Do hangovers damage the brain?
Ask the doctor
With the holidays coming, I may be tempted to drink more than usual — maybe enough to have a hangover the next morning. I'm wondering if a hangover could actually damage my brain.First, here's how they defined a hangover: mental and physical symptoms, experienced the day after a single episode of heavy drinking, starting when blood alcohol concentration approaches zero. So, by definition, during a hangover you no longer are inebriated. After reviewing 11 studies, the scientists concluded that during a hangover the ability to focus is impaired. So are short-term and long-term memory — particularly long-term memory of things that occur during a hangover. Also impaired is something called psychomotor speed — the speed with which the brain tells the body to move. This affects activities like driving a car. Indeed, studies of simulated driving in people who are suffering a hangover (and therefore are no longer inebriated) have found that driving is impaired.
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