Smoking and Drinking Together Cause Massive Hangovers

The other morning I woke up with what felt like a massive hangover. My head hurt, my eyes were grainy, and I felt sick to my stomach. The funny part was-I hadn’t had any alcohol the night before. I’d stayed out late, and I’d smoked a lot of cigarettes, but I didn’t have an alcoholic drink. I’d never thought about it before, but that morning I realized that part of the reason I felt so terrible after a night of drinking was the fact that I got very little sleep and smoked a lot of cigarettes.

Smoking and Drinking Together Cause Massive Hangovers: The Research

A lot of people smoke and drink at the same time. Even many nonsmokers will have a few cigarettes when they are out on the town. But studies suggest that smoking and drinking together cause massive hangovers. Findings published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs found that at the same number of drinks, people who smoke more have been shown to have more intense hangovers the next day. Smoking itself was shown to increase chances of a hangover more than nonsmoking. The subjects in the study were asked to rank hangover symptoms like nausea, headache, and difficulty concentrating.

Smoking and Drinking Together Cause Massive Hangovers: What causes a hangover?

Alcohol is broken down in the liver first to acetaldehyde, then to harmless acetic acid. Acetaldehyde is the main chemical that is responsible for the symptoms of a hangover. Smoking also increases your acetaldehyde in the body and this is why smoking and drinking together causes massive hangovers. The severity of a hangover is directly connected to the amount of alcohol an individual drinks and how much sleep he or she has gotten, and according to this new study, whether or not the person smoked a lot of cigarettes.

The hangover symptoms that individuals feel can be caused by:

• urination (resulting in dehydration)
• immune system response
• stomach irritation
• poor sleep quality
• drop in blood sugar
• dilation of blood vessels

Smoking and Drinking Together Cause Massive Hangovers: Prevention and cures

There is no real “cure” for a hangover. Most of the classic hangover cures really don’t work. The only really cure is time or preventing the hangover in the first place. Obviously, if you want to lower your chances of getting a hangover you can cut down on the amount that you smoke while you are drinking or not smoke at all. Also, getting adequate rest and drinking a lot of water have been shown to reduce your chances of getting a hangover. The main cause of hangovers, however, is binge drinking. Binge drinking is defined as having more than four drinks in a sitting for men, and five drinks for women. This type of drinking, where your blood alcohol content increases quickly in a short amount of time, is the most important factor in getting a hangover. This is because your body gets overwhelmed and cannot break down the alcohol as quickly as you are consuming it, causing a buildup of acetaldehyde.

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