Marcella La Cioppa According to a recent study, physical activity could help alleviate post-hangover symptoms, because training has beneficial effects on the body and is able to protect it from the symptoms of a night of partying.
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A night of fun often leads to a morning of regret, complete with a pounding headache, nausea, and general fatigue.
While many purported “cures” for hangovers exist, one recent study suggests that regular exercise may be the key to alleviating those dreaded mornings after.
The study
Participants of the Addictive Behaviors study were 1,676 students who had had at least one hangover within the last three months. All reported at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a week. They completed online questionnaires on drinking behavior, physical activity and the frequency/severity of hangover symptoms. Activity was measured as the function of intensity times hours.
The results showed that indeed, physical activity was strongly associated with hangover symptoms. As perhaps one might expect, those who drink more alcohol report hangovers more frequently and more severely. However, these associations were somewhat weaker among those reporting vigorous physical activities, thus indicating higher amounts of exercise may weaken the severity of hangover symptoms.
Although the study expressed only the association of exercise with reduced severity of hangovers, a number of mechanisms explain why physical activity can help improve hangover symptoms.
Modulates pain response
Hangovers are usually accompanied by physical complaints, such as headache and muscle ache, for a variety of reasons. Alcohol causes dehydration, which affects the functioning of the blood vessels and diminishes the volume of fluid around the brain, thus encouraging headache development.
Also, alcohol is pro-inflammatory in nature: it stirs an inflammatory response within the body by releasing cytokines-immune molecules related to muscle soreness. Besides, it disrupts sleep-a disrupted sleep can make one more sensitive to pain the following day.
Other studies reported that blood alcohol concentration during a night of drinking also correlated with general hangover symptoms, including pain.
Improves sleep quality
Poor sleep quality often accompanies hangovers. Alcohol reduces REM sleep, which is a stage of the sleep cycle where your brain rests and recoveries. It can also make you wake up more throughout the night because it dehydrates the body, making an individual get up several times through the night, perhaps to urinate.
However, regular exercises are associated with improved sleep patterns since they help in regulating the circadian rhythm. Overall, physical activity can actually enhance sleep duration and quality, thus reducing nighttime awakenings. This, in turn, may contribute to getting a better sleep after the night of drinking, which could help with the overall hangover recovery.
Improves metabolism
Regular exercise improves metabolic health, which shall be helpful in the efficient processing of alcohol.
While the liver is primarily responsible for alcohol metabolism, a good metabolic rate certainly aids the body’s elimination of the chemical and its metabolites with greater efficiency.
Exercise improves blood flow as well, which can help to clear out acetaldehyde, the toxic chemical produced during the metabolism process of alcohol. Acetaldehyde is said to greatly contribute to hangover symptoms.
Decreases inflammation
Alcohol consumption can cause an inflammatory response, part of the human body’s defenses to infections, viruses, and other toxins that may cause damage to tissues, thus increasing hangover symptoms.
Drinking provokes the emission of chemicals, cytokines-these are substances that can advance inflammation. In hangovers, this inflammation can worsen headache symptoms, muscle ache, fatigue, and sensitivity to light and sound. Because the body’s immune response is heightened, this accounts for increasing discomfort in a hangover.
On the other hand, exercise has well-documented anti-inflammatory effects because it triggers the release of anti-inflammatory cytokines. Therefore, people who exercise on a regular basis may not have as many discomforts when experiencing a hangover due to less inflammation.
Is this a hangover cure?
It should be spoken that, while perhaps making hangovers more tolerable, exercise is no cure. Of course, the best option to avoid hangover symptoms altogether is to drink in moderation or not to drink at all. But for those who choose to indulge, fitting regular physical activity into one’s lifestyle may make a hangover just that little bit less debilitating.
There are also some questions which this study failed to answer. For example, it is still unknown how far in advance before a night of drinking one must exercise in order to realize the benefits in hangover severity. Thus, one can’t claim with certainty whether regular exercisers have milder hangovers or whether working out prior to a night of drinking helps ease hangover symptoms.
The study also utilized college students; both alcohol consumption and levels of physical activity may vary compared to the older adult. For these benefits to stand, studies will have to be conducted across age groups.
It is also critical to distinguish between the benefits regular exercise offers and the need to exercise when hung over. The latter could be counteractive because the body is already stressed and dehydrated.
Conversely, try only light, low-intensity activities during your hangover, such as a walk or yoga. Such workouts will give a boost to your mood and help you get out of the hangover condition.
Source: The Conversation
