Health
Long COVID could be the cause of your bad hangovers, study finds: 'Bad reaction'
Drinking too much is often a recipe for a morning-after disaster.
But for long COVID patients, hangover symptoms might be much worse, according to research.
A small study by Stanford University, which was published in the journal Cureus, examined alcohol sensitivity in four people with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC), or long COVID.
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Two patients reported worse headaches after drinking the same amount of alcohol they would have consumed prior to having COVID.
One patient, a 40-year-old woman with a history of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome type III, asthma, anemia, hypotension and migraines, claimed that she could tolerate seven mixed drinks containing hard liquor in one night before long COVID struck.
For long COVID patients, hangover symptoms might be much worse, according to new research from Stanford University. (iStock)
But ever since getting COVID, the woman reported that her hangovers feel like she “suffers from alcohol poisoning after drinking even small amounts of alcohol and feels ‘terrible’ for several days after consumption,” the study reported.
The woman noted that her tolerance had decreased so significantly that one beer would result in a “severe hangover, along with exacerbation of PASC symptoms for three days thereafter.”
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Another patient, a 49-year-old woman with a history of type 1 diabetes, celiac disease controlled by diet, and breast cancer — who consumes several drinks per week — said she noticed a decreased alcohol tolerance after her COVID infection.
After drinking just one glass of wine, she reported experiencing “such a bad reaction that she felt she could not move,” the researchers noted.
Some patients reported having worse headaches after drinking the same amount of alcohol they would have consumed prior to having COVID. (iStock)
The woman described her symptoms as “similar to a bad hangover, with a headache, grogginess and ‘overwhelming’ fatigue the next day.”
The research concluded that new-onset alcohol reactions and sensitivity can occur after COVID-19 infection in patients with PASC.
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“Clinicians assessing PASC patients should inquire about alcohol consumption and tolerance in their social history, as this information can provide insights into potential triggers for worsening symptoms and help guide lifestyle management strategies,” the study suggested.
Stanford Internal Medicine director and study co-author Linda Geng noted how “the clinical observations from this paper raise important questions about the link between long COVID and alcohol sensitivity,” as provided in a statement sent to Fox News Digital.
The research concluded that new-onset alcohol reactions and sensitivity can occur after COVID-19 infection in patients with PASC. (iStock)
“Studying this further might provide insights about the mechanism(s) of long COVID and other post-viral syndromes,” she said.
“Additionally, patients with long COVID should be cautious about the use of alcohol, and some may feel better if they avoid it altogether.”
“Alcohol can worsen the post-COVID symptoms.”
Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel, who was not involved in the study, noted that although this research surveyed only four patients, he also has recognized an increased sensitivity to alcohol in some of his own PASC patients.
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“[This study] builds on previous research that in the case of post-viral syndromes (including mononucleosis), sensitivity to alcohol can increase,” Siegel said via email to Fox News Digital.
“I have seen this in some of my patients with post-COVID syndromes,” he went on. “The symptoms are similar: headache, nausea, fatigue, body aches. And alcohol can worsen the post-COVID symptoms.”
Siegel explained that both post-COVID symptoms and alcohol can “lead to inflammation and affect the immune system.”
“And recent research shows that COVID can lead to some leakiness in the blood brain barrier so that inflammatory chemicals (including those from alcohol) can get into the brain at least temporarily, causing headache, nausea and dizziness,” he said.
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Bala Munipalli, M.D., an internist at Mayo Clinic in Florida, also weighed in on this study, noting to Fox News Digital that post-viral persistence of symptoms is “not unique to COVID-19.”
Munipalli was also not involved in the study.
“We have seen this occurring since the 1918 Spanish flu, and saw it with SARS-CoV-1 in 2003 and with Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012,” she said.
“Recent research shows that COVID can lead to some leakiness in the blood brain barrier so that inflammatory chemicals (including those from alcohol) can get into the brain at least temporarily, causing headache, nausea and dizziness,” a doctor said. (iStock)
“Individuals with PASC have shared symptoms with ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, mast cell activation syndrome, and dysautonomia: fatigue, brain fog, un-refreshing sleep, myalgias, and food and medication sensitivities,” Munipalli added.
In each of the syndromes mentioned, Munipalli detailed how the brain processes sensory input faster, causing the sensory signals to become “amplified and more widespread as more areas of the brain become activated.”
“This results in the central nervous system becoming sensitized,” she said. “And I suspect this is what is happening with patients who have PASC and demonstrate alcohol sensitivity.”
Anyone experiencing symptoms of alcohol use disorder should seek help from a doctor, therapist or counselor, experts recommend.
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U.S. health officials are monitoring 16 additional people across the country for symptoms of hantavirus whom the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not previously mentioned, the agency said on Thursday.
The new people the C.D.C. reported were not on the cruise ship but were passengers on an April 25 flight to Johannesburg and exposed to someone known to have been infected, said Dr. David Fitter, who is leading the C.D.C.’s response to the outbreak.
The new total of those being monitored in the United States is 41, a significant increase over the 18 passengers from the Dutch cruise ship who were brought back to the United States on Monday. They are quarantining at special facilities in Omaha and Atlanta.
Seven other passengers from the cruise ship had disembarked on April 24 in St. Helena, an island in the Atlantic Ocean, returned to the United States on commercial flights and are being monitored by state health departments.
As of Thursday, there were no confirmed cases in the United States, Dr. Fitter said.
The infected passenger was a 69-year-old Dutch woman whose husband was the first person to die in the outbreak, on April 11. She was among those who disembarked from the ship on April 24. The next day, she flew from St. Helena to Johannesburg. She collapsed shortly after arrival and died on April 26. She was confirmed on May 4 to have had hantavirus.
C.D.C. officials would not give any other information about the 16 passengers, including where they had gone once they reached the United States.
It was not clear whether all Americans exposed to the virus are now back in the country, or whether there are additional people being monitored abroad.
“Our job is to ensure that we are monitoring and in contact with anybody that might have been on the flight this person had taken,” Dr. Fitter told reporters. The agency is “monitoring all Americans that potentially would have been exposed, whether in the U.S. or abroad, and we have been in contact with them,” he said.
In an interview on Sunday with CNN, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the C.D.C.’s acting director, said none of the seven passengers who returned to the United States earlier had symptoms at the time of their travel, so officials had not seen a need to alert the public or trace contacts.
For the moment, quarantine is essentially voluntary. Officials are encouraging those who were exposed to the virus to “stay at home and avoid being around people during their 42-day monitoring period,” Dr. Fitter said.
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Concerns about rising hantavirus cases has Americans reflecting on the coronavirus pandemic.
Although COVID-19 began with a foreign strain and spread rapidly around the world, experts say it’s not likely that hantavirus will behave the same way.
The rare Andes virus, which was linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak, is the only known hantavirus strain that has the capability to spread from person to person, usually through prolonged close contact.
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Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel spoke with Fox News Digital about the similarities and differences between hantavirus and coronavirus, noting that there is “no comparison.”
“You could say the comparison ends at that they’re both single-stranded RNA viruses,” he said. “That’s a comparison, but [hantavirus] has been unchanged basically for decades.”
Dr. Marc Siegel says there’s “no comparison between these two viruses, other than that the single-stranded RNA viruses are both carried by animals.” (iStock)
Coronavirus was different because it began to mutate, which started to cause “all kinds of problems,” Siegel noted.
“We don’t know why it started to mutate, but this one doesn’t appear to have done that,” he said. “And every day that goes by seems to show that theory is correct – the genetics of it is the same.”
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“So, there’s no comparison between these two viruses, other than that the single-stranded RNA viruses are both carried by animals.”
Siegel added that COVID is an airborne virus, while hantavirus is mainly a secretion-borne virus, although it can be transmitted through dust and droppings in the air.
The rare Andes virus, which was linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak, is the only known hantavirus strain that has the capability to spread from person to person, usually through prolonged close contact. (Andres Gutierrez/Anadolu)
“It’s not airborne … in terms of respiratory droplets hanging in the air,” he said. “It’s very difficult to transmit.”
While coronavirus “moved in the direction of humans in a significant way,” hantavirus has not, except for “very rare” human-to-human transmission, according to the doctor.
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There have been hantavirus cases in the U.S. for decades, although they are “very rare,” Siegel noted.
Certain factors of this disease spread are changing, including warming temperatures that are causing rodents to migrate north toward Buenos Aires, according to the doctor.
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The current outbreak stemming from the cruise ship did not help the cause, Siegel went on — but this spread doesn’t suggest that the virus has changed. Rather, it shows how close quarters on a ship are “very conducive” to spread, he said.
Passengers disembark from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, on May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)
“Every day that goes by shows that … we’re not seeing a second generation of spread,” he reiterated.
The better comparison to make is between hantavirus and bird flu, which is a predominantly animal-based virus that “occasionally infects humans,” Siegel said.
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“There are billions of birds, and every year we talk about how it’s going to cause a pandemic, but it would have to mutate significantly,” he pointed out. “I feel that [hantavirus] would have to mutate significantly before it could go human to human in any significant way, because this is basically an animal virus … it’s very comfortable inside a rodent host.”
Siegel went on, “If you get this virus, you’re in trouble, but getting this virus is very difficult.”
A person visits a COVID testing site on a Manhattan street in New York City on Jan. 21, 2022. “Coronaviruses are airborne … this is not,” Dr. Siegel said. “And coronaviruses mutate a lot, and this does not.” (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Regarding fears that another global pandemic may be looming, Siegel said that just because one virus becomes widespread does not mean all viruses will.
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“Coronaviruses are airborne anyway. This is not. And coronaviruses mutate a lot, and this does not,” he said. “I’m much more concerned about flu than this. Flu can mutate all the time, and it’s already going human to human all over the place, and it’s airborne.”
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“Most infectious disease specialists are much more worried about flu than this, as deadly as this can be,” he added.
“We’re talking apples and oranges, and any comparison you make after that provokes fear.”
Fox News Digital’s Melissa Rudy contributed to this report.
One morning just before Christmas, Michelle stood in a Thrifty-Wash, watching her seven loads of laundry tumble and spin. The machine at the Airbnb had broken and flooded the place. It had been a blessing, in a way — Michelle needed this time alone to think.
The night before, Los Angeles Unified School District officials had hosted a Zoom webinar for parents, in which they had promised to present all the evidence that campus was safe. Michelle had gone in with high hopes, maybe even optimism. Afterward, she called it “the Zoom from hell.”
The officials had opened the meeting by announcing that Pali High’s students would go back to campus at the end of January. Michelle had peered at the screen, squinting to make sense of their color-coded maps, charts and checklists as district officials and their third-party contractors used wonky terms to describe what sounded to Michelle like rudimentary decontamination methods: “visual inspections,” “glove tests,” “subjective evaluations for smoke odor” and the copious use of wet wipes.
The “Environmental Concerns” WhatsApp group began pinging with live commentary. “It’s like they’re all hanging out with my insurance company,” one mother typed. “Transparency my a$$,” wrote another.
During the question-and-answer portion, parents flooded the submission box: Why weren’t the porous ceiling tiles removed? (“We did our best to remove any surface contaminants that we could see visually,” one contractor replied.) Did they realize that lithium had been detected in smoke-damaged homes near the school? (“Lithium, we determined, was not going to be a high-priority metal for us,” another contractor explained.) And why hadn’t they tested for benzene, carbon tetrachloride or perchloroethylene — some of which had been found in other Palisades buildings after the fires?
Michelle had a hunch she knew the answer, but she assumed no official would ever admit it. Then the project manager for one of the contractors came on the screen.
“There are hundreds — literally — of different compounds that could be produced during a fire,” he said, “and there are analytical methods that can be very, very precise in sampling for those.” But the problem, he said, was that it “lacks specificity in what we can actually deal with … ”
Michelle had shaken her head in disbelief. The project manager interrupted himself. “That was the wrong way to put that,” he muttered.
This morning, Michelle had waked to some parents on the “Environmental Concerns” chat talking about putting their kids in virtual learning. Others were hoping to transfer. Michelle was fantasizing about protesting the return to campus, even dreaming up the picket signs: “Lead should only be in pencils,” or maybe, “Test on the school, not on the kids.”
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