Many older people report
being unable to bounce back from a night of drinking as quickly as they did when they were
younger.
But, contrary to popular
belief, older people actually are less likely
than younger people to complain of a hangover following a night of drinking,
according to a new study from Denmark.
Researchers
looked at the drinking habits of 52,000 people aged between 18 and 94, which
included how often they experienced a hangover after binge drinking -- defined
as consuming more than 5 alcoholic drinks in one sitting. They found that
people are not as prone to hangovers after binge drinking as they age.
Janne S. Tolstrup, a research program director
at the University of Southern Denmark, noted that this is the only really large
population-based study that has included information on hangovers.
Hangovers are characterized by
headaches, exhaustion
and queasiness. And the cause is primarily dehydration.
"We
found that the tendency to have hangovers decreased by increasing age,"
Tolstrup said in a press release. "The first explanation that pops up is
that this finding would be due to differences in drinking pattern in different
age groups.
"However,
trying to account for such differences as much as we could, did not even out
the differences in hangover tendency," she said. "In other words,
while it is true that older individuals on average binge-drink less often than
younger individuals, we did not find in our data that results were due to
differences in drinking patterns."
According
to the research, the chances of experiencing a hangover after binge drinking
were 11 times greater among men aged between 18 and 29 compared with men aged
60 or over. For women, the chances of experiencing a hangover were 8 times
greater among those 18 to 29 compared to those 60 or over.
You can read more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/13/hangovers-and-age_n_3920531.html
I found this to be true about myself , I have not really had a hangover for several years. I have always attributed it to the fact that I am drinking a higher quality spirit these days, but I can accept age has something to do with it as well. ;o)
