Planning to booze this New Year's eve? If you happen to be a vegan, you may want to be a little mindful of the number of glasses you grab. According to a latest study, vegans suffer worse hangover symptoms as compared to the meat-eaters. The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, Dutch researchers from Utrecht University. The small-scale study was carried out on 13 social drinkers.
All the participants were analysed for twenty-three hangover related symptoms. They were first put through control settings, where they were made to abstain from drinking on one given night. The participants then went out drinking on the night after and were monitored for adverse hangover effects such as headache, palpitations, nausea, sweating, dizziness, thirst and sensitivity towards light and sound.
They were asked to record whatever they ate while undergoing the study. All that they ate was analysed for its nutrient value. It was found that the ones who had a low Zinc and vitamin B3 intake fared the worst on the test parameters. Zinc deficiency was associated with vomiting and low vitamin B3, also known as nicotinic acid, further intensified the hangover symptoms.
Both zinc and vitamin b3 are mostly found in abundance in animal products, the scientists said that one may say that vegans and vegetarians are thus more vulnerable to bad hangovers.
"Nicotinic acid and zinc are required to break ethanol, which is alcohol, down into acetaldehyde. You need these two nutrients to digest alcohol. It makes sense that if you're lacking in it, you would experience a worse hangover," Rabia De LaTour, MD, gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health told New York Post.
Da LaTour also warned that this study is quite small, more studies are required to reach conclusive results.
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