Does marijuana prevent/treat alcohol hangovers?

[1veedo]

I've noticed that if hypothetically I've smoked marijuana within one or two weeks of drinking I don't get hangovers. And I'm the stereotypical skinny guy who usually gets really bad hangovers. If you look at some of the things marijuana treats verses hangover symptoms it would make a lot of sense.

 

Hangover symptoms:

Dehydration (fixed with some water lol)

Headache*

Bodyache*

Nausea*

Loss of appetite*

Fatigue

Irritability (probably caused because of the other symptoms more than anything else)

 

All the *'s are treated by marijuana.

 

Makes sense to me at least. I cant find any studies which prove this though.

 

A word of warning; from what I've heard you're really not supposed to mix marijuana with alcohol so to treat hangovers you'd want to smoke a few days before actually drinking.

 

And no this is not a "legalize medical marijuana" thread

[insane_alien]

well, it just treats the symptoms, not the actual chemical hangover, you'll still have the ethanal flowing round your bloodstream doing damage. it doesn't eliminate the cause, just supresses some of the more insignificant effects. can't say i've actually tried this though. also, i tend not to get severe hangovers anyway.

[Mr Skeptic]

As always, the best way to prevent hangovers is the simplest and most obvious.

 

Cheers,

Mr Skeptic

[ecoli]

"hypothetically" ;-)

 

well, it just treats the symptoms, not the actual chemical hangover, you'll still have the ethanal.

 

Well, there isn't really any danger from having excess ethanal, is there?

 

So, basically the symptoms are the only problem to the disease, right (not including alcoholism/alcohol poisioning, of course.

[Revenged]

take two paracetamol instead...

[fattyjwoods]

maybe you should try it out and see if it works!

[bascule]

My preferred cure for a hangover is a glass of beer and a plate of good food. My favorite is a plate of sushi with a glass of Kirin.

 

When I had the worst hangover of my life I will attest that a bowl took me from being unable to keep any food down to devouring my lunch with no issues whatsoever.

[Royston]

1veedo, THC is slowly deposited into fat (over a period of a month or so), and it's a popular misconception that this duration is in the blood, and will cause psychological and physiological effects, a week, even a month after consuming THC...a couple of days at the most, and that's a stretch. However, it can be traced due to trace amounts deposited from body fat.

 

This means it will have very little, or no effect on blood sugar levels within a week or two (i.e no increase in appetite), and certainly won't cure headaches et.c I realize you've only made a correlation, even smoking/consuming THC the day after, will only cure specific ailments of a hangover. It could make it worse, depending on the individual and the amount their consuming of either intoxicant.

 

My personal hangover cure, is a salty snack and plenty of water before I go to bed (however drunk I am, I do at least one or the two.) followed by a pint, and lots of food when I wake up.

Not to everybody's taste, but vomiting if you're drunk 'on the night' will work wonders, however there is no universal hangover cure. There have been no successful blind trials AFAIK, that a hangover is curable with one specific drug...hence personal hangover cures are so abundant, and clearly don't work for everybody.

[foodchain]

I don’t know why but I have known people who were seriously sick, not dying of course and even one inhalation of marijuana allowed them to feel better, eat and even sleep comfortably for a period of time.

 

As for alcohol not to be completely disgusting to any viewers but I think going to a gentlemen’s club is the best way to end a hangover> :D

[1veedo]

True. You usually still feel a little high at least the next day, especially if you smoked a lot (maybe not high but you feel something. Sometimes you can actually be "burnt out" a day or so if you smoke often enough and don't have a high tolerance, eg poor memory, can't talk to people). I forget what the half life of TCH in your blood is but it also depends on the plant and how much you already have stored in your fat (I'm thinking like 20 hours up to 10 days, so you'll still have 50% of the THC from smoking in your blood after 20 hours / 10 days). That's why if you haven't smoked for a while you don't get as high until the second time.

 

THC is one of the best drugs for fixing digestive problems, especially nausea and loss of appetite. Eg, http://www.marinol.com or even http://bodybuilding.com/store/clabs/black.html (it's known as a cannaboid -- black hole works exactly like THC on a chemical level, it just isn't absorbed as easily). I'm not suggesting that 20-30 days latter you have enough thc in your blood to help you out but it doesn't just disappear after you smoke. You usually take marinol once a day and I'm pretty sure black hole also.

 

Of course another thing most people don't know is that THC all by itself doesn't make you high. More THC will make you trip more but it doesn't actually work without the other chemicals found in weed.

I don’t know why but I have known people who were seriously sick, not dying of course and even one inhalation of marijuana allowed them to feel better, eat and even sleep comfortably for a period of time.

Marijuana makes you feel better in general, even when you're not actually high (eg 1 or 2 days after smoking). It's a lot nicer to your body than alcohol too. Everything in moderation though. If you smoke too often you start having concentration/memory problems. They're not long-term side-effects though, you just have to let some of the THC get out of your bloodstream.

[pioneer]

It is not usually the alcohol that causes hangovers, but the secondary products caused by the type of material fermented, and/or by the heat affects during distillation, causing the production of other chemicals. Rum or gin are more likely to give a hangover than good vodka or scotch, due to the materials included during distillation that gives the unique flavor.

 

I had a physical chemistry profession, who was raised in Germany. During his youth he worked in a distillery. He told us stories, where they knew where in the distillation column to tap to get the ethyl ether. Normally some of this will result from the distillation, and some becomes part of the final product. If you did your calculations of column plate efficiency you could predict where it was. The distillation can also form some glycols and a thing he call fussil or fissil oils (?), which he said were the worse cause of hangovers, and is often due to poor technique (cheap).

 

Red wines use the peels to give it the color and the extra body. When these are fermented, one can get other side products, that can cause a hangover. One can ferment some methanol from that pulp. The yeast prefers to eat, the easy to digest sugar, but can chew on some cellulose.

 

If one did a trace composition analysis of your favor wines and spirits, it would look like a chemical lab. But that would make people paranoid for no good reason, other than as an excuse to try to set up a prohibition.

 

Marijuana is a touchy subject because it is illegal. One possible way it could lower the frequency of hangovers, is that it may intensify the alcohol affect. That means one may end up drinking less, but feeling like they drank more. The result may be less of hangover due to less total input. Marijuana often causes a hunger attack, i.e., munchies, causing one to eat, so they don't go to bed on an empty stomach. This is also helpful. I am not sure if there is an type of chemical balancing act, though.

 

The best strategy to avoid hangovers is to drink clean things. Try to drink a bunch of water before bed to prevent dehydration hangover. A friend also sweared by taking your tylenol before bed instead of the next day. Sometimes beer drinking can cause you to pee out too many ions. So maybe some Gatorade instead of water before bed could come in handy.

[Fuzzwood]

"hypothetically" ;-)

 

 

 

Well, there isn't really any danger from having excess ethanal, is there?

 

So, basically the symptoms are the only problem to the disease, right (not including alcoholism/alcohol poisioning, of course.

 

Besides ethanal being quite toxic, no

[DrDNA]

Let me know when you need test subjects for a proper study in this matter.

We will be compensated, won't we?

[fattyjwoods]

Is'nt marujuana illegal or something?

[foodchain]

Is'nt marujuana illegal or something?

 

 

The gravity of such laws depend on the state really. In Texas a man was giving like 30+ years for a minor possession, I think like a gram while in some states you wont go to jail unless you have over an ounce on your person.

[ecoli]

Is'nt marujuana illegal or something?

 

And the OP was staged as a hypothetical situation.

 

Besides ethanal being quite toxic, no

 

but acetelaldehyde is used as a preservative in food and a flavor additive!

[insane_alien]

but acetelaldehyde is used as a preservative in food and a flavor additive!

 

in low concentrations, yeah, it's fine. but excess can be harmful. the fact that it is a preservative(stops bacteria growing) kind of implies that it isn't conducive to life. i thought the ethanal was what caused liver damage in heavy drinkers(i'm no biologist, you probably know a lot better than me)

[1veedo]

Is'nt marujuana illegal or something?

Not in all countries / provinces. It's kind of stupid that it is illegal but that's a completely different topic.

[Fred56]

The only "remedy" I've heard about for hangovers that actually does provide relief (it isn't a cure) is to drink a fair amount of water either before (best) during (not best) or after(least effective), drinking the EtOH. Primarily because this stuff dehydrates things, like your brain.

[the tree]

take two paracetamol instead...

You are actually insane right? Paracetamol has to be the last thing that your body wants during a hangover.

 

A fry up is always a good solution, a proper one will rehydrate you, give you something to soak up all the excess alcohol with, and replaces a surprising amount of lost sugars (especially with orange juice or sweet tea).

 

Some people swear by this stuff but I would still go for the couple of bottles of water before you go to bed.

 

Beer is also a good cure.

[John Cuthber]

"It is not usually the alcohol that causes hangovers, but the secondary products caused by the type of material fermented, and/or by the heat affects during distillation, causing the production of other chemicals. "

Er, I think the usual format for this sort of reply is "someone who isn't me" tried drinking lab grade alcohol mixed with cola and can vouch for the fact that pure alcohol is perfectly able to give you a hangover.

 

If you can face a fry up in the morning then you haven't got much of a hangover.

 

While it's probably true that paracetamol (acetaminophen for those across the pond) is the last thing your liver needs, your head may have a different opinion. In my experience it's often the head that wins.

 

The only thing that reliably cures a hangover is time.

[1veedo]

The other things found in alcohol also contribute to the hangover. Different kinds of drinks are better for hangovers than others. For instance if you're drinking only beer, amber bock will cause you to have a much worse hangover than bud select. In the case of beer the darker the beer the worse of a hangover you get. On a side-note the "nutrients" in beer, and especially the extra water vs alcohol found in beer, is supposed to limit how bad your hangover is.

 

Dehydration does cause a lot of hangover symptoms but there are others which are unrelated to dehydration or which contribute to make some of the symptoms worse.

[Fred56]

amber bock will cause you to have a much worse hangover than bud select

Especially if you think it tastes better (so you drink more of it). But you are still consuming ethanol (EtOH), despite what else might be mixed with it.

[DrDNA]

Dude, I'll bet I could answer this if I wasn't so drunk and stoned out of my mind..........

[duckduckgoose]

take two paracetamol instead...

 

no! paracetemol is processed by the liver, incidently also the organ which is dealing with the large amount of alcohol in your blood stream. ibuprofen is a much better alternative as it is not processed by the liver.

*this is not medical advice*