Lifestyle
Beer before liquor? Busting 6 popular myths about hangovers
Is there a way to prevent the unpleasant symptoms that come with a heavy night of drinking? Experts weigh in on common hangover myths.
Photo illustration by Becky Harlan/NPR
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Photo illustration by Becky Harlan/NPR
Hangover cures are a dime a dozen. Guzzle a few raw eggs. Take an aspirin before bed. Chug a beer in the morning.
These remedies promise to banish some of the nasty symptoms that can come with drinking way too much alcohol: headache, nausea, vertigo, anxiety — or all of the above.
But is there truth to any of these claims? Unfortunately, no, says Dr. Ryan Marino, a medical toxicologist and an emergency physician at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. “I wish there was some magic drink everyone could have, but there isn’t.”
The only surefire way to prevent a hangover is to abstain from drinking, he says. And once you have a hangover, the only thing that will get you over it is time.
If you plan to drink alcohol and want to reduce potential symptoms, practice moderation, he says. That means limiting your alcohol intake to one drink a day or less for women, and two drinks a day or less for men, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Experts break down the science behind six common hangover myths — and explain how alcohol affects your body.
Myth: All hangovers are the same.
The symptoms and severity of your hangover — like your alcohol tolerance — depends on many factors, says Marino. That includes age, weight, gender, ethnicity, family history, nutritional status, smoker status, mood, health conditions or whether you’re taking any medications.
“Your hangover is going to be different from everyone else you know,” he says. For example, while one person might experience headaches and vomiting after just one drink, another might throw back whiskey gingers all night and wake up feeling tired but otherwise unscathed.
In fact, some people may not experience any symptoms. According to one study, about 25% of people who drink to intoxication don’t have hangovers at all.
The length of hangovers can also vary. They can last 24 hours or longer depending on how much you drank, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Myth: You can prevent a hangover by drinking water or using hydration supplements.
Alcohol increases urine production, so it’s true that dehydration can often contribute to the hurt of a hangover.
But that’s only one symptom of over-imbibing, says Marino. Drinking can cause inflammation, gastrointestinal irritation, disrupted sleep and low blood sugar. It also exposes you to acetaldehyde, a toxic byproduct produced when your body metabolizes alcohol, that can damage your cells and tissues.
Don’t expect products like sports drinks, vitamin-infused patches or hydration packets to work any miracles before or after a night on the town, says Marino. While they may keep you hydrated, they likely won’t address any other hangover symptoms.
But drinking water or other hydrating beverages during a night out is still a good idea, he says. It can help you practice moderation and remind you to space out your drinks.
Myth: A “hair of the dog” can stop a hangover in its tracks.
Some people say that that consuming another drink will cure your hangover. In reality, you’re just delaying any negative symptoms that may arise when the alcohol leaves your system, says Dr. Ryan Marino, a medical toxicologist and an emergency physician.
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Some people think that a “hair of the dog,” an alcoholic beverage consumed the morning after a night of heavy drinking, can help cure a hangover.
It may offer some temporary relief by raising your alcohol levels and masking symptoms like jitteriness or anxiety, says Marino. “But your hangover is just going to be pushed down the road.”
A hangover can be a mild form of alcohol withdrawal, according to the NIAAA. Hangover symptoms peak — and likely, feel their worst — when the body’s blood alcohol concentration returns to zero.
Eventually, that bloody mary you had at brunch will leave your system, and you’ll have to deal with the aftermath. You’re not doing yourself any favors by piling on, says Marino.
Myth: Beer before liquor, never been sicker. Liquor before beer, in the clear.
The severity of your hangover does not depend on the order of drinks you consume, says Marino.
Photo Illustration by Becky Harlan/NPR
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Some people swear by this adage. But in general, it’s not the order of alcohol that determines the severity of your hangover, says Marino. It’s how much you consume.
You’re likely to drink more alcohol in a shorter amount of time if you kick off your night with hard liquor, he says. It makes you inebriated faster — and you may feel inclined to drink more than you would slowly sipping a beer.
Some kinds of liquors may make hangovers more unpleasant. According to research, dark liquors like bourbon and brandy contain higher levels of congeners, or the chemicals produced during the fermentation process that give an alcohol its distinctive taste, smell and color. Generally speaking, the more congeners an alcohol has, the worse the hangover is likely to be.
Myth: Taking painkillers before bed can help you get ahead of hangover symptoms.
While it’s a common practice to reach for over-the-counter pain relievers to try and minimize your headache in the morning, Marino says you could potentially do a lot more harm than good.
Consuming just one alcoholic drink a day with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like Advil, Aleve or aspirin can increase your risk of gastrointestinal bleeding by 37%, according to the NIAAA.
When you combine alcohol with drugs containing acetaminophen, like Tylenol, you run the risk of liver damage, according to the NIAAA. Ingesting too much of one or both substances can be toxic to the liver. For that reason, the Food and Drug Administration advises against drinking when taking any medicine that includes acetaminophen.
If you’re taking any type of medication, proceed with caution, says Marino. “Even if your medication doesn’t have a label that says ‘Do not take with alcohol’, that doesn’t mean you can’t be affected.”
Myth: Hangover symptoms are physical.
While alcohol can initially have a calming effect, for many people it has the opposite effect once it starts to leave your system, says Dr. Nzinga Harrison, a physician specializing in psychiatry and addiction medicine.
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It can also affect your mental health. Drinking too much can make you feel overwhelmed, irritated or on edge. And there’s a term for it that’s been trending on social media: “hangxiety.”
While alcohol can initially have a calming effect, your body can rebound as it leaves your system, causing a surge in adrenaline, a racing heartbeat or feelings of worry or stress, says Dr. Nzinga Harrison, a physician specializing in psychiatry and addiction medicine.
It’s a tricky symptom to identify. You can experience hangxiety after even just one drink, says Harrison. And “it can come before physical symptoms or without physical symptoms at all.”
To combat hangxiety, Harrison suggests doing activities to bring down your adrenaline levels, like mindfulness and meditation, and bring up your dopamine — like spending time with friends and getting lots of sunshine.
And while the only way to fully prevent hangxiety and hangovers is to abstain from alcohol, she says it helps to go into social situations in the best possible headspace. Before you go to that party, drink water, eat well and make sure you’re surrounded by people who make you feel positive and connected.
“All of that biologically and psychologically may not prevent the hangxiety entirely, but will decrease the severity of the hangxiety,” says Harrison.
A quick note: If alcohol is causing you stress or harm, seek medical advice. There are a variety of treatments, including counseling, medications and support groups, to help people who want to end that dependency. This includes Alcoholics Anonymous, which has helped countless people. This NIAAA guide can help you find a program that’s right for you.
The digital story was edited by Malaka Gharib. The visual producer is Beck Harlan.
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Students walk on the Stanford University campus on March 14, 2019, in Stanford, Calif.
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Ben Margot/AP
When Theo Baker arrived at Stanford University a few years ago, he joined the student newspaper, following the path of his journalist parents, Peter Baker, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, and Susan Glasser, a writer for The New Yorker.
Through his reporting as a student journalist, he eventually broke a story about manipulated data in Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s neuroscience research that helped lead to the university president’s resignation.
Theo Baker’s book, How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University was released May 19. In it, Baker describes Stanford as a place where proximity to Silicon Valley gives rise to a parallel system of influence, recruitment and money, with investors looking to identify promising students almost as soon as they arrive on campus.
He told Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep there was “a sort of Stanford inside Stanford,” where elite students are drawn into an “alternate reality” of excess and access to cut corners.
In the interview, he discusses how Stanford is not just a university but also a pipeline where status and power can matter as much as ideas.
We reached out to Stanford University for comment and have not heard back.
Listen to the interview by clicking play on the blue box above.
The scoreboard shows the results of the women’s singles final match between Iga Swiatek of Poland and Amanda Anisimova of the U.S. at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Saturday, July 12, 2025.
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Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
Fifteen points in tennis? Nice. Thirty, 40 — even better. Advantage — that sounds good. “Love” — that also must be great, right? Well, not quite.
As the French Open rolls on and Serena Williams has announced her return to the sport, maybe you’ve been paying a little more attention to tennis. The sport’s scoring system is notably distinct, and can sometimes be hard to grasp for newcomers. But even tennis aficionados might not know why, or how, “love” became the unmistakable callout for zero points. For this installment of NPR’s Word of the Week, we’re exploring how a word that signifies trailing behind got such a sweet name.
“Love” comes from the heart — or an egg?
It’s hard to pinpoint when the first tennis ball went over the net. Tennis is a derivative of lots of other sports, such as “jeu de paume,” a handball game played in France, said JT Buzanga, the collections manager at the International Tennis Hall of Fame museum.
But tennis became a patented, official sport in 1874, said Steve Flink, a journalist whose tennis coverage got him inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. It has retained its unique, mysterious scoring system ever since.
“By and large, the original system has held up almost entirely,” Flink said.
The use of “love” goes back to the late 18th century, said Jesse Sheidlower, a lexicographer. But it was used earlier than that in card games such as whist and bridge. Before the term made its way to tennis, the sport favored plain old “nothing,” or “nil,” he said.
Why love in the first place, though? Historians don’t really know for sure, but there are a few theories.
The French could have something to do with it. Some historians believe “love” derives from “l’oeuf,” which means “the egg” in French. Because eggs are shaped like zeros, terms such as “goose egg” and “duck’s egg” have been used in other contexts to mean zero, Sheidlower said.
It’s also possible English speakers mispronounced l’oeuf as “love.” But Sheidlower isn’t convinced that’s the answer.
“It’s the French equivalent of an English expression. But since that expression doesn’t appear in French, the French word wouldn’t have been used,” he said.
To be sure, France has had a lot of influence on tennis culture, Buzanga said. For example, “deuce” or a game tied at 40 points, comes from the French word for “two”: “deux.” But he prefers another prominent theory: that “love” comes from the idiom “for the love of the game.” Even if a player hasn’t scored, it doesn’t matter, because their heart is in it. It’s the theory Sheidlower said is the most plausible, because the idiom was used by the English before tennis was popularized.
Another variation of the “love of the game” theory is that the word could have come from the Dutch “lof,” or “honor” — or the Latin “amare,” meaning “to love,” Flink said.
But if tennis’ “love” doesn’t come from a French word, the theory at least has a French sensibility.
“I think the ‘for the love of the game’ is kind of romantic,” Buzanga said.
“Love” probably isn’t going anywhere
Tennis used to be a sport of leisure. The style of play has changed a lot over the years; players are more athletic and competitive, for instance, Flink said. But the rules of the sport are more steadfast, he said.
“There’s this incredible, enduring respect for tradition in tennis,” he said. “Changes are not made easily.”
There has been one major change in modern history: the tie-break. Matches can go on and on because players have to score two consecutive points to break a deuce, or by two games to break a tied set. But the onset of television meant matches would have to get shorter if the sport wanted to capture a larger audience, Flink said.
Change even came for “love.” An alternative sprouted up in the 1970s, and is still used today: “bagel,” named for its zero shape, Sheidlower said. Novices may say “zero,” and insiders will understand what they mean, but they “will needle them about it,” Flink said.
But “love” still prevails.
“People kind of like it,” Flink said. “It’s different. Why say zero when you can say love?”
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