The Science Behind Hangovers

(and what you can do about it)

Quick Highlights

Alcohol affects 4 key areas of the body: the liver, hydration, sleep, and vitamins & minerals.

  • The liver breaks down alcohol through a 2-step process involving key enzymes. The version of alcohol that exists in this halfway point between steps 1 and 2 is a highly toxic chemical known as Acetaldehyde. These 2 steps also produce negative byproducts. For these reasons, it’s important to minimize the time spent in this halfway point and to give your liver sufficient antioxidants to fight these byproducts.

  • Alcohol causes the body’s normal fluid retention system to stop working well. This causes the kidneys to lose even more water and electrolytes than are being received through the volume of alcoholic drinks being consumed. Through hydrating with an Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS), you can hydrate even more efficiently than with electrolytes alone to help you get rehydrated.

  • Alcohol disrupts the normal balance of 2 hormones in the brain, GABA and Glutamate, leading to a temporary excess of GABA activity in the brain. This imbalance impacts the brain waves that help coordinate the stages of sleep, leading to disorganized and incomplete sleep. It’s important to more quickly reestablish this GABA-Glutamate balance to minimize these effects.

  • The process of breaking down alcohol is highly taxing on the body for many reasons. Many of these processes rely on vitamins and minerals to maintain proper function. Because of this, your body uses up a lot of vitamins and minerals in the process of getting your body back to its normal state. It’s critical to adequately fuel your body with these nutrients during this time.

Scroll down to learn more about these areas

It’s time to science the s#!t out of this

Coordinate Liver Enzyme Efficiency

The liver processes alcohol through a 2-step process that first uses the ADH enzyme in step 1 and then the ALDH enzyme in step 2. The version of alcohol that exists in the middle intermediate between steps 1 and 2 is a highly toxic chemical known as acetaldehyde. Sometimes step 2 can operate slower than step 1, which results in a buildup of acetaldehyde. For this reason, the goal is to complete these 2-steps as fast as possible, but also to ensure that the second step is increased more than the increase in first step so that buildup of this toxic intermediate is minimized. This may be achieved by using various ingredients, such as dihydromyricetin, milk thistle, and others, that enhance the activity of both enzymes, but do so in a way that preferentially boosts step 2 more than step 1.

In addition, these 2 enzymes require a molecule known as NAD+ in order to function. Naturally, NAD+ levels decrease in the body as it gets used up. Luckily, the precursors of NAD+ can be increased through various items. Lastly, this 2-step process also produces reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can lead to damage. This can be combated by the help of antioxidants.

Ultimately, targeting these 3 areas may increase the efficiency of these liver enzymes and lead to a reduction in this acetaldehyde bottleneck. This can be done through certain products, such as the Vida Splash Complete After-Alcohol Recovery drink mix.

Replenish Hydration Effectively

When alcohol enters the body, it leads to the impaired function of a hormone called antidiuretic hormone. Normally, this antidiuretic hormone helps your body retain water and stay hydrated. Yet, when alcohol enters the picture, the body’s hydration status gets put through a huge state of imbalance due to this temporary dysfunction that prevents your kidneys from holding onto water. With this, the body actually loses water and electrolytes at a rate even greater than what is being consumed.

An adequate amount of water and electrolytes are needed in order to overcome this problem and get rehydrated. Keep in mind that it’s important that there is enough water and electrolytes, because one without the other is not enough to correct the issue. In addition to this, it’s been shown that hydrating with an oral rehydration solution (ORS), such as Vida Splash, can lead to a more efficient rehydration process compared to just electrolytes and water alone. An ORS involves the same amount of electrolytes and water, but also has a small, specific amount of sugar that then allows your body to use additional paths in the intestines and kidney to absorb even more of the water that is being consumed. This process leads to more efficient hydration. Without this proper ratio of sugar, your body is much more limited in how it can absorb the water and electrolytes that are being consumed.

Target Sleep Through GABA-Glutamate

There are 2 neurotransmitters, GABA and glutamate, that normally go back and forth in a balanced game of tug-a-war to ensure that the neurons in the brain fire at the right pace… not too frequently and not too minimally. GABA and glutamate also help coordinate the body’s normal sleep cycles. When alcohol enters the body, it induces an excess flood of GABA and a temporary damper on glutamate. As the body recovers from this imbalance, it’s faced with the reverse situation: glutamate comes soaring back at excess levels, meanwhile there are now depleted and insufficient GABA levels. This imbalance leads to a disorganization of the body’s sleep cycles that can cause poor quality and minimally restorative sleep.

There are several ways that may help speed up this process of getting GABA and glutamate back into balance to minimize sleep disequilibrium. These include providing GABA directly, providing other molecules that temporarily act on the GABA receptor, and through boosting the activity of the enzyme that makes GABA. In fact, GABA itself is made from glutamate… meaning that an increase in GABA also means a decrease a glutamate: a win-win if you ask us. You can utilize all 3 of these methods at once by using Vida Splash to get better, more restorative sleep.

Power the Body with Vitamins & Minerals

The body is powered by an immense amount of chemical reactions and processes that are always occurring throughout the body. All of these reactions are fueled, one way or another, by vitamins and minerals. Normally there is a natural balance of usage and intake of vitamins and minerals. Although, the amount of vitamins and minerals in the body can be depleted at an even greater rate when the body goes through an especially challenging experience, such as recovering from an illness or metabolizing products like alcohol.

In order to more efficiently deal with these metabolically expensive tasks, it’s important to proactively fuel the body and replenish the stores of vitamins and minerals that may otherwise become lower than hoped for. Simple enough: if something is used up, replace it! This can easily be done by using Vida Splash, which is jam-packed full of vitamins & minerals.

Perfect Timing Matters

All of the various processes within the body operate on their own timelines, which is why it’s so important that efforts are coordinated and perfectly timed to get the maximum effect. In an ideal world, someone could target one aspect at a time, but who’s got time for that? Realistically, someone should only have to take action once, like drinking a single glass of Vida Splash, in order to get the effect.

It’s easy and efficient to address hydration and vitamins & minerals at any point. However, due to the liver and sleep related processes, the optimal time to address these areas is right after drinking and before going to sleep. This makes sure that your body is in the best place to address all of these imbalances that it’s being faced with. Also, this allows your body to do all of the hard work while you’re sleeping, so you can wake up in the morning feeling refreshed and ready to go.

Minimize Strain Elsewhere

In its pure state, the alcohol we drink is technically ethanol. However, during the fermentation process there are often other byproducts that get produced aside from ethanol, such as methanol, tannins, and even acetaldehyde. All of these byproducts are collectively known as “congeners.” There are 2 main aspects of congeners that make them important to be aware of. First, these products produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) which tax the body’s antioxidants. Second, the enzymes in the liver have differing preferences when it comes to processing ethanol vs. congeners. This results in increased inefficiencies and functional depletion of these hormones.

In general, congeners are the lowest in light-colored alcohols (vodka, gin, white rum, white win, and light beer) and in liquors that have been distilled more times. On the other hand, congeners are generally the highest in dark-colored alcohols (whisky, brandy, dark rum, and red wine) and in liquors that have gone through fewer rounds of distillation. The exception to this light-dark color classification is tequila. Though light colored, tequila often has some of the highest congener amounts out of all liquors, which is why a highly distilled tequila can make even more of a difference compared its lower distilled counterparts.

Minimizing the amount of congeners in your drinks can help reduce the strain that your body has to recover from afterwards.