If you’ve ever tried to go to the bathroom in the middle of a major sporting event or concert, you know full well that alcohol makes you pee. Of course, you’d also know that if you’ve ever been in a bar around 10 PM. There’s not really a debate about it...when you drink, you pee. A lot. But why does that happen? You’ve probably been told “alcohol is a diuretic”, as if you know what that means, so we’re here to explain things in a bit more layman's terms.
Typically, your body tries to maintain a certain level of fluid in your system. Think of it like oil in your car, you body wants to make sure you’ve got enough to keep things running and ensure you don’t get dehydrated. If you drink too much liquids, your body tells your kidneys “send all that liquid down to the bladder so you can pee it out”. If you’re getting dehydrated, your body says “woah, hold onto that liquid kidneys, we’re running low”.
One of the main ways your body does this is by producing a specific hormone in your brain which tells your kidneys to hold onto water. Alcohol stops your brain from producing that hormone. Without that “off” switch, your kidneys just keep waving liquid through straight on to your kidneys, and then out as urine. The more you drink, the more that hormone gets suppressed, and all that liquid you’re imbibing goes in one end, and straight out the other.
This is also how alcohol causes you to get dehydrated. Because the “off” switch has been taken away, you just keep on urinating, no matter how low your fluid levels get. The worst part is, even if you drink water to try and stop this from happening, it will only make a portion of the impact it would otherwise because the alcohol will still make you pee most of it out!
Now you might be thinking this sounds a bit overblown, so here’s a parting thought for you. You might think “well hey, alcohol is still mostly liquid, so how bad could it really be?”. Well, if you tried to live just on alcoholic beverages, without getting liquids from other drinks, or from eating food...you would die. Not of alcohol poisoning. Not of hunger. Of thirst. You would dehydrate yourself to death.
So while dehydration may not cause a hangover, alcohol definitely will make you dehydrated. Luckily for you, it’s a relatively simple problem to solve. Come morning when you’re feeling dehydrated, go ahead and drink as much water as you want. Without alcohol to stop your brain from telling your kidneys to hold onto the liquid, your body will rehydrate without issue. So put a big glass of water next to your bed for the morning, and you’ll be fine.
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