Which Alcohol Gives You The Worst Hangover?
It's safe to say that most people have experienced a hangover at least once in their life. Whether it put you off drinking or not is an entirely different story but those who continue to drink have probably since wondered what they can do to avoid another. Is one alcohol better than the other? Which alcohol gives you the worst hangover? Are there any tricks that actually work to prevent a hangover?
According to Dr. Kai Hensel, a senior clinical pediatrics fellow at the University of Cambridge in the UK, research into hangovers is minimal. Speaking to TIME, Hensel admitted that hangovers are just "one of these things that are not tackled by science a lot at all."
The type of alcohol you consume does not play a part in your hangover
However, a new study conducted by Hensel has revealed that the type of alcohol you consume does not play any part in your hangover. In other words, no matter what you drink, if you consume large quantities of alcohol you will likely end up hungover the next day.
As evidenced by the study, large quantities of alcohol amount to about six standard drinks in any one session. And it really doesn't matter what order you drink things in either. Whether you have a few glasses of wine followed by beer, or beer followed by wine, your hangover will be the same.
Women are likely to suffer from worse hangovers than men
Another interesting finding from the study is that women are more likely to be affected by alcohol, and therefore suffer from worse hangovers than men. Other factors that can affect how bad your hangover include alcohol tolerance and sleep quality, among others.
"After working like idiots, doing all these analyses," Hensel told TIME, "Just asking the participant, 'How drunk are you?,' if they are really drunk, is the best predictor. You don't have to do all that research. Just ask yourself."
In other words, limiting your drinks (or not drinking at all) is really the only way you could ever really prevent a hangover.