‘Alcohol is a ‘dirty drug’,” says Emily Palmer, a researcher at Imperial College London, who studies hangovers. “It impacts multiple systems in the brain.”
Scientists are not exactly sure what is going on in our bodies during a hangover, but they do know it is caused by a variety of biochemical and neurochemical changes. “It doesn’t just affect the liver or the brain,” says Palmer, “it affects almost every organ.”
This Christmas, many of us will be celebrating with a drink or two or three. So is it possible to get through the morning after the night before unscathed?
The slippery slope
“You have your first drink and a neuro transmitter called gammaamino butyric acid – or Gaba –