Fun Hangover Facts

The fancy word for a hangover is veisalgia. It combines the Norwegian kveis, meaning roughly “uneasiness following debauchery,” with the Greek algia, meaning “pain.” Surprisingly, it isn't an ancient medical term—it was coined by researchers in 2000.

“Pain following debauchery.”

Finally, medical terminology everyone can understand.

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Greasy food doesn't magically absorb last night's alcohol. By morning, the alcohol has already been absorbed. A huge greasy breakfast may actually irritate an already unhappy stomach. Of course, that has never stopped anyone from looking at a plate of bacon at 10 a.m. and whispering, “Save me.”

Hangovers can last 24 hours—or longer.

Meaning sometimes your Saturday night can ruin your Monday morning.

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A hangover can actually become worse when your blood alcohol level reaches zero. That's often when symptoms peak.

The alcohol left the building. Unfortunately, it left a forwarding address.

There is still no scientifically proven hangover cure. Humans have spent thousands of years experimenting with soups, eggs, herbs, pickles, animal parts, more alcohol, and things nobody should willingly put in their mouths.

Science's current answer?

Wait.

Thousands of years of research and we've arrived at “You're just going to have to suffer, Susan.”

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The Romans had opinions. Pliny the Elder recorded remedies that included raw owl's eggs and fried canary.

Apparently the headache wasn't punishment enough.

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Ancient Greeks believed cabbage could help. Cabbage has appeared repeatedly in historical hangover remedies, sometimes eaten before drinking and sometimes afterward.

The Greeks gave us democracy, philosophy, theater...

and “Have you tried cabbage?”

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The Prairie Oyster became a famous American hangover remedy. Traditionally, it contains a raw egg yolk seasoned with ingredients such as Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, salt, and pepper and is swallowed quickly.

The name is misleading.

There is no oyster.

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Unfortunately, there is still a raw egg.

Eggs Benedict may owe its existence to a hangover. According to the famous origin story, in 1894 New York stockbroker Lemuel Benedict arrived at the Waldorf Hotel suffering from the previous night's festivities and ordered toast, bacon, poached eggs, and hollandaise. The hotel's maître d' liked the combination and adapted it for the menu.

So one of brunch's greatest dishes may have begun with:

“Oh God. What did I do last night?”

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Some historic American “hangover remedies” were actual commercial products. Bromo-Seltzer advertised relief for depression following alcoholic excess, while mineral waters and stomach remedies were marketed specifically to people suffering after overindulgence.

One mineral water even advertised:

“When Nature won't—Pluto will.”

Hangover advertising apparently had flair long before Instagram.
 

Fun Global Hangover “Cures”

Historical remedies, traditional foods, folklore, and some ideas that should probably remain folklore.
 

Ancient Greece

Cabbage. Raw, cooked, before drinking, after drinking—cabbage had quite the reputation.

Hangover status: Still cabbage.

Ancient Rome

Raw owl eggs or fried canary, remedies attributed to Pliny the Elder.

Hangover status: We'll take the headache.

Haiti

One folkloric remedy doesn't treat you at all. Instead, you punish the offending bottle by sticking 13 black-headed pins into its cork.

Finally, a cure that understands who's really to blame.

Germany

A traditional Katerfrühstück, or “hangover breakfast,” may include rollmops—pickled herring wrapped around onion or another filling.

Nothing says “my stomach is delicate today” quite like pickled fish and onions.

Netherlands

Pickled herring and onions have also traditionally been associated with the morning after.

Apparently Northern Europe looked at nausea and said, “More herring.”

Ireland

A hearty Ulster Fry may include eggs, bacon, sausage, potato bread, soda bread, tomato, and other fried breakfast favorites.

If it doesn't cure the hangover, at least you won't be hungry while you have it.

Japan

Umeboshi, intensely sour and salty pickled plums, are a traditional favorite.

The theory seems to be that if your mouth experiences something dramatic enough, maybe it'll forget about your head.

Mongolia

One widely repeated traditional remedy is a pickled sheep's eye in tomato juice.

Suddenly the Bloody Mary sounds positively restrained.

Romania

Ciorbă de burtă, a sour tripe soup made with beef stomach, is a traditional morning-after food.

Your stomach hurts, so naturally: more stomach.

Korea

Haejangguk literally refers to soup eaten to chase away a hangover. Recipes vary but can include beef broth, vegetables, cabbage, and—in some versions—congealed ox blood.

Korea didn't invent a weird little trick.

They invented an entire category of hangover soup.

Canada

Poutine—French fries topped with cheese curds and gravy—is a beloved morning-after choice.

Nobody has scientifically proven that gravy cures a hangover.

Canada has apparently decided further research isn't necessary.

Colombia

Changua, a breakfast soup containing eggs poached in milk with bread and cilantro, is a traditional restorative breakfast.

Which sounds considerably more reasonable than sheep eyeball juice.

American Cowboy Folklore

One wonderfully revolting Old West remedy was supposedly rabbit-dropping tea—rabbit manure steeped in hot water.

At this point, just keep the hangover.

Fun Global Hangover Expressions

Different languages have developed wonderfully descriptive ways of saying:

“I made some mistakes last night.”

English

Hair of the dog — shortened from “the hair of the dog that bit you,” based on the ancient belief that a wound could be treated with hair from the offending dog.

Eventually somebody applied the logic to alcohol:

What hurt you last night can fix you this morning.

Spoiler: it can't.

Germany

Kater — literally a male cat or tomcat, but commonly used for a hangover.

So Germans don't wake up with a hangover.

They wake up with a cat.

The Netherlands

Kater is also associated with the miserable morning after.

Apparently the cat crossed the border.

Denmark

Expressions have compared the sensation to having carpenters working inside your head.

Honestly, whoever came up with this one had definitely experienced a hangover.

France

French expressions have included “wooden mouth” (gueule de bois), a wonderfully accurate description of waking up with a mouth that feels like somebody stored lumber in it overnight.

Spain

Resaca, the everyday Spanish word for hangover, can also refer to the undertow or backwash of the sea.

The party was the wave.

This is what washed ashore.

Slovakia

A hangover can be described with an expression meaning “to have a monkey.”

Why a monkey?

Who knows.

He's probably friends with the German cat.

And the Greatest Hangover Fact of All...

Ancient Greeks tried cabbage.

Romans tried owl eggs and fried birds.

Cowboys supposedly tried rabbit-dropping tea.

Germans tried pickled herring.

Humanity eventually invented laboratories, microscopes, modern medicine, MRIs, and mapped the human genome.

And after thousands of years of civilization, the best scientifically supported hangover cure we have is still:

Wait it out.

Maybe the cabbage deserves another look.