the inhibition of glucose -- needed by cells for energy -- caused by alcohol and of course dehydration, which occurs when alcohol blocks by the effect of an antidiuretic hormone on the kidneys.
On top of the amount and type of alcohol consumed, factors such as "decreased quality and quantity of sleep, increased physical activity while intoxicated, dehydration and poor physical health increase the severity of hangover include lack of food consumption," the report says.
Although scientists and doctors don't know exactly what causes hangovers, or how to cure them, they do know why home remedies don't do the job.
Drinking water helps with dehydration to some extent, but in experiments in which hangover sufferers were given intravenous fluids, the subjects showed only marginal improvement, according to the report.
Drinking coffee won't help much either. Although caffeine may help in the short term, its diuretic effect actually couses dehydration and its symptoms last longer, according to Dr. Shlipak.
