Champagne, cocktails, or beer - your drink of choice impacts post-drinking jitters. Photo / 123rf
A glass or two may help you relax, but when it comes to the post-booze jitters, not all alcohol is equal.
It’s the season for enjoying a refreshing bottle of wine, frothy pint or fun cocktail with friends. But with overindulging, for many, comes the “hangxiety” and “beer fear” the following day – that knotted dread in our stomach, or raging paranoia in our minds, which feels more sinister than the predictable nausea and headaches.
Alas, there aren’t any boozy tipples that actually benefit our mental health, but when it comes to the post-booze jitters, some drinks appear to bring about more anxiety than others. We asked the experts to guide us through the worst and best options.
The fizzy stuff might be the world’s first choice for toasting milestones and celebrations, but it comes with a downside.
“Alcohol causes an adaptation in the brain, and it’s not just about by the amount of units consumed, but when that alcohol level ‘peaks’ in your body,” explains Prof David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist (specialist in the research of drugs that affect the brain) at Imperial College University.
“Champagne, because it’s carbonated, is absorbed very quickly into the bloodstream, making our bodies adapt (get drunk) more quickly.”
“This adaptation doesn’t really kick in until you’ve had about two drinks,” says Prof Nutt. “That’s when your brain is saying, ‘hang on, things are going out of control here’, and that’s what we call ‘neuroadaptation’ which is designed to keep us awake, otherwise the alcohol would sedate us, sending us to sleep.”
The problem is that neuroadaptation outlasts the effects of the alcohol.
“So the alcohol is gone from your body overnight, but you’ve still got the neuroadaptation saying, ‘stay awake!’ That’s why we can wake up at four in the morning with a pounding heart and feeling alert (and anxious) after drinking.
“This adaptation can last half a day or more.”
The higher and quicker the peak, says Prof Nutt, the faster and more intense the withdrawal – including anxiety – will be felt. “That’s why I’d put champagne – and similar drinks such as prosecco – right at the top of my anxiety drinks ranking.”
The biggest problem with cocktails is that they contain more than one type of alcohol, and it’s hard to know exactly the measures you’re drinking.
“Cocktails often contain more than one spirit and the taste of alcohol is disguised by fruit juice and syrups, so that it can taste like a soft drink and you drink it quicker,” says alcohol coach Sandra Parker, who devised her successful online Just The Tonic programme after beating her own uncontrolled drinking.
Because cocktails generally combine spirits with sugar, they bring the added problem of causing blood sugar to rise and fall over the course of a night, says Parker. This can lead to extreme bursts of energy followed by – you guessed it – extreme dips of the jitters.
Prof Nutt points out that many cocktails are shaken with ice to cool them to a pleasant temperature, and yet the ice is removed before serving, so there is no dilution of the alcohol content. “Often cocktails are served in small glasses, so you may think you’ve had only three drinks, but you’ve possibly racked up nine units in one sitting.
“Again this rapid adaptation your body and brain are making will lead to a sharp drop afterwards causing more anxiety.”
Dark-coloured spirits such as whisky and brandies are made in wooden barrels, and this is so that they actually absorb some of the flavouring from the barrel, explains Prof Nutt. “But that process of adding flavour makes these beverages what we call more ”complex".
“Complex alcohols, which are more powerful than ordinary alcohol, cause more adaptation in the brain, making you more intoxicated even by drinking smaller amounts, leading to greater hangovers and increased anxiety.
“The longer a spirit is matured, the more complex alcohols you get. People assume alcohol is just ethanol, but actually some brandies such as cognac contain more than 400 different types of alcohol. That’s having a powerful effect on your brain.”
Alcohol disrupts the balance of neurotransmitters and chemicals in the brain, such as amino acid Gaba [Gamma-aminobutyric acid], which usually has a relaxing effect.
“Specifically, the substance interferes with your ‘fight or flight’ response – how we naturally react to danger. As alcohol wears off during a hangover, Gaba activity decreases, leading to increased agitation and anxiety,” says Prof Nutt.
People sometimes think vodka, because it’s a clear drink, is “pure” – but Prof Nutt says this is not the case and the spirit still contains different types of alcohol and, although not as complex as brandies, still leads to jitters if too much is consumed.
“Vodka ranks higher for causing anxiety than wine because it’s stronger and you will get higher peaks,” says Prof Nutt. “And if it’s mixed with fizzy drinks, such as tonic or something like Red Bull, then it will be absorbed faster.”
Parker works with many clients who have “got into trouble” after switching from wine to drinking vodka. “Some people turn to vodka because it’s less calorific than wine, but they’re consuming more alcohol, and pub measures are generally doubles not singles today.”
“As we drink we lose cognitive function as our brains are affected,” she explains. “So we become less rational and more volatile, and we can become fixated on repetitive thoughts. This changes our behaviour and leads us to do and say things we wouldn’t do when sober. This further fuels the next anxiety as we then regret our behaviour. Or worse, we simply can’t remember how we acted and paranoia makes us fear the worst.”
Alcohol can prolong feelings of anxiety as it wears off and your body returns to its normal state.
Many of us reach for a glass of wine at the end of a hard day, knowing it will quickly lead to a relaxed feeling. “Alcohol is a depressant, but it causes this relaxation first,” explains Prof Nutt.
While alcohol temporarily boosts mood by increasing serotonin and dopamine, and other neurotransmitters in the brain, once their levels drop after drinking you’ll feel more agitation and “hangxiety”.
Simply drinking more cannot then bring back those good feelings – although this is often what we are chasing. In fact, studies have shown that alcohol actually makes you less capable of dealing with stress and anxiety.
Alcohol can also lead to electrolyte imbalances by disrupting the ratio of minerals in our body. “This can make anxiety symptoms worse by causing an irregular heartbeat and making us feel jumpy,” adds Parker.
“But it can be a vicious circle: people drink to feel less anxious and then end up feeling far worse.”
Neither red nor white wine should be drunk in anything other than small amounts, but red wine can play more havoc with our minds and bodies than white wine.
“Due to its deep colour and the way it’s made, red wine contains more complex alcohol, so the effects on our brain are greater,” says Prof Nutt.
Red wine also contains 20-200 per cent more histamine than white wine, because it’s made from the whole grape including the skin. Histamine intolerance is more likely to cause physical reactions like flushing rather than increased anxiety unless you are sensitive to it. Red wine also contains more tyramine, an amino acid which helps regulate blood pressure, however, high levels can cause blood vessels to tighten, which increases blood pressure.
“Any drink with extra chemicals – such as tyramine and histamine – can produce symptoms like heart palpitations or sweating,” says Prof Nutt. “Some people are more sensitive to them than others, and how it hinders sleep and REM sleep is individual, but waking unrested will clearly further impact your mental health the next day.”
Because of their lower alcohol percentage, weaker drinks such as beer and lager seem to be the least harmful when it comes to our mental health.
Prof Nutt believes that fewer withdrawal symptoms occur with beer because imbibing it makes us less dehydrated than, say, drinking a distilled spirit would.
“Beer is a centuries-old drink, it wasn’t created for social reasons, or drinking for pleasure, but to actually keep us hydrated,” he says. “Until the 18th century, almost everyone in Britain drank small amounts of beer instead of water because the (relatively small) alcohol content killed off bugs that would make people sick.”
Alcohol is a diuretic – it increases urine production and leads to fluid loss and dehydration – which contributes towards people suffering dizziness and tiredness, which then leads to feelings of uneasiness and panic.
Parker suggests that for women especially, beer and lager can have a less negative impact on anxiety than other alcoholic drinks because the volume of a pint can be too filling to drink too many of them.
Do remember that any type or amount of alcohol can trigger anxiety, and the more you drink, the greater the effects are likely to be, says Felicity Simpkin, an alcohol specialist and director of Drink Coach. This might explain why young people are drinking less alcohol than in previous generations.
“No one drink is ‘better’ than another. But those with less alcohol volume are less likely to impact mental health,” says Simpkin.
“If I’ve worked hard in the garden these days I now reach for a zero-alcohol beer,” says Prof Nutt. “These have really improved a lot in recent years, and while I’m not teetotal and will open a bottle of wine at the weekends, I do abstain during the week.”
Some brands contain 0.5% alcohol to maintain maximum flavour. Even after 10 pints, it’s impossible for this amount of alcohol to raise your blood alcohol content. An over-ripe banana would contain higher traces, but in the UK (unlike in Europe, America and many more countries), only products with 0.05 per cent or less can officially be classed as “alcohol-free”.
“If you don’t want to cut out alcohol altogether, then alternating between ‘real’ beer and the alcohol-free (AF) version works for many people as a way of cutting down,” Parker recommends. “Many pubs now serve this on draft, you don’t need to feel like you’re ‘different’ and no one would notice.”
Also known as “hard sodas” or “spiked seltzers”, various brands including White Claw and High Water have popped up in recent years across festivals and music venues. These ready-to-drink cans generally contain a mix of carbonated water, a fruit flavour and around 5% alcohol.
The alcohol used varies from brand to brand but, generally, they are clean-tasting spirits derived from sugar, malt and fruit.
These drinks contain so-called ‘wellness-aligned’ ingredients such as:
Psychologically, these can feel more “fun” than ordering straight soft drinks, though they remain booze-free.
Popular brands in the UK include Trip drinks, which contain 15mg of CBD, and Goodrays, which contain 30mg of CBD and was set up by Eoin Keenan, who suffered anxiety and insomnia as a student and found that CBD helped his sleep and his physical reaction to anxiety – his heart rate and blood pressure went down.
“People are nervous about CBD and think it will get them ‘high’ – it doesn’t,” says Keenan. “The drinks use the plant extract that has been helping people find calm and clarity for millennia. Our dosages are the strongest in the market and this is based on scientific study around human efficacy: our dosages are evidence-based.”
Prof Nutt was involved in the design of alcohol-free Sentia spirits, which use botanics to precisely target Gaba activity in the brain. “We wanted to make an alcohol-free drink that still gave people that feeling of relaxation you get after one glass of wine.”
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