Why do you get them?

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Well ... you probably drink more alcohol than people who don’t get a hangover, and you drink more than you can handle at the time - to state the obvious.

(Why 'at the time'? Because when you're tired or stressed your body's reaction to alcohol may differ from when you're in good energy and relaxed. The same applies as you get older.)

Drunk Woman with Glass © kmiragaya - Fotolia.com

Alcohol is classified as a poison in Chinese medicine, (which doesn’t mean that a very little doesn't do you good) and too much of it overwhelms your system.

The ability of your liver to metabolise the alcohol is related to your health which relates to your lifestyle, history of disease (including drinking alcohol) and inherited (genetic) makeup.

The result of over-stretching your liver’s ability to metabolise the poison is usually diagnosed in Chinese medicine as a form of heat.


This causes what is called ‘Liver qi stagnation’, the symptoms of which include irritability, moodiness, and tension in the head or shoulders, and ‘Liver Yang rising’ (opens in a new window) - thumping headache, tinnitus, sensitivity to light and strong odours.

The Liver is said to ‘invade’ the Stomach giving ‘rebellious Stomach Qi’ - symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, burning, bowel disturbances and abdominal distension.

Minimising the likelihood of a hangover


Gross damage is hard to heal.

Any constitution can be overwhelmed by excess alcohol taken too often, but previously very healthy people (good lifestyle, good genes) have to work harder at it: it helps if they develop poor self-discipline and poor self-awareness. It can also help if they have narcissistic tendencies and self-image problems, or if their judgement is clouded by taking other drugs.

People with poorer genes and lifestyle either get ill and succumb faster or learn not to indulge so much by controlling their intake. If they learn this they may easily outlive their healthier but rasher colleagues!

It is a mistake to presume that continued bouts of alcohol-drinking that lead to what seem to be milder hangover symptoms are a sign of increasing resilience. Healthy people and people unaccustomed to alcohol usually produce strong symptoms: years of determined drinking weaken the liver’s ability to react.

The depth of the disease: to be a bit technical for a moment ...


A similar situation occurs with some asthmatics who take inhalers but don’t appear to catch colds suffered by their non-asthmatic colleagues. With these asthmatics, the disease process has ceased to be available at the exterior level of the nose, the throat, cough, sneeze etc and has lodged deeper: harder to cure and requires continued medication to palliate.

Alcoholics often don't have hangovers, because they keep drinking: it's when they stop that their problems begin.

For more click on Disease Process.

OK Relax again ...

However, of course as you grow up, your liver organ increases in size so can tolerate more alcohol than that of a child. But a child's liver is comparatively innocent and fresh and reacts vigorously with the poison.That's actually a healthy reaction!

Symptoms vary from person to person but if the diagnosis of ‘heat’ causing Liver Qi stagnation, Liver Yang excess and rebellious Stomach Qi fits, then because these are all signs of what is called ‘excess’ in Chinese medicine, (ie a kind of 'Yang Excess’), anything which reduces Yang, or makes it move around and, to a lesser extent balances it with ‘Yin’ will help.



Hangover Prevention - What to do beforehand!

  • Cultivate good sleep. Insomnia? Click here.
  • Avoid too much stress. Stress? Click here.
  • Vigorous dancing is a good form of exercise between drinking.
  • Exercise after alcohol and before bed to help ward off Liver Qi stagnation and ‘burn off’ heat. However, exercise carefully - I don't mean lifting weights! I mean take a fast walk, where you get a bit out of breath for 20 minutes. 
  • Have a good bowel movement before going to bed. Why? Because what used to be called 'purging' helps clear heat, and the less heat-forming 'stuff' you have inside your bowels, the less heat you'll develop in your sleep. I do not recommend laxatives, however, as these may not work immediately, and could force you from your bed just as you are getting to sleep. In bed, make sure that you can vary the number of bed-clothes easily. If you are too hot, reduce them, but not so much or for so long that you wake cold, or worse, cramped.
  • Good treatment (eg with acupuncture) may be able gradually to improve your health so your hangover occurs less often or less badly. More likely it will just help you to recover faster. (What does acupuncture aim to do? Depending on the diagnosis, eg, Liver Qi stagnation, Damp-Heat, etc, it aims to move the Qi and clear the damp and heat: there are acupuncture treatments for these conditions. Acupuncture doesn't claim to treat the hangover itself, just the syndromes recognised in Chinese Medicine which arise as a result of the hangover.

Dealing with a hangover

If you've followed the explanation of what happens, in terms of Chinese medicine, when you get a hangover, you'll realise that, depending on the syndrome in Chinese medicine, (and you can have any one of the following, or two of them, or all of them together) the following apply:

  • Liver Qi Stagnation: take exercise. That's the best and fastest way to clear it. You don't have to exhaust yourself, just walk, though the more vigorous you are (... well, up to a point) the faster it will clear. Also drink lots of water. A banana may help. Ideally, walk fast enough to get out of breath, and for at least 20 minutes.
  • Liver Yang rising: this usually occurs with some other syndromes too, particularly Liver Blood deficiency and sometimes another syndrome called Liver Yin deficiency. (Symptoms of which include, if you can't be bothered to click on the links: mild anxiety, mild depression, lack of direction in life, insomnia, dream-disturbed sleep, floaters in eyes, blurred vision, pale complexion and dizziness.)
  • Both of these often occur because you haven't looked after yourself properly in the past, making yourself more susceptible to Liver Yang rising. In these cases, a large meal, full of protein and carbohydrate, and vitamin pills, mainly vitamin B complex (failing which B6 and B12), will really help. (That's assuming you don't have Stomach Rebelling, of course, meaning lots of nausea.)
  • For the Liver Yang type of headache just mentioned, exercise probably won't help much. Instead, rest, indeed sleep if possible. Rest here means semi-reclining, head uppermost, with the body and hands and feet covered but head uncovered. If hands or feet are very cold, warm them with a hot water bottle as this encourages circulation downwards rather than upwards.
  • [One hangover cure is said to be a British breakfast 'fry-up' consisting of fried bacon, eggs, bread and possibly mushroom, though recipes vary. This would not work for everyone, as it depends on the particular nature of the individual's energy syndrome. It would probably make a Stomach Damp-Heat syndrome worse, for example, but might help if there is a lack of Stomach Fire, if the individual eats slowly. But it depends.]
  • WATER. It helps to flush the poisons out. It is cooling which combats the Heat from the alcohol. It is usually easy to drink. You may find it easier to take it warmed, with a little ginger.
  • Other cooling substances that may be worth trying include:
  • Aloe Vera (but don't expect it to taste nice)
  • Avoid too many hot type foods

Other Advice

Avoid coffee and caffeine, because they tend to send energy upwards, further draining your Yin reserves. So coffee is particularly bad for Liver Yang rising headaches. (For very short periods, it may make you feel more positive, but this nearly always fools you, because it doesn't last. Then you feel worse, and probably nauseous too, as it stimulates your Liver to 'attack' your Stomach, producing nausea. Sorry.)

Avoid strong spices because they make you sweat; also they heat you up temporarily. Although alcohol has made you hot, sweating heavily cools you too fast. Spices are particular examples of hot foods, already mentioned as usually better avoided.

Frequent Hangovers often lead to this ...




Some herbs that can be bought over the counter may be tried, but often self-treatment is not pursued for long enough for the herb to work. (We’ve been spoiled by fast-acting painkillers.)

  • Meadowsweet is anti-inflammatory
  • Chamomile relaxes muscles and tension
  • Valerian is a good sedative
  • Mint helps Qi flow but is rather warming – which is not what most hangover sufferers want - so only suits some people

Keep Warm! Even if you feel hot, don't get cold

  • See herbs etc above. 



Just an aside on acupuncture ...

Why does acupuncture work?

Well, let's be straight! Nobody knows for certain, though I can assure you that it's a question people are racing to find an answer for.





In other words, needling the point in the 'ordinary' way, might have little effect, or at least much less effect than if needled right - for that patient.

Avoid these foods


  • alcohol (!)
  • cheese
  • chicken


If you use a hangover to forget your problems ...


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And if you think it was terrible?




Qi Stagnation - Signs of Stress

Yin Deficiency - Burnout and Exhaustion

Yang Deficiency - Get Your Fire Burning Again!

Yuck! Phlegm! How to Clear Your Phlegm ...

Western Astrology and Chinese Medicine



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