All-Nighters' Consequences

Alcohol can cause dehydration  (Getty Images)

"Alcohol is the most commonly used drug in the world, but we still don't really understand all the effects it has. Relative to other drugs, the dose we tend to consume is simply enormous."

"The brain is much like the skin. A baby's skin is soft ... but as it ages it becomes tougher, then, as you get older, it becomes wrinkly and less elastic and slower to heal. It's the same with the brain, which becomes less efficient with age, with less reliable connections and slower performance. Not surprisingly alcohol will only serve to make that performance even worse."

"Sleep issues are commonplace among the middle-aged. We tend to drink socially at the end of the day and ... alcohol disrupts it still further. Inevitably, it's going to have an impact the following day."

"In middle age, there are often other issues in play, such as stress at work, with all the pressures and responsibilities that brings, and they can lead to irregular eating and poor sleep. Add alcohol to that mix, and it's easy to see how people in midline can begin to really suffer the day after drinking."

"It's thought that the headache component of a hangover is actually migrainous, and it's often the case that those that do suffer with severe headaches or migraines can also be incredibly sensitive to alcohol, to the point where even a sniff of it can induce one." 

Dr.John Janssen, neurologist, Netherlands

"If we expect to feel terrible, we may spend the day on the sofa, feeling sorry for ourselves."

"During hangover, we produce a toxic substance -- acetaldehyde -- created when our body is metabolizing alcohol. Not only is this responsible for the vomiting, nausea and heart-racing during your hangover, it can also interact with neurotransmitters in the brain pathway involved in mood and cognition."

"So if age influences metabolism of alcohol, then we might expect poorer cognition in older drinkers during hangovers."

Sally Adams, assistant professor, health psychology, University of Bath

That splitting headache after a heavy night may ease with age, research suggests. (Posed by a model, Getty Images)

The severity of hangovers along with their frequency, a new study from the Netherlands finds, declines with age. Research shows that people between ages 18 to 25 experience on average, 2.2 hangovers monthly, whereas those in the 56-to-65 age bracket have only 0.3 hangovers in comparison, and by the time they reach age 66 that frequency falls to 0.1 per month. How to avoid a hangover with its nausea, irritability, dehydration, headaches and vomiting? Well, the obvious solution is to abstain from alcohol, but for most people that's not an option in a world where socializing and alcohol go together.

But then, there's this to consider; it just isn't the same experience for everyone. The effects of alcohol consumption and consequent hangovers can vary widely, with some drinkers able to sleep it off, even as the less fortunate will suffer the full round of symptoms. Dr.Adams, a specialist in the psycho-pharmacology of alcohol, is a strong believer in expectations ushering people toward an experience. As far as she is concerned, the single most important factor in determining how a person will feel following a night of drinking in terms of mood and cognition is attributable to the amount of alcohol consumed.

In middle age, people are far different physically and metabolically than they were in their younger years when it was the thing to drink-till-dawn at age twenty. The middle-aged are likelier to have gained a higher percentage of body fat and since fat cannot absorb alcohol, tolerance to it decreases accordingly. The middle aged also have less body liquid, increasing the opportunity of dehydration to develop, meaning the alcohol will remain longer in the body's system.

 

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Memory, attention levels and co-ordination can be affected when heavy drinking has led to hangovers. "Hangxiety" is an unshakable sense of gloominess that overwhelms the individual in worries over everything happening in one's life assuming a much larger dimension. Some people may also be more predisposed to developing hangovers after a night of alcohol imbibing than others. Preferential drink choice can also impact the outcome. The advice is to avoid brown spirits, wine and anything mixed with energy drinks; to select vodka or gin with a low-sugar mixer like soda water and a squeeze of lemon or lime.

A workable remedy is to drink at least two litres of water over the course of the day, and to ingest slow-release carbohydrates like eggs on whole-grain toast, pasta, rice or sweet potatoes for the required glucose release.

"A balanced meal containing all key food groups prior to drinking is essential to slow the release of alcohol into the bloodstream. It also helps to protect your stomach lining."

"Clear spirits also contain lower levels of congeners, which can increase the intensity of any hangover."

Lily Souter, nutritionist

A new study has found that hangovers get less – yes, less – severe as we get older.