There is no denying that hanging out with people and drinking alcohol can be fun. It can also be fun when you are relaxing with a glass of wine in your kitchen at the end of a long and stressful day. If it wasn’t fun, 2 billion people wouldn’t be drinking alcohol.
However, when the fun is over, you might feel terrible. In extreme cases, you might even feel that you are about to die. What you are experiencing at that time is a hangover.
It might be such a terrible experience that you swear you won’t drink that much again. Some people never drink heavily again after a single hangover while others forget the feeling and drink heavily again.
You might be asking if there are long-term effects of having a hangover or having them repeatedly. The short answer is, there are. Let us examine these effects.
 How Long Do Hangovers Last
Hangovers vary widely between individuals in terms of the type of symptoms they experience, how intense the hangovers are, and how long they will last.
Some people will experience only mild symptoms like headaches while others might experience muscle weakness, sensitivity to light and sound, nausea, and vomiting.
The duration also varies. Hangovers begin when a person’s Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC), significantly drops. That happens six to eight hours after the last drink. A hangover may last a couple of hours for some people, while it could last an entire day for others.
As time progresses, the body stabilizes and the symptoms wear off. When all the symptoms have worn off, your body functions normally. However, there is a chance there will be long-term impacts of drinking enough to have a hangover.
 Long-Term Impacts of Having a Hangover
Even though hangovers might not seem like they have long-term effects, they do. This is because a drink or two isn’t enough to cause a hangover in 9 out of 10 cases. For a hangover to occur, the person must’ve passed their drinking limit.
Passing these limits constantly will have impacts down the line. These impacts are mentioned below.
 Poor Personal Relationships
Most of the time, you must drink a lot to have a hangover. At a certain point, you might even be fully drunk and not in control of your speech and behavior. These times can be dangerous for relationships. You might fall into infidelity, say things you shouldn’t, or embarrass your loved ones.
When the drinking stops and the hangover begins, you will be irritated, uncomfortable, and generally not fun to be around. This can also affect your relationships with people. As a parent, your child will eventually begin avoiding you.
So, while you get back on your feet after the hangover, your relationships with various people might be getting worse.
 Low Productivity
When you have a hangover, you cannot function optimally. The headaches are enough to limit the activities you can engage in. If you throw in nausea, muscle weakness, and confusion, it becomes clear that your normal daily tasks will suffer.
Hangovers impair your ability to study or concentrate in class if you’re a student. If you have enough hangovers, your grades will fall, and you can stand the risk of dropping out due to poor performance or losing a scholarship.
At work, a hangover will make it dangerous to operate heavy machinery. Can you imagine operating a crane with a headache and light sensitivity? It will be a disaster waiting to happen. You may lose your job if you show up at work bent out of shape after a few hangovers.
 Low Libido
A single hangover might be the price you pay for a great night. You might feel that alcohol helps your sex drive. While it might be in small amounts, the amount of alcohol required to have a hangover won’t help your libido in the long run.
Alcohol suppresses sex hormones, thereby reducing your desire to have sex. If you take excess amounts there will be a higher chance of this happening.
A hangover will also leave you weak, meaning that temporarily you won’t be able to engage in sexual activities. When this happens repeatedly, it can be a more permanent problem.
 Cardiac Problems
Remember that a single drink won’t lead to a hangover. It will take more drinks for you to have a hangover. While you take many drinks, your heart rate increases. If you keep drinking copious amounts of alcohol your elevated heart rate might become more permanent.
This will increase the chances of your developing hypertension. This is a state of constantly elevated blood pressure. Such a state isn’t good for your heart as you can have cardiac heart disease, a heart attack, or a stroke.
So, before you consider getting ‘wasted’ think of your heart and what you might be putting it through.
 High Blood Sugar
Your body’s balance with the sugar you consume can affect your longevity. It can also affect your quality of life. It is that important.
Alcohol increases the amount of insulin secreted by the body. This is the enzyme that regulates the amount of sugar in the blood. As insulin levels increase, blood glucose levels decrease, and this can cause a condition called hypoglycemia, in which you become light-headed due to a lack of sugar in your body.
If you are diabetic and drink heavily, you could develop a fatal type of hypoglycemia. You could also affect the effectiveness of your drugs, leading to more health problems.
 Final Thoughts
You might think your body is fine after a hangover. Hangovers, especially when they occur repeatedly, can negatively affect your life.
It can affect your relationships, your job, your school work, and your health. So, what should you do about your hangover? The answer is, to drink mindfully. Don’t drink until you are satisfied. Stay well within the recommended drinking range.
This might be a challenge for you, which is why Sunnyside can help. We have a program, accessible through our app that can help you fight binge drinking. You will also see cures for hangovers, and many other things that will help you become a mindful drinker.