This is a ELI5 response with a high school understanding of human biology. Hangovers are from alcohol poisoning (variable levels), and this poison is detoxified by your liver. The waste is either sent to the kidneys to be processed as urine or to the bowels. Your kidneys require water and minerals to process this waste, and water is the vehicle for excreting waste through urine. When you drink all water and no vitamins/minerals, you risk depleting your supply of those essential elements. So, assuming your water has an appropriate balance of those things, I would think that water with electrolytes or minerals is better than plain water at helping your body process and detoxify alcohol.
Tl;Dr: water with balanced electrolytes/minerals > plain water for hangovers.
My thougtz exactly! I don't drink any such distilled/mineral-free water so that must be the secret to my non-madness
What’s your age bracket if you don’t mind me asking?
I don't mind but I'm actually a little more interested i why thats interesting to you and what your best guess would be to that end ;) 🍿
Probably because hangover severity increases exponentially as you age. A 16 year old can knock back 20 shots in a night and basically die, but wake up with no hangover.
A 40 year old can drink 3 beers and spend 2 days recovering.
Extreme examples yes, but the younger you are the less you have to worry about hangovers and how to prevent / manage them.
My father is 86, and he says he never had a hangover, and still doesn't get them.
I sometimes get hangover often within an hour of drinking just 1 or 2 beers or a single glass of wine. I did that too when I was in my 20's, but back then it was mostly wine that did it.
I'm 100% the opposite. 52 and can drink 15 light beers in the afternoon and evening. Daily. And still don't really get drunk.
OTOH, when I was younger, I was pounding those beers. And without enough food or water.
Would that not be more a function of the volume rather than drink-value in that scenario? Isn't beer like way harder on your body not because of the alcohol per se but the actual heaviness and richness of it calorically as opposed to vodka combined with the fact that alcohol necessarily interferes with the metabolism and digestion of lesser toxins like actual food?
Not sure how cogent this is and I'm deferring to you but simply exercising my curiosity and trying to put my ignorance to the test aha
The things that aren't pure alcohol are a definite factor. I can drink a lot more mid-quality liquor and feel great than slightly lower end (nothing crazy expensive. But for example Crown Royal Black is stronger than Regular Crown Royal, but I can drink more of it and still feel better the next day).
From the other answers, the consensus seems to be water + a bit of sugar + electrolytes/minerals is the formula for attenuating or preventing hangover. It seems water is the most important but all three together seem to be an anodyne of sorts, which tracks with my experience.
Screwdrivers for the win!
No one took a guess, so based on your writing style, I'd peg you as early 20s (but if you're that young, you do strike me as having strong critical thinking skills for your age)
🤗
Unless you're drinking distilled water (don't), it will have minerals in it.
I don't, can't think of a more pointless thing. I'm curious as to whether anti-flurodation folks buy into distilled 🤔
Fish tanks, CPAP and other medical equipment and any machine that requires water where you don't want mineral buildup.
My axolotls would die if just put tap water in their habitat.
Wat r those?
A Mexican salamander that in natural conditions retains its aquatic larval form throughout life but is able to breed.
Why can't they haz minerals?
They just built like that
Gotcha, poor guys. I love my minerals. Screw precious stones, I'll take an all-you-can-eat magnesium mine anyday
What is the relationship between
drinking alcohol + water?
drinking alcohol + water with minerals vs water without minerals?
Do minerals/electrolytes have a relationship with hangover or how you feel after drinking to varying degrees?
My bro science...
Not really by much. The only way to avoid a hangover would be to not drink alcohol. Minerals might help a little but they are probably the smallest factor. The easiest way to reduce its impact is with sugar since alcohol impacts your glucose levels. Acetaldehyde builds up in your system without any remedy and that's a big part of the hangover feeling. Minerals won't help.
Water, sleep, and fruit are probably your best bet. I usually take water, fruit juice, and an aspirin if I'm expecting a hangover. In the morning, more water, fruit juice, and bread are probably decent hangover remedies.
I don't think minerals help much. When I was younger, I used to go for a run. Even if I felt terrible, I'd start to feel better after 5-10min of running. But I was younger then. These days, hangovers are rare but brutal.
Yeah everything I can find on the subject shows that dehydration is just one of the many factors in a hangover, and isn't the main one. The primary cause seems to be an immune system response that we do not understand, caused by factors, other than you drank alcohol, we do not know.
If the alcohol you are drinking was produced in wood barrels, the tradicional and more expensive way, is less prone to give you hangover.
In the other hand the distilled alcohol, cheaper, contains a higher amount of acetaldehyde, so it is more prone to give you a hangover.
So Re:bro-science/sugar, is it worse with dryer alcohol, and is it helpful to selectively sip my lower-but-still-sugar-contianing kombucha as a preferable thing to water?
Edit: bro science is still "science" aha. I love it all
Speaking from experience 20 years ago: Gatorade > Water.
Hangover in the morning? Drink a 32oz Gatorade and it'd be almost completely gone. I had always attributed it to dehydration vs alcohol poisoning.
Gross. Having Gatorade will 100% make me vomit the morning after a night of heavy drinking since it's loaded with sugar. Water, greasy food or pho, and a puff or two from a weed cart is the proper way to alleviate a hangover. If you want some electrolytes, pour some salt into your water.
Also, drinking a ton of water and eating before bed helps too.
Try nüun
What do you think about nüun?
Had not heard of it until just now. Looks like its comparable based on a quick Google search. With most things we consume/ingest, what works for one might not work for another. Any hydration after a night of drinking alcohol (a dehydrant) is going to be beneficial. My party days are long behind me, but if they weren't I'd be interested to dry nüun as an alternative and see how it goes.
Hell my wife claims she "never gets hangovers", but when we were drinking she was going 1 shot of tequila to 1 glass of water. Which kind of gave me some confirmation bias that hydration was the key. I drink a glass of wine and I'm ready for a nap.
Love my weed though. Weed has never given me a hangover. It did give me an extra 20lbs from munchies though. :)
Thats probably a big part of why I technically never get or experience hangovers. I am ALWAYS drinking water. I had that Waterminder for a while and I ended up like "wtf am i using this, i literally guzzle the shit compulsively all day to keep my teeth healthy and cleanse palate)
This is a ELI5 response with a high school understanding of human biology. Hangovers are from alcohol poisoning (variable levels), and this poison is detoxified by your liver. The waste is either sent to the kidneys to be processed as urine or to the bowels. Your kidneys require water and minerals to process this waste, and water is the vehicle for excreting waste through urine. When you drink all water and no vitamins/minerals, you risk depleting your supply of those essential elements. So, assuming your water has an appropriate balance of those things, I would think that water with electrolytes or minerals is better than plain water at helping your body process and detoxify alcohol.
Tl;Dr: water with balanced electrolytes/minerals > plain water for hangovers.
My thougtz exactly! I don't drink any such distilled/mineral-free water so that must be the secret to my non-madness
What’s your age bracket if you don’t mind me asking?
I don't mind but I'm actually a little more interested i why thats interesting to you and what your best guess would be to that end ;) 🍿
Probably because hangover severity increases exponentially as you age. A 16 year old can knock back 20 shots in a night and basically die, but wake up with no hangover.
A 40 year old can drink 3 beers and spend 2 days recovering.
Extreme examples yes, but the younger you are the less you have to worry about hangovers and how to prevent / manage them.
My father is 86, and he says he never had a hangover, and still doesn't get them.
I sometimes get hangover often within an hour of drinking just 1 or 2 beers or a single glass of wine. I did that too when I was in my 20's, but back then it was mostly wine that did it.
I'm 100% the opposite. 52 and can drink 15 light beers in the afternoon and evening. Daily. And still don't really get drunk.
OTOH, when I was younger, I was pounding those beers. And without enough food or water.
Would that not be more a function of the volume rather than drink-value in that scenario? Isn't beer like way harder on your body not because of the alcohol per se but the actual heaviness and richness of it calorically as opposed to vodka combined with the fact that alcohol necessarily interferes with the metabolism and digestion of lesser toxins like actual food?
Not sure how cogent this is and I'm deferring to you but simply exercising my curiosity and trying to put my ignorance to the test aha
The things that aren't pure alcohol are a definite factor. I can drink a lot more mid-quality liquor and feel great than slightly lower end (nothing crazy expensive. But for example Crown Royal Black is stronger than Regular Crown Royal, but I can drink more of it and still feel better the next day).
From the other answers, the consensus seems to be water + a bit of sugar + electrolytes/minerals is the formula for attenuating or preventing hangover. It seems water is the most important but all three together seem to be an anodyne of sorts, which tracks with my experience.
Screwdrivers for the win!
No one took a guess, so based on your writing style, I'd peg you as early 20s (but if you're that young, you do strike me as having strong critical thinking skills for your age)
🤗
Unless you're drinking distilled water (don't), it will have minerals in it.
I don't, can't think of a more pointless thing. I'm curious as to whether anti-flurodation folks buy into distilled 🤔
Fish tanks, CPAP and other medical equipment and any machine that requires water where you don't want mineral buildup.
My axolotls would die if just put tap water in their habitat.
Wat r those?
A Mexican salamander that in natural conditions retains its aquatic larval form throughout life but is able to breed.
Why can't they haz minerals?
They just built like that
Gotcha, poor guys. I love my minerals. Screw precious stones, I'll take an all-you-can-eat magnesium mine anyday
What is the relationship between
drinking alcohol + water?
drinking alcohol + water with minerals vs water without minerals?
Do minerals/electrolytes have a relationship with hangover or how you feel after drinking to varying degrees?
My bro science...
Not really by much. The only way to avoid a hangover would be to not drink alcohol. Minerals might help a little but they are probably the smallest factor. The easiest way to reduce its impact is with sugar since alcohol impacts your glucose levels. Acetaldehyde builds up in your system without any remedy and that's a big part of the hangover feeling. Minerals won't help.
Water, sleep, and fruit are probably your best bet. I usually take water, fruit juice, and an aspirin if I'm expecting a hangover. In the morning, more water, fruit juice, and bread are probably decent hangover remedies.
I don't think minerals help much. When I was younger, I used to go for a run. Even if I felt terrible, I'd start to feel better after 5-10min of running. But I was younger then. These days, hangovers are rare but brutal.
Yeah everything I can find on the subject shows that dehydration is just one of the many factors in a hangover, and isn't the main one. The primary cause seems to be an immune system response that we do not understand, caused by factors, other than you drank alcohol, we do not know.
If the alcohol you are drinking was produced in wood barrels, the tradicional and more expensive way, is less prone to give you hangover.
In the other hand the distilled alcohol, cheaper, contains a higher amount of acetaldehyde, so it is more prone to give you a hangover.
So Re:bro-science/sugar, is it worse with dryer alcohol, and is it helpful to selectively sip my lower-but-still-sugar-contianing kombucha as a preferable thing to water?
Edit: bro science is still "science" aha. I love it all
Speaking from experience 20 years ago: Gatorade > Water.
Hangover in the morning? Drink a 32oz Gatorade and it'd be almost completely gone. I had always attributed it to dehydration vs alcohol poisoning.
Gross. Having Gatorade will 100% make me vomit the morning after a night of heavy drinking since it's loaded with sugar. Water, greasy food or pho, and a puff or two from a weed cart is the proper way to alleviate a hangover. If you want some electrolytes, pour some salt into your water.
Also, drinking a ton of water and eating before bed helps too.
Try nüun
What do you think about nüun?
Had not heard of it until just now. Looks like its comparable based on a quick Google search. With most things we consume/ingest, what works for one might not work for another. Any hydration after a night of drinking alcohol (a dehydrant) is going to be beneficial. My party days are long behind me, but if they weren't I'd be interested to dry nüun as an alternative and see how it goes.
Hell my wife claims she "never gets hangovers", but when we were drinking she was going 1 shot of tequila to 1 glass of water. Which kind of gave me some confirmation bias that hydration was the key. I drink a glass of wine and I'm ready for a nap.
Love my weed though. Weed has never given me a hangover. It did give me an extra 20lbs from munchies though. :)
Thats probably a big part of why I technically never get or experience hangovers. I am ALWAYS drinking water. I had that Waterminder for a while and I ended up like "wtf am i using this, i literally guzzle the shit compulsively all day to keep my teeth healthy and cleanse palate)