Written by: Dr. Michael Mulick, DO
“Do hangovers get worse as we get older?” The answer is no. I recently saw two articles on-line that got it wrong. One from the New York Times and one from the Independent. There is a growing body of evidence to support this. A Danish study by Janne Tolstrup surveyed over 51,000 participants and demonstrated that hangovers were worse in young people. The authors also found that binge drinking is more common among younger people. Older people may be more tolerant to alcohol because they have been drinking longer. The older and more experienced people might know how to better avoid or mitigate their hangovers. For example they might choose to drink lighter color alcohol containing fewer congener compounds. They may also eat more while drinking and use home remedies.
A Danish study surveyed over 51,000 participants and demonstrated that hangovers were worse in young people.
Another study by Dr. Huntley and his group from Brown University analyzed data from 274 participants and found that younger drinkers had worse hangovers than older drinkers and this difference became stronger as people get older. There was no difference between the severity of hangovers for men vs. women. The hangovers were worse with higher amounts of alcohol consumed.
“headache” by threephin
So does this mean people get a free pass and can drink as much as they want as they get older? Certainly not. Alcohol abuse is a huge problem and a hangover is a sign that you drank too much and might have a problem. It is your body’s way of saying you have gone too far. Listen to your body.
What do you think? Was this news to you? What information is important that people need to know about alcohol consumption?