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hyporational comments on Open thread for January 1-7, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

2 Post author: NancyLebovitz 01 January 2014 03:54PM

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Comment author: NancyLebovitz 02 January 2014 07:48:49PM 11 points [-]

What's scientifically known about hangovers

Debunks the common notion that hangovers are about dehydration. The reason it caught my eye is that I believed the dehydration theory, even though I should have known that extreme sensitivity to sound isn't a normal symptom of dehydration. (I've never had a hangover, but at popular accounts include sensitivity to sound and light.)

I'm wondering how I can become skeptical enough.

Comment author: hyporational 03 January 2014 09:22:07AM *  4 points [-]

If you check out the linked study, it doesn't do such debunking. It found no association between hangover severity and vasopressin and it wasn't clear what other markers of dehydration it measured. Note that measuring dehydration accurately could be difficult and different people might experience different levels of dehydration differently.

It should be the default assumption that there are many mechanisms involved in hangover, because the effects of ethanol are very complex.