We all know the severity of a hangover is mainly down to how much booze we funneled down our throat.
But have you ever wondered why you feel so much worse the morning after sampling a few Merlots and Malbecs compared to, say, vodka?
Scientists believe they have hit on the reason why certain drinks can cause such agony the next day.
For those of us planning to see the New Year in with a tipple, the theory is the darker the drink, the worse the hangover.
‘Different drinks contain differing amounts of substances called “congeners”‘, said Dr Sally Adams, who researches the effects of alcohol at the University of Birmingham.
‘These are added during the fermentation process to improve the taste, aroma and colour of a drink.
‘A small body of evidence suggests drinks with a higher congener content (e.g. dark spirits and red wine) may lead to greater hangover severity compared with drinks with less congeners (e.g. gin, vodka).’
Studies have also suggested vodka and beer contain the least.
Have you ever wondered why you feel so much worse the morning after sampling a few Merlots and Malbecs compared to, say, vodka?
One 2009 article, published in the journal Nature, found bourbon contains 37 times more congeners than vodka.
Another 2010 study discovered bourbon can trigger worse hangovers than vodka.
The researchers, from Brown University in Massachusetts, asked participants to drink either decaffeinated cola, vodka or bourbon and later asked them questions about their hangover.
Those who drank the bourbon had more severe symptoms than those that drank the vodka.
But another, far more recent study, has also hit on the reason why red wine specifically is most likely to leave you with a nasty hangover.
According to US scientists, a compound called quercetin — which is abundant in red wines — may prevent the body processing alcohol properly.
Red wine has more quercetin because whole grapes, including the skin, are used —white wine has the skins and seeds removed.
Quercetin is also more abundant in grapes exposed to more sunlight, researchers at the University of California said.
The NHS recommends people drink no more than 14 ‘units’ of alcohol — around six glasses of wine, or pints of beer — per week
This means cheaper red wine might actually be better for avoiding a hangover because cheaper grape varieties are grown on vines with large canopies and lots of leaves so they don’t get as much sun.
‘If you’re willing to take a chance, look for an inexpensive, lighter red wine,’ Professor Andrew Waterhouse, an expert in enology and Apramita Devi, a postdoctoral researcher in food science, told The Conversation.
The scientists don’t know exactly how quercetin affects people directly, but they believe it blocks an enzyme needed to break down alcohol in the body.
‘First, alcohol is converted to the compound acetaldehyde [in the liver]’, they said.
‘Then, the enzyme ALDH converts the acetaldehyde to acetate, a common and innocuous substance.’
Once this happens, it can be passed out of the body as waste.
Quercetin, however, stops the acetaldehyde being made into acetate, so it stays in the body, causing inflammation and a headache.
‘Our enzyme tests suggest that quercetin… disrupts your body’s metabolism of alcohol,’ they added.
For those of us planning to see the New Year in with a tipple, the theory is the darker the drink, the worse the hangover
Studies have previously suggested that histamine — an ingredient more common in red wine than white or rose — may to be to blame for red wine headaches, which can strike within half an hour of drinking even small amounts.
Histamine can dilate blood vessels in the body, which might trigger headache. But the research is limited.
Beer has a lower alcohol content than wine, on average, at 4.4 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively. Spirits are even higher, at 40 per cent.
One unit of alcohol — roughly one shot or half a pint of a lower-strength beer — takes the average adult about an hour to process, the NHS says.
The health service recommends people drink no more than 14 ‘units’ of alcohol — around six glasses of wine, or pints of beer — per week.
Meanwhile, the US says women should drink no more than seven standard drinks a week and men can have 14.
Scientists across the board agree that excessive alcohol consumption can permanently damage the liver, cause an array of cancers and drive up blood pressure.
It puts a strain on the heart muscle and can lead to cardiovascular disease (CVD), which increases your risk of heart attack and stroke.
Binge drinking — sometimes defined by consuming five drinks within two hours —can make the heart beat irregularly, triggering symptoms including breathlessness, tiredness and increased blood pressure.
The World Health Organisation estimate alcohol kills three million people around the world each year.
