Weekly Bet Ya Didn't Know: Smoking Actually Makes a Hangover Worse?

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Yay!  Another reason to stop smoking!  Totally not biased...I, uh, swear.  Anyway, we all know that smoking is terrible for you and that it's a stimulant, so it doesn't actually relax you, that's all in your head.  But now, there's even another reason why smoking is bad.  Smoking cigarettes while drinking actually makes your hangover worse.  This whole issue came up over the weekend when the b/f and I were out with two friends that had recently stopped smoking.  They said that they noticed that they don't really get hangovers now that they stopped smoking cigarettes.  I had to get to the bottom of this and see if they were just delusional!  Well, it looks like they are right.  Here's the deal.

Smoking increases the toxic effect of alcohol.  While it makes sense that this would happen, I never really thought of it this way.  Smoking deprives the blood stream and brain of oxygen, by constricting the lungs, so that intensifies the toxic effect that alcohol has.  Therefore, it is going to make the next morning a little more painful.  This explains why nonsmokers are fineby 9am the next day smokers feel like crap all day long.  Who knew?!   



Sources: http://www.hackwriters.com/quitnow.htm,http://www.bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire/student_life/hangover_cures.shtml, http://www.wikihow.com/Prevent-a-Hangover