Electrolyte drinks, ibuprofen, a bagel overflowing with bacon, egg and cheese — everyone has their own way of nursing a hangover. There also are plenty of products that claim to make the experience less miserable, with little evidence to support them.
But what about exercise? Some people swear that a workout can help cure, or blunt, a hangover. If it can, what type of movement could be most helpful?
“There’s very few settings where exercise is not beneficial,” said Dr. Andy Peterson, a physician at the University of Iowa. It’s “the closest thing we have to a miracle drug in medicine.”
That includes hangovers — with some caveats — he said. Here’s what experts advise if you are thinking about sweating through a rough morning.
After a night of drinking, several things happen to your body, said Dr. Shaan Khurshid, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. You might be dehydrated, and you might experience sleep disturbances, digestive issues or a spike in anxiety.
While hangover symptoms and their severity can vary a lot between people — and even for the same person at different times — no one is going to be at their physical peak after drinking a substantial amount of alcohol, Khurshid said.
Alcohol is a relaxant, which is why it can make you feel less stressed and more at ease. But as those effects wane, they can be followed by what Khurshid called a “compensatory kind of adrenaline surge.”
“That’s why some people will notice that their heart rate is faster, or they are a little bit more anxious or on edge” the next day, he said.
