The Gay Test

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The holiday season is a special time filled with fun, family, friends and festivity. From office parties to family gatherings, there are plenty of times and places to celebrate and, for those who choose to use alcohol as part of their celebrations, plenty of opportunities to overindulge. But though drinking might seem fun at the time, the next morning hangover is nothing to laugh about. Common symptoms of a hangover include headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, thirst, sensitivity to light and noise, sweating, anxiety, irritability, trouble sleeping, difficulty concentrating and erratic motor functions, including tremors. Some hangover symptoms are due to the direct effects of alcohol on the body, while others result from the body’s efforts to cope with the removal of alcohol and counteract its depressant effects on the central nervous system. There are a number of factors that can affect how severe a hangover might be, such as the amount of alcohol consumed, at what rate, and how much food and water is consumed while drinking. And, according to a new study, a person’s liquor choice might also help determine the intensity of a hangover.

Although quite prevalent, hangovers have not been extensively studied. So to better understand the effects of alcohol, specifically the levels of toxic substances called congeners in the alcohol, researchers at the Brown University Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies in Providence, Rhode Island, and the University of Michigan Medical School recruited 95 healthy heavy drinkers, 58 men and 37 women, between the ages of 21 and 33 residing in the greater Boston area. Prior to the study, none of the participants had ever been treated for alcohol-related problems, and none had experienced any form of sleep disorders.

The study was carried out over two evenings, a week apart. In the 24-hour period before each of these evenings, the participants were required to abstain from alcohol, illicit drugs, sleep aids and caffeine. On one night, the participants consumed either 100 proof Absolut vodka, which contains relatively few congeners, or 101 proof Wild Turkey bourbon, which has about 37 times more congeners than vodka, until their breath alcohol concentrations (BrAC) levels reflected inebriation. Another night they drank an alcohol-free placebo beverage. Overnight their sleep was monitored and the following morning they were asked to rate their hangover in terms of severity, ranging from little or no impact to incapacitating. They were also asked to perform tasks to access speed, vigilance and concentration skills and their polysomnography recordings were assessed.