There are a lot of reasons that you do not want a hangover and the morning after drinking already leaves you feeling queasy, shaky, and even a little dehydrated. So more recent information shows that there are a lot of chemical imbalances that occur by introducing alcohol into your bloodstream. That’s pretty much duh, but a British scientist, who was fired in 2009 as a government’s chief drug advisor, for saying alcohol is more dangerous than ecstasy and LSD.

Alcohol, he says, targets the Gaba (gamma-aminobutyric acid) receptor, which sends chemical messages through the brain and central nervous system to inhibit the activity of nerve cells. Put simply, it calms the brain, reducing excitement by making fewer neurons fire. “Alcohol stimulates Gaba, which is why you get relaxed and cheerful when you drink,” explains Nutt.

The first two drinks lull you into a blissful Gaba-induced state of chill. When you get to the third or fourth drink, another brain-slackening effect kicks in: you start blocking glutamate, the main excitatory transmitter in the brain. “More glutamate means more anxiety,” says Nutt. “Less glutamate means less anxiety.” Therefore, he says, “when people get very drunk, they’re even less anxious than when they’re a bit drunk” – not only does alcohol reduce the chatter in your brain by stimulating Gaba, but it further reduces your anxiety by blocking glutamate. In your blissed-out state, you will probably feel that this is all good – but you will be wrong.

The fun of is soon over when the body starts to try and regulate its chemistry and bring things back to where they should be. The body normally likes a lower GABA level and a higher glutamate level. Okay, this ends your biochemistry lesson for the day.
So, depending on the amount of alcohol you drink, this adjustment can take up to 48 hours for a small amount of alcohol. This is why the next day, and the day after as well, can be filled with feeling out of sorts so to speak, it can also be an anxiety-filled nightmare because of the imbalance.

For alcoholics, they can take a long time for the brain to adapt. They usually continue drinking because of the need to continue to stimulate the dopamine receptors and thus why they develop things like the shakes and seizures when you’re withdrawing from alcohol. Luckily as a casual, careful drinker, your experience is, of course, less intense.

In general, the correction of this imbalance can cause a lot of anxiety. The person that is experiencing a hangover can sometimes be unsure of what happened during the night. This leads to the questions like, “what did I do last night?”, “I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?”, and accompanying anxiety from the lack of a clear picture and the imbalance of your chemicals. This can be moderate to severe, which is why a lot of people are very concerned about their actions while they’ve been drinking. Of course, it doesn’t affect everyone the same way. Some people, the lucky bastards, are able to drink all night and wake up the next morning and do whatever they want. I know in the military we use to drink to an obscenely late hour and wake up at 6 AM the next morning for physical training. The good part about that is that anything that was still irritating you usually came up (I know gross).

There really is not a cure for hangovers except to drink plenty of water and rest. I know a lot of folks will suggest, “the hair of the dog that bit you.” The reason that this has been an effective cure for hangovers is that it slows down the brain imbalance and brings the body back to that state of bliss that you get from the initial drinks. This only prolongs the imbalance and in the end, prolongs a hangover.

So, one thing that’s important to mention here is using alcohol to sleep with, and no not that kind of sleep with…Goodness graciousness your minds are so dirty. The initiation of sleep is easily accomplished, however, as the body begins to correct the balance between the GABA and the glutamate it can cause a fitful sleep or sleep that’s too deep to be beneficial. This imbalance also leads to anxiety the next morning. The only way to prevent hangovers is to not drink. However, let’s talk about something that is not talked about, responsible drinking.

Since alcohol is legal in all 50 states and it has such a wide-ranging impact on people’s lives through socialization, movies, television shows, advertisements, and peers. The United States is not a productive culture when promoting responsible drinking. So, when I say responsible drinking, I mean that you will learn how to imbibe at a rate that is enjoyable but not completely intoxicating. Most people do not know how to do this and never learned how to do this throughout their lifetime. Why do you ask? It’s because of this GABA-induced bliss that we feel, and we say to ourselves, “this is good more will be better.” The problem is that talking about drinking, like talking about sex, is so taboo in this country that many children and teenagers do not observe responsible drinking. Parents do not speak to their children about responsible drinking. Children are as likely to get their hands-on alcohol as they are to have sex and yet we do little to prepare them for either. While neither of them really has a good outcome in your teenage years if handled irresponsibly, it is something that should be discussed in the home in a frank and honest manner. This doesn’t happen, from my standpoint, at all. There are very few parents who are up to the task of having these conversations. This is part of your responsibility as a parent. When I am explaining that to a teenager in an office visit, it is okay, but parents as they often argue should take the lead.

Granted, we don’t want them out drinking and screwing like rabbits. However, it is a good idea for them to know their limits and to know the effects of alcohol on their bodies. This does not need to be a scare tactic like so many states, and schools use. If you use scare tactics and the children or teens find out that these things don’t always happen, then your credibility is shot in the foot. I am certainly not advocating childhood drinking; however, I have lived in countries where 14-year-olds were able to drink with their parents. In these situations, the parents could both discuss and demonstrate responsible drinking. In speaking with these folks, when they grew older, drinking was not such a big deal, and they didn’t go out to get frat house-level-hammered when they have a drink or two, which is all they had. The lack of self-control usually comes from the idea that, “nobody’s watching me now, I can do whatever I want.” This leads to frat house style drinking. If you don’t know what that is, watch Animal House. I still think about my first year in college and all the kids who showed up with their goody-two-shoes parents, their bibles, and religious art who were literally doing keg stands before their parents had left the parking lot. This doesn’t work for a lot of reasons and only strengthens my point. Which is, talk to your dang kids. Don’t be afraid to be that parent who actually knows what’s going on with their children. I can tell you the world will be a whole lot easier for them having good information and good social skills. As Dean Wormer said in Animal House, “fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life son.”

Now it’s off to the rest of my duties, you know, bat feeding and all…