THE QUEST FOR A CURE

Will science ever be able to banish the undesirable yet altogether inevitable consequence of a particularly heavy night?

- 

It's the curse of the casual drinker: the unwanted, unpleasant by-product of an evening spent knocking back a few too many IPAs. The hangover is the barfly's perennial foe, its shadowy presence lurking in the background of a big session, waiting for its chance to completely ruin the morning after the night before.

For thousands of years, cultures have attempted to solve the riddle of the hangover. The ancient Assyrians tried to alleviate their alcohol-induced suffering with a cocktail of bird beaks and tree resin; Genghis Khan's invasion-happy Mongols swore by eating two pickled goat eyes to keep a hangover at bay; while the Romans prescribed the consumption of all manner of delights, from raw owl eggs to sheep lungs, boar organs to snail soup.

The fact we don't make use of these remedies' today is a pretty good indicator of how successful they were, but in this age of scientific discovery and miracle medical breakthroughs, surely it's only a matter of time before an effective hangover cure is available? So, could we soon be able to experience all the highs of a booze-up without having to endure any of the lows? The short answer is, 'Maybe'. The longer, more comprehensive, answer is, 'Maybe, but with a fair few caveats'...

Mind games

A key part of the problem with developing a legitimate hangover cure, explains Dr Sally Adams, professor of psychology at the University of Birmingham, is that hangovers aren't quite as simple a phenomenon as one might think.

"Hangovers are a complex collection of psychological and physical symptoms that occur after a single episode of drinking, when the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream is approaching zero," says Dr Adams. "They impact the brain and body in many ways. Almost every neurotransmitter in the brain is affected by alcohol, which may explain why we feel anxious or get 'brain-fog' after drinking."