While not everyone has woken up in Las Vegas missing a tooth, or found themselves stranded on the roof of a hotel room, I think everyone that’s ever gone out drinking has woken up the next morning with a hangover. While we do know that bacon is a miracle cure for the symptoms of too much partying, what we don’t know is the actual cause of why drinking too much makes us feel bad. Thankfully, neuroscientists believe they have discovered the cause of hangovers.
It’s not dehydration, or sulfides, or anything else. Quite simply, the brain gets used to being drunk. When the booze is taken away, or dissipates within the body, then you get that hangover feeling. Scientists at the University of Southampton’s School of Biological Sciences discovered the neuropeptide changes in the C. elegans worm, which closely mimics a human brain’s functioning (when the human brain is blitzed on booze). “This research showed the worms displaying effects of the withdrawal of alcohol and enables us to define how alcohol affects signaling in nerve circuits which leads to changes in behavior,” says lead researcher Lindy Holden-Dye.
This discovery may lead to new treatments in the war on alcoholism. At the very least, it adds credence to the old folk remedy for a hangover: .
Tags: hangovers, hangover molecule, what causes hangovers, medical breakthroughs, weird science, molecule causes hangovers discovered, neuropeptides, University of Southampton, School of Biological Sciences, brain research, C. elegans worm, Lindy Holden-Dye