why do stimulants and alcohol cause such a bad hangover?
In: Other
I have no clue but I have really really felt it.
Drinking an 8-pack in the evening while watching a game is no problem and barely feel it in the morning. But man… If I have done 4 Red Bull’s in the day, then I’m gonna feel like a truck drove over me in the morning.
Many stimulants empty the brain’s stores of neurotransmitters, temporarily removing your ability to feel good, and cause insomnia which comes with a whole load of unpleasant symptoms of its own. Alcohol dehydrates you and is metabolized into other poisons (acetaldehyde and formaldehyde) that make you feel lousy.
Genetic predesposition, tolerance, and hydration control, my friend. I can drink half a liter of vodka in between 12 beers, while hitting nicotine and caffeine all night. Have a great time, deepest immersion in video games, and will sleep like a baby and wake up fully refreshed and ready to roll!
I have a friend of asian descent, a “drinking” buddy for over a decade. Anything more than a shot or a beer and he’ll be wasted with the worst hangover the next day.
Alcohol and stimulants work different ways, so they have different effects. For an alcohol hangover, most of the symptoms are due to dehydration, which can be even worse if you were drinking sugary mixed drinks. Some of the other symptoms are due to the alcohol thinning the fluid in your ear canal and disrupting your sleep cycle. All this means you get less rest and recuperation and feel even more like garbage.
For stimulants it depends what you took. Some work by preventing neurotransmitters from being reabsorbed, keeping them active…great short term but it depletes your stores for later. Others work by mimicking those neurotransmitters and having your nerves keep firing off, which can exhaust your sodium and potassium supplies…
Basically for anything like that, you’re making your body function in a way it wasn’t designed to, and there’s a cost for that. It’s just a cost future you had to pay.
Dehydration combined with additional dehydration. Also, the stimulant dehydration allows you to stay awake and consume more of the alcohol dehydration.
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