Pick Your Poison: Is There A Wiser Way To Drink?

   By drodriguez  Dec 24, 2009

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Before you make that toast this holiday season, you may want to think about what's in your glass and how it will make you feel in the morning.  New reports are coming out that show which types of liquor are more likely to give you a hangover the next day.  One thing to keep in mind it seems is, the darker the liquor, the bigger the hangover according to an article from CNN.

The study, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, reveals the brown spirits like whiskey and rum warrant the worst side effects the next day, probably due to the fact that they contain more of a substance called congeners.  Congeners are used in alcohol production for color and taste but can also directly effect a person's cell function which can be felt in the form of a stomachache or headache in the morning. 

The study's participants were given either Wild Turkey bourbon or Absolut vodka, both of which have about the same amount of alcohol content.  The people who drank the bourbon were more likely to report the effects of a hangover the next day.  What researchers also found, however, was that regardless of whether they drank bourbon or vodka they were all about 2 percent slower on a series of performance tests the next day. 

It may not sound like much, but head author of the study Damaris Rohsenhow, tells CNN, "That could make a difference if they have to respond to a situation in a car, or if they're running  a conveyor belt in a factory and they're slower to react to a situation wheresomething's going wrong."  It is estimated that hangovers cost the U.S. $148 billion in lost productivity in the workplace each year.

Though the best advice for avoiding a hangover is to not drink at all, if you do have a couple of drinks while celebrating this year, there are some things you can do to lessen your chances of suffering in the morning. John Brick, author of The Doctor's Hangover Handbook, advises that you should drink as much water as is comfortable before going to bed and to intersperse drinks of water while consuming alcohol.  Also, drinking Gatorade or some other type of sports drink in the morning will help replenish vitamins and fluids you lost the night before. 

What do you think of the recent study regarding hangovers?

Will the study's findings have an effect on what you pour in your glass this year?