Well, you partied from sundown to sunup, and now you're paying the price. You've got the pounding headache, the queasiness, the dizziness, the sensitivity to light and sound, the muscle aches, and the irritability that comes from overconsumption of alcoholic beverages. How quickly last night's fun turns into next morning's nightmare when you have a hangover!

Why Such Suffering?

Although we don't like to think of it as such, especially when we're having such a good time, alcohol is actually a drug. It's a depressant, and when taken in excess, it fills your body with toxins. Your body reacts as it would to any drug overdose: It tries to metabolize and get rid of the offending substances.

Alcohol causes dehydration.
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Alcohol causes the body to lose fluids,
which leads to dehydration.

Researchers aren't sure what in the alcohol causes a hangover. But they do know that the debilitating symptoms you experience are a result of the body's inability to get rid of the toxins quickly enough, and they build up in your bloodstream.

Your body's attempts to flush out the alcohol puts a strain on the liver, which madly draws on the body's water reserves to get the job done. Since alcohol is a major diuretic, causing you to urinate more frequently, you lose more water than your body takes in with the beverage. As strange as it may sound, the more alcohol you drink, the more vital fluids you lose. The considerable water loss associated with drinking alcohol increases the liver's burden to get a hold of water anywhere it can. It will take water from the brain and from other vital organs. The resulting dehydration is what's behind many of the worst symptoms of a hangover.

The process of metabolizing the alcohol and excreting large quantities of water also robs the body of glucose and other vital nutrients. Being malnourished further contributes to the unpleasant hangover symptoms.

In addition to dehydration, fatigue is also behind some of your hangover pain. Excessive drinking and late nights usually go hand-in-hand. But more than that, alcohol interferes with a normal sleep pattern, robbing you of the dream state, which is essential to feeling rested. You may pass out on the floor and sleep for hours, but it won't be the kind of sleep that will allow you to restart your engines in the morning. Lack of proper rest contributes to the malaise a hangover brings.

Now that you understand why the hangover happens, go to the next page to look at some tried-and-true natural home remedies for hangovers.

For more information on alcohol consumption and how it works, try the following links:
  • To see all of our home remedies and the consitions they treat, go to our main Home Remedies page.
  • Read a detailed description of how hangovers work.
  • Find out exactly how alcohol works in your body, including the short- and long-term effects.
  • To better understand how alcoholism works, read this concise, informative article.
This information is solely for informational purposes. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. Neither the Editors of Consumer Guide (R), Publications International, Ltd., the author nor publisher take responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, procedure, exercise, dietary modification, action or application of medication which results from reading or following the information contained in this information. The publication of this information does not constitute the practice of medicine, and this information does not replace the advice of your physician or other health care provider. Before undertaking any course of treatment, the reader must seek the advice of their physician or other health care provider.