The end-of-year holidays are here again, and with them the usual toasts. It’s no secret that more than one NeoTeo reader has, at some point, overdone the enthusiasm when celebrating and ended up with a championship-sized hangover. Fortunately, there are scientists who seriously research these things so that we don’t make such mistakes again. Dr. Damaris Rohsenow and her colleagues have taken advantage of this time of year to develop a study that tries to reveal what is better at Christmas: getting drunk with bourbon or whiskey, or doing it with vodka or gin.
Regardless of our religious beliefs, during these dates we get together with friends and family to celebrate Christmas, the beginning of the new year, and—once in the mood—whatever. In addition to the astronomical amounts of food of different styles that mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and—why not—lovers prepare with so much love for us (the pigs of the house) to devour quickly, we consume unusual amounts of alcohol. As expected, so much drinking ends up “affecting” our little bodies.
The Hangover, According to Science
Much has been discussed whether what inevitably gets us drunk is the quantity, quality, or mixture of alcohols we put into our bodies, but we have rarely seen a group of scientists seriously investigate the matter. That is exactly what Dr. Damaris Rohsenow and her colleagues have attempted on this occasion.
The article was published in 2009 in the journal Nature under the title “Intoxication With Bourbon Versus Vodka: Effects on Hangover, Sleep, and Next-Day Neurocognitive Performance in Young Adults,” and basically attempts to answer the following question: “Do dark-colored alcoholic beverages (like bourbon or whiskey) produce worse hangovers after a binge than colorless beverages (like vodka or gin)?” Really, upon reading the dilemma taken as the basis for this thoughtful analysis, one becomes convinced that Rohsenow's team chose this topic when they were in the bar closest to the lab celebrating something.
After conducting “some experiments,” including intentionally induced hangovers in 95 volunteers, they reached a conclusion: bourbon or whiskey cause more annoying hangovers because they contain substances other than alcohol (ethanol) formed during fermentation of the beverage. Between drinks, Damaris discovered that bourbon contains 37 times more congeners than vodka. It seems that what causes our drunkenness is ethanol, but what makes us feel terrible hangovers are the congeners, which worsen its effects.
Already on the subject, the scientists set out to investigate the effects of these drinks on a person attempting to perform repetitive tasks that simultaneously require sustained attention and speed, such as driving a car (never drive if you have been drinking), operating a complex machine, or—why not—pouring yourself another drink. The results showed that both types of drinks affect our concentration and coordination equally, regardless of their color. The reason for this is undoubtedly that our brain is incapable of functioning well when we have bathed it in ethanol.
Throughout the experiments, volunteer subjects were studied (surely it wasn't hard to find a few willing to do the tests for free) who were intoxicated with vodka or bourbon until they reached different levels of intoxication. As good scientists do when sober, team members quantified the symptoms that the “guinea pigs” presented in their hangovers after a night of “sleeping it off.”
As occurs in trials with new medications, some participants were “drunk with a placebo,” such as decaffeinated cola drinks, to compare their state with those who actually got drunk. Reading the article, one finds curious though expected results, such as that the effects of alcohol depend on age. It seems that younger people suffer milder hangovers, and that there are no differences between men and women: all get equally drunk.
https://old.neoteo.com/programas-calcular-alcohol-sangre/
