Beer and Headaches

[Gazoo]

I spent this weekend with a couple of old college friends (most of the time we were in one bar or another). One friend drinks only Miller Lite, my other buddy and I usually drink Bud Light. Well, the first evening we humored the Miller drinker and ordered pitchers of Miller Lite all night. The next morning I woke up with the mother of all headaches, I mean it honestly felt like someone was stabbing me in the brain. (Now granted, we had more than just a couple of beers here. ;)) Both of my buddies claim they had severe headaches as well.

The second evening I went back to Bud Light and woke up hungover for sure, but no pounding headache. (The Miller Lite drinker also drank Bud Light and had no headache). (And I think we actually drank more the second night :rolleyes: ) I mentioned this to a third friend who said that's why he only drinks Bud Light -- no headaches.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any idea why the hangovers hurt less with Bud Light?

My guesses include (a) rice vs. corn; (b) lower alcohol level in Bud Light; (c) better processing which removes more impurities; and/or (d) no difference, the lack of headache was from an increase in tolerance or the like from the night before.

[stolichnaya]

What we're dealing with here is a concept known as a "small statistical sample set", namely, you and two buddies.

Working as a bartender, I heard hundreds of times: "I don't drink Bud/Bud Light/Miller Lite/ Michelob because it gives me a headache." Curiously with regard to your story, the brand that gave headaches the most according to my sample set was Budweiser.

The bottom line here is that nobody really knows what makes one hangover worse than another, or even whether what you're drinking has a demonstrable effect on that. Clearly the amount of drinking done is much more relevant. Did you drink more on the first night? Did you drink more water the second night? Did you eat more on the second day? Did you perform some vigorous physical activity on the first day? Were you tired? Did you sleep longer on the second morning? Were you still intoxicated on the second morning and thus not hung over? So many details that would all affect your hangover much more than your choice of beverage.

There may be a personal "allergy" of sorts that makes one more susceptible to a certain domestic light beer than another. But my guess is that if you had switched brands both nights your morning experience would have been similar. There's really very little difference between the two brands you mention, especially in alcohol content, which is the main factor in a hangover.

[Gazoo]

To some extent I agree with your argument about the several other factors affecting the outcome. But, I still think there is aomething more. The fact that others complain about other beers could simply show that a body can adjust. (If I almost always drink Brand One, my hangovers will be less when than if I suddenly switch and drink Brand Two all night simply because my body is more used to Brand One.)

This was not a simple difference in hangover severity. The hangover from Miller Lite night was THE WORST hangover I've had in at least 5 years!

[Scruloose]

From the "I'm no expert, but I could be a case study" department...

Those headaches are related to hydration.(among other things) The more water you intake, the less headache tomorrow. Personnaly, I make it a point to drink two huge glasses of water before retiring when imbibing in the ales. (As a sailor, if you learn nothing else, learn that!) It always works, too. Although, the other hangover features will still be evident-unclear thought, slow reactions, you know, still intoxicated, which is basically what you are. Sooooo, perhaps the difference in beers is their water content.

And the worst hangover ever?.... Red Stripe beer, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Even the Jamaicans dont know exactly whats in there!!!

C

[UncleBeer]

Here's Cecil on hangovers (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_230.html). He discusses the effects of different liquors rather than the effects of different brands of beer, but this is still topical.

[samclem]

If I read the OP correctly, we were talking about headaches from drinking beer.

I have been a beer drinker for 30+ years now. I have had my share of too many beers. I have never awakened with a headache, except one time. I had two cans of Drummond Bros. Beer. This would have been around 1982. The 6-pack cost 99 cents, on special. My SO and another friend, both heavy beer drinkers, each had two. We all awoke the next morning with terrible headaches.

Now, I know, not statistically significant. But none of us had ever had a headache like this. Hangovers, of course. But not the headache.

And just to add, I drink almost anything anyone's buying. I would say that I have had 20 or more brands in excess in an evening. And no headache.

[Scruloose]

Guy walks into a bar, and says to the bartender, "Give me a beer, anything but Budweiser". Guy drinks his beer, and again asks for anything but Budweiser. Bartender asks,"What's wrong with Budweiser?", guy replies, "Oh man, last time I had Budweiser, I got relly messed up and blew chunks all night long!" Bartender says "Hey man, it's not that bad, we've all been there" Guy replies "no, you don't understand, Chunks is my dog"


Thank you, thank you very much. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here...

©

[AskNott]

One of Lewis Carroll's characters proclaimed that there's nothing like eating hay for a headache. Another character scoffed that eating hay wouldn't cure a headache. He replied,"I didn't say it would help. I said there's nothing like it."
I feel certain that I have misquoted Mr. Dodgson to some degree, and maybe even misspelled his name.

[Sledman]

I would have to cast a vote against the dehydration factor.

I do realize that it is a prominent factor in regards to hangovers, but it stands to reason that Gazoo and company would have been more dehydrated on Sunday Morning after a second night of heavy drinking. Gazoo not being known as a big water drinker and all.

Maybe it is a punishment from the Gods of Wisconsin for drinking beer from the enemy in the 1982 World Series. You will need to go on an Artesian hunt to cleanse yourself. Their strongholds are few and far between these days, but the loyal followers lie in wait. For their day will come again..oh yes, it will come!!!

[Gazoo]

Maybe it is a punishment from the Gods of Wisconsin for drinking beer from the enemy in the 1982 World Series. You will need to go on an Artesian hunt to cleanse yourself. Their strongholds are few and far between these days, but the loyal followers lie in wait. For their day will come again..oh yes, it will come!!!


Well, wouldn't the Gods of Wisconsin punish me when I drank the St. Louis beer? The massive Hiroshima-esque headache occurred after drinking the Milwaukee brewed Miller Lite.

I propose that Sledman and I gather some beer drinkers together on Friday evening for a larger scale test. (I will, however, not be on the Miller Lite drinking side.)

[Sledman]

AAHH but their powers only exist over beer companies from within their borders. Therefore they can make you pay only when drinking one of these beers.

However there appears to be a special dispensation that can be granted by the Artesians. You of course have the option of joining them but it is more difficult these days. For our test purposes I would choose to drink on the Artesian side but I do not believe the preferred establishment is recognized as being Artesian Friendly.....

ARTESIAN FLAGS WILL FLY!!!!!

Whoops, sorry.. in which case in the interst of science I would be willing to drink Leinenkugel's which is also a Miller Product and may provide some insight. Purely in the name of science though.

[Gazoo]

Okay, we'll try to get a test group of at least 10. I'll post the results including Age, sex, approximate weight, number of libations consumed, time they were consumed in, and headache rank (1-10).

[Gazoo]

Okay, we'll try to get a test group of at least 10. I'll post the results including Age, sex, approximate weight, number of libations consumed, time they were consumed in, and headache rank (1-10).

[Gazoo]

Not to shoot a dead keg, but two more friends agree with the "Miller Lite gives me headaches" theory. I think I'm on to something here.

In an effort to find the "Straight Dope," I ask for the Teeming Millions' (and how about you too, Unca Cecil?) assistance. I am going to try a case study and can get about 10 people here to be involved. Obviously the larger the sample, the more reliable the data.

What we need is as many people as possible to go out on Friday night and indulge in either Bud Light or Miller Lite and report the findings regarding headaches back here. Preferrably we would have 4 groups:

1) Regular Bud Light drinker drinks Bud Light Friday.
2) Regular Miller Lite drinker drinks Miller Lite Friday.
3) Non-Bud Light Regular drinks Bud Light Friday.
4) Non-Miller Lite regular drinks Miller Lite Friday.

So, what d'ya say? Any guinea pigs out there?

[DVous Means]

Just a questio to the OP and the hangover: Did you smoke at all while you were drinking, or was there a lot of tobacco smoke about?

One of my workmates learnt to drink in the Australian Army (I'm talking serious alcohol intake here) so is not unfamiliar with a good hangover. He found that when he gave up his smoking habit (1-2 packs a day) his hangovers were non-existant in comparison to before.

[Bucky]

It's not just the amount of alcohol or water or smoke or etc. Check out the link given earlier to Cecil's post. Congeners (or the impurities in a drink, impurities being anything other than pure alcohol and water) make a tremendous difference in the amount of headache one will have.

An ex of mine, for example, could drink whiskey without much of a headache, but she couldn't handle anything with live yeast--so, bread and beer could both give her a headache before even a few minutes had gone by.

All of the macrobrewery crap, especially the "lite" beers, is loaded with congeners. One of the filtering agents in Bud, for example, is also used to make nylon stockings.

My advice would be to stop drinking bad beer!

Bucky

[Gazoo]

I smoke like a chimney whenever I drink, so that can be considered a non-factor as far as my experience is concerned.

My theories have been refined a little to either (a) the impurities are worse in Miller Lite, or (b) there's something to this rice as the main grain in Bud Light (I recall reading somewhere that Japanese people seldom report hangover even after drinking a lot, maybe it's because they drink rice beer and rice wine?)

[Needs2know]

Ditto on the Bud being the biggest headache...until I got used to it.

I should be an expert on this, but I'm probably not. My headaches are due to what I call "the piss factor". The more trips I take to the can during a drinking session usually have a direct effect on the way my head feels the next day. Dehydration must be the culprit. The smoke factor does have some effect. Naturally I smoke more, and usually my head is stopped up the next day. I have also noticed while I'm drinking once I do start to pee I will usually have to do so regularily and more often, so I hold that first trip off as long as possible. Headache is my form of hangover. No matter how much I drink I almost never get a messed up stomach the next day. Just a boomer of a headache.

One thing that helps is to take a couple of Advil or Tylenol before you go to bed. It is also helpful if you go out to your local all night hash house and chow down on some sunny sides before retiring. But then I know there are those times when food is the farthest thing from your mind. You may be in such a state that hitting the old hay is all you can bring yourself to do. (Even if you do have to keep one foot on the floor and the other on the headboard to keep the bed from rotating beneath you.) There are other times when the "pump has been primed" (that's what my BF calls it) sufficiently that there is no time to grab a bite or an analgesic. Those are the mornings when you wake up to find a neat little trail of garments from the front door to the bedroom. The consolation here is that you might be able to get your drinking partner to at least get up and bring you a nice big soda and a couple of asprin. My advice is not to drink water the morning after, don't know why but it tends to make me feel drunk again.

Needs2know

[justwannano]

I agree with the bud headaches statement. I've been drinking the stuff for about 30 years. I started because I found that it did not upset my stomach as much as other beers. But it did give me one whale of a headache.
Scientificly you'll probably find that it is a combination of hydration and the condition of your system on the day of the test.
The condition of the water source is also suspect. St Louis Sewer water has so many neat things in it.;)
Oly cow there goes an Artesian now.

[Grendel69]

Reading your posts this afternoon, I decided to test out the theories. Half of the group I went out with drank Miller tonight, the other half stuck to Bud. I will inform you in the morn (or possibly the afternoon) as to what the results are.

Vivat Grendel

[Gazoo]

Alright Grendel!! Finally, someone else is ready to take this to a field study! I am eagerly anticipating the results.

As to the several theories and suggestions above, thanks. However, I just want to clear some things up here. First, Bud Light, to me, is the friendly beer, it was Miller Lite that caused the never-ending head pounding.

Second, I have a bit of a problem accepting the "it depends on the other factors involved" theory. I drink Bud Light all the time without waking with a headache (though still hungover). Surely if the other factors were to be blamed, I would sometimes have a headache when hungover from Bud Light and sometimes not have a headache.

Also, using regular Bud instead of Bud Light may skew the results a bit, but hey, the more beers tested, the wiser we'll be right? I'm up for the challenge. ;)

Let the case studies begin!!!!

[Guy Propski]

I can offer personal testimony that Budweiser causes me to have hangover headaches. In fact, it is the only beer that causes me to have headaches WHILE I'M STILL DRINKING IT!

I noticed on several occassions, when I was forced to drink Bud (nothing else available), that about an hour or so into the evening I'd have a hangover-style headache.

None of the light/lite beers ever did this to me. I assumed that, since they are just like water anyway, they had offset any dehydration problems.

My assumptions as to the cause were that Bud's additives didn't sit well with me. Bud does NOT follow the rules of the Rheinheitsgebot (or however you spell it), what with rice and other grains being used. I'm pretty sure if they broke the grain rule, they've probably gone all the way and added all kinds of unfriendly chemicals.

As backup proof, I've never had headaches from drinking Guinness, Becks, San Miguel Dark, Negra Modelo, Tsing Dao, Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter, Coors, Old Milwaukee, Anchor Steam, Shiner Bock, Fosters, or Whitbread (unless I really overdid it).

[Grendel69]

There was a confounding factor in my experiment last night. While everyone stuck to their drink for the first hour, after they got a little tipsy it was difficult to enforce the separation between Miller and Bud. Then the hard liquor showed up...when I saw the birthday boy (the occassion was, yes, a birthday) doing shots of a "Patriot missile" (I don't know what is in it, but when he smelled it he nearly gagged, which is pretty impressive as he was most likely numb in most of his sense). Experiment didn't work.

I do, however, have a theory. <possible urban myth alert> i had heard several years back that certain cigarrette companies design the cocktail of chemicals in their product so as to innure you to the effects of other brands of cigarrettes. Smoke Camels for a year and then at a bar try and smoke Marlboros and nothin happens. Perhaps this is the explanation for what is happening. The result of a Milwaukee vs St. Louis feud???

Grendel
PS I hope you will excuse me this once from digging up info as I sacrificed ever so much in the name of science last night.
PPS Possible hijack...What about best hangover remedies. I remember Cecil writing something about it a while back, but some input from y'all might be instructive.

[Needs2know]

Worst headache I ever had was from Coronas. Where does that fit in?

Needs

[Gazoo]

I can offer personal testimony that Budweiser causes me to have hangover headaches. In fact, it is the only beer that causes me to have headaches WHILE I'M STILL DRINKING IT!


Sledman claims the same is true with him WHILE drinking Miller Lite. (I beg Cecil to step in here anytime and assist us in getting to the bottom of this)

Grendel - thanks for the attempt. I'm a little worried myself about shots getting mixed into the equation on Friday as well (there were no shots involved last weekend when this discussion began).

[Gazoo]

Well, I've conducted a very unscientific poll with the folks over in MPSIMs and via e-mail with some friends.

What I came up with was 12 good reports on Bud Light compared to only 1 negative response. Miller Lite had 3 good reports compared to 9 negatives.

(Others of note - Coors Light was reported as headache inducing by 3 respondants, Bud also had 3 negative reports. Molson and Guiness received nothing but positive results)

One interesting correlation is that of the 12 people who reported that they regularly drink Bud Light without getting a headache, 7 reported that Miller Lite DID cause headaches. (Brand Loyalty???)

It has also been suggested to me that the method of carbonation may play a factor (there was mention of it affecting oxygen going to the brain). Any comments?

[justwannano]

Wild onion Brewing co
Ok if I change my mind?

Definitly anything by The Wild Onion Brewing Co (stroke)
Yep--
Owned by Joe & sue Kainz (stroke) (stroke)

Lake Barrington Ill.(stroke) (stroke) (stroke)

ps The other winner
__________________
"and thats what I've got to say about that"Forrest Gump



Hey!!I've just learned how to move a post. I'm not worried about Plagerism.

[Gazoo]

As I feared, many shots became a part of the equation which would surely skew the results. I drank Bud Light without headache incident again. Sledman reported a slight headache (he also drank Bud Light). Two drinkers of Miller Lite reported headaches as well (one was severely hungover, but I have no idea what else she may have consumed!).

As for me, I'm just going to stick with Bud Light and be happy that I don't wake up with a pounding head.