The dark secret of your worst hangovers revealed as colour of drink determines how bad you feel
If you’ve always thought that red wine leaves you feeling worse the morning after than white, then you were right - and scientists have proved it.
A study has found the severity of a hangover is affected by the colour of the alcohol being drunk, with darker drinks the worst offenders. So over-indulging on richly toned whisky will mean more of a headache than too many vodkas.
However, researchers at Brown University, New England, found that those who drank white wine or vodka - even if they felt better - performed just as badly at work the next morning as those suffering because of whisky or red wine.
The study, to be published in journal Alcohol: Clinical And Experimental Research, concluded that dark drinks contained more chemical by-products than lighter ones.
Bourbon - an American whisky - had 37 times more chemicals than vodka. These included the solvent acetone, oils and tannin. The harmful by products, called congeners, are part of the reason people feel sick after a night of heavy drinking.
Professor Damaris Rohsenow, of Brown University, said: ‘While the alcohol alone is enough to make many people feel sick the next day, these toxic natural substances can add to the ill effects as our body reacts to them.’
Researchers tested 95 men and women who were healthy, heavy drinkers to participate in the study. They drank bourbon or vodka to get them to the same point of drunkenness and then they were tested the following morning for their reaction time and feelings after drinking both types of liquor.
Some of the participants were given a non-alcoholic placebo for comparison.
Prof Rohsenow added: 'While alcohol in the beverage did increase how hung over people reported feeling the next morning compared to drinking a placebo, bourbon made people feel even worse than vodka did.
'Alcohol in the beverage did make people do worse when they needed to pay attention for a continuous period of time while making rapid accurate choices but they did no worse after bourbon than after vodka.
'Therefore while people felt worse they did not perform worse after bourbon than after vodka.'
Prof Rohsenow said people who were hungover were worse drivers but did not think they were doing badly behind the wheel.
A study has found the severity of a hangover is affected by the colour of the alcohol being drunk, with darker drinks the worst offenders. So over-indulging on richly toned whisky will mean more of a headache than too many vodkas.
However, researchers at Brown University, New England, found that those who drank white wine or vodka - even if they felt better - performed just as badly at work the next morning as those suffering because of whisky or red wine.
The study, to be published in journal Alcohol: Clinical And Experimental Research, concluded that dark drinks contained more chemical by-products than lighter ones.
Bourbon - an American whisky - had 37 times more chemicals than vodka. These included the solvent acetone, oils and tannin. The harmful by products, called congeners, are part of the reason people feel sick after a night of heavy drinking.
Professor Damaris Rohsenow, of Brown University, said: ‘While the alcohol alone is enough to make many people feel sick the next day, these toxic natural substances can add to the ill effects as our body reacts to them.’
Researchers tested 95 men and women who were healthy, heavy drinkers to participate in the study. They drank bourbon or vodka to get them to the same point of drunkenness and then they were tested the following morning for their reaction time and feelings after drinking both types of liquor.
Some of the participants were given a non-alcoholic placebo for comparison.
Prof Rohsenow added: 'While alcohol in the beverage did increase how hung over people reported feeling the next morning compared to drinking a placebo, bourbon made people feel even worse than vodka did.
'Alcohol in the beverage did make people do worse when they needed to pay attention for a continuous period of time while making rapid accurate choices but they did no worse after bourbon than after vodka.
'Therefore while people felt worse they did not perform worse after bourbon than after vodka.'
Prof Rohsenow said people who were hungover were worse drivers but did not think they were doing badly behind the wheel.
DM
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