Do we ever learn?
- Thread starter Dizzy
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2006
- Messages
- 15,349
- Likes
- 0
- Points
- 36
I don't get hangovers. Even after 10-15 shots of vodka.
Granted we always have a HUGE meal before we drink, and I drink a lot of water before, during and after.
Worst I had was I was DYING of thirst the morning after when I was an idiot and drank the night I donated plasma (donated about 8 hours before I drank)
Yeah, I'm not doing that again.
Granted we always have a HUGE meal before we drink, and I drink a lot of water before, during and after.
Worst I had was I was DYING of thirst the morning after when I was an idiot and drank the night I donated plasma (donated about 8 hours before I drank)
Yeah, I'm not doing that again.
Hrm...bit of a physiology lecture here but I'll try and get it straight:
Because alcohol inhibits a hormone called ADH (Anti-Diuretic Hormone; or its cooler name: Vasopressin) which is involved in taking up water from your kidneys, so you **** out that water. Well, this causes your blood's concentration of electrolytes (Na and Cl particularly, but K is affected indirectly through the inhibitory effects on ADH) to drop.
Since you're not reabsorbing as much water, the concentration of the electrolytes goes up in the blood, and your body stops reabsorbing them in the kidneys to the same degree as it does normally, and thus you lose those too. Now, once the alcohol stops inhibiting ADH, your body will start normally reabsorbing (or better reabsorbing, since not all water reabsorption is cut off) water again which will dilute out your electrolyte concentration a bit (though the body keeps this regulated as best it can as well). If you eat a salty meal, you have some 'reserves' in the form of food hanging out in your intestines and your body can reabsorb that to replenish what was lost during your drunken state and balance out the water:electrolytes ratio (osmolarity) properly.
The reason that salt alone makes you thirsty is because it's increasing the concentration of those two ions in your blood, so your body wants you to consume more water so that it can offset that increase and dilute it back to a normal level.
Because alcohol inhibits a hormone called ADH (Anti-Diuretic Hormone; or its cooler name: Vasopressin) which is involved in taking up water from your kidneys, so you **** out that water. Well, this causes your blood's concentration of electrolytes (Na and Cl particularly, but K is affected indirectly through the inhibitory effects on ADH) to drop.
Since you're not reabsorbing as much water, the concentration of the electrolytes goes up in the blood, and your body stops reabsorbing them in the kidneys to the same degree as it does normally, and thus you lose those too. Now, once the alcohol stops inhibiting ADH, your body will start normally reabsorbing (or better reabsorbing, since not all water reabsorption is cut off) water again which will dilute out your electrolyte concentration a bit (though the body keeps this regulated as best it can as well). If you eat a salty meal, you have some 'reserves' in the form of food hanging out in your intestines and your body can reabsorb that to replenish what was lost during your drunken state and balance out the water:electrolytes ratio (osmolarity) properly.
The reason that salt alone makes you thirsty is because it's increasing the concentration of those two ions in your blood, so your body wants you to consume more water so that it can offset that increase and dilute it back to a normal level.
