Duration – When does the nausea disappear again?
Usually the nausea starts a few hours after the last sip of alcohol and can last between one and three days. Depending on how much alcohol you have drunk and how well it can be broken down in the body, the nausea can last for different lengths of time. Women and Asians in particular often have a disadvantage here, as an alcohol-degrading enzyme is only present in small quantities.
Causes
The cause of the hangover (summary of the symptoms nausea, headache, dizziness, indisposition) is excessive alcohol consumption. The nausea in particular comes from the toxic decomposition products of alcohol, more precisely of ethanol. The alcohol is converted into acetaldehyde in the liver by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase.
This is toxic for the organism and can therefore lead to side effects. Normally, this harmful intermediate product is converted into the less harmful acetic acid by another enzyme, aldehyde dehydrogenase. However, if you drink too fast or too much alcohol, the second enzyme cannot keep up and the harmful intermediate product, aldehyde, accumulates in the body.
This leads to nausea and vomiting, which occurs shortly after alcohol consumption. The nausea the next day is caused by the acetic acid and the alcohol residues in the gastrointestinal tract. They attack the mucous membrane and thus lead to nausea.
Moreover, many alcoholic beverages, especially cheap ones, contain methanol (harmful alcohol) in addition to ethanol (normal alcohol). Methanol is only broken down after ethanol, so the symptoms are usually delayed (with the onset of hangover). With methanol, both the intermediate product (formaldehyde) and the decomposition product (formic acid) are highly toxic and probably contribute to a large part of the nausea.
The other symptoms of hangover are mainly caused by fluid loss after alcohol consumption. Alcohol ensures that more water is excreted and with it many minerals. This leads for example to headaches.
The diagnosis can usually be made quite easily. The person is asked whether he or she had drunk more alcohol the day before or whether nausea generally occurs after drinking alcohol, even to a lesser extent. Especially the consumption of cheap mixed drinks or many different alcoholic beverages can be interesting. In addition, one should ask how much the person has eaten before drinking alcohol and what, because this can also influence the breakdown of alcohol. However, if the symptoms persist for more than 2-3 days after the consumption of alcohol, other diseases should be excluded.
