Can CBD Give You A Hangover? No, But It Might Help You Recover

Most people think of hangovers as the natural result of having a few drinks too many. And regular cannabis users often call the headaches, fatigue, brain fog, and nausea that may follow a prolonged smoke sesh a “weed hangover.”

With the soaring popularity of over-the-counter CBD products, many wonder if you can suffer a hangover after using those products as well.

The answer is a firm no. CBD (the commonly-used term for the substance called cannabidiol) doesn’t get you high, isn’t intoxicating in any way, and most users won’t suffer any noticeable side effects. There are no typical “hangover effects” to worry about. But that’s not the end of this discussion.

People try all sorts of home remedies to get over a hangover: drinking coffee or water, eating carbs, taking ibuprofen or aspirin, taking vitamins, or even having another alcoholic drink (pro tip: the “hair of the dog” approach generally doesn’t work).

CBD is too new to the market for many folks to consider the possibility that taking some CBD oil or capsules, eating a CBD edible, or downing a CBD-infused beverage could ease the often-miserable symptoms of partying the night before.

But it might.

• There’s preliminary evidence that cannabidiol can help ease nausea and vomiting, two common effects of drinking or smoking too much weed that many people are all too familiar with. In fact, CBD is often used by chemotherapy patients who suffer those side effects of their treatments.
• It’s believed that much of the discomfort caused by hangovers is due to increased inflammation in the gut and other areas of the body, and CBD has been shown to work in the body to fight inflammation.
• Cannabidiol also appears to have antioxidant properties which may help the body detoxify from alcohol. People often take vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant, believing it can help on the “morning after.”
• Studies have shown that alcohol use can put added strain on the body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS), which controls many important functions including thinking, sleep, motor function, and appetite — and CBD is believed to interact with the ECS to restore the balance that could overcome many hangover symptoms.

Sound intriguing? Read on to learn more.

What Is CBD, and How Does It Work?

Cannabidiol is a plant compound known as a cannabinoid. More than 100 cannabinoids are found in hemp and cannabis plants, and CBD is one of the two most important. The other, psychoactive THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), is similar in chemical structure to CBD and it’s the substance that gets cannabis users high.

The CBD used to create CBD products, by contrast, is non-intoxicating. It’s extracted from hemp plants which are rich in cannabidiol, but contain very little THC — not enough to impair users’ faculties or judgment.

Why is CBD non-intoxicating, if it’s so similar to THC? It’s because of the way they work once ingested.

The body has an intricate network of receptors and chemical messengers called the endocannabinoid system (ECS), which regulates functions including thought and memory, pain and sleep, immunity, and inflammation. Cannabinoids are able to interact with ECS receptors because they’re almost identical to the endocannabinoids that serve as ECS messengers.

That’s where the difference between THC and CBD becomes crucial.

THC binds to one group of receptors, which are located mostly in the brain and nervous system and govern thought, memory, and perception — so THC’s effects can alter all three of those functions. CBD interacts mostly with a second group of ECS receptors found throughout the rest of the body, so it doesn’t have a major impact on brain functions and doesn’t make people high.

We now have the answer to one of the questions we posed at the start. Cannabidiol doesn’t intoxicate users, so they never suffer hangover symptoms after using CBD.

It might be a good choice for those hungover from drinking or smoking weed, though.

What Does an Alcohol Hangover Feel Like?

There are no reliable statistics on how many people have ever been hungover after a night of drinking, but it’s probably safe to say the number is substantial. One survey of Brits, for example, found that two out of every ten say that they have a hangover the day after drinking. Another reported that the average adult in the UK has two 36-hour hangovers per month.

If you’ve been lucky enough to have never gone through the experience, hangovers can leave sufferers with fatigue, headache, muscle soreness, dehydration, weakness, nausea and upset stomach, anxiety, light or sound sensitivity, and even high blood pressure. Not all over-imbibers have all of those symptoms, but many of them seem to occur together.

Some hangovers are relatively easy to shake off the next morning, but they can last one-to-two days for some people. The amount of alcohol consumed and an individual’s tolerance are major determinants of the severity and longevity of the symptoms, of course, but the drinker’s physical and mental conditions also play roles.

Why do people suffer hangovers? There are physiological reasons for the symptoms associated with them.

• Fatigue and headache: These occur in tandem with the dehydration people suffer when they drink too much. One of the functions of vasopressin, a hormone produced in the brain, is to tell the kidneys to hold urine. Alcohol, though, limits the production of vasopressin, which is why you feel constant urges to urinate when you drink. Frequent urination can make drinkers dehydrated, and dehydration is a major cause of many common hangover symptoms like headache and fatigue. Fatigue can also be caused by poor sleep, common after a drinking session.
• Stomach issues and nausea: Alcohol is known to irritate the stomach lining and trigger the release of excess stomach acid. The more you drink, the more likely you are to have a tummy ache or become nauseous.
• Weakness and sore muscles: Alcohol causes inflammation in the body, as does acetaldehyde, a metabolite of alcohol produced by the body. The issue is usually temporary, but it can lead to feelings of weakness, fatigue, and soreness.
• Anxiety: It’s common to feel anxious, jittery, or restless after consuming too much alcohol because the body is going through a brief period of alcohol withdrawal.
• Low blood pressure or low blood sugar: Alcohol narrows blood vessels and forces the heart to work harder, and when alcohol is metabolised in the liver, that activity temporarily prevents the production of new glucose,

Many people swear by their favorite hangover remedy, whether it’s water or coffee, taking ibuprofen, showering, having an electrolyte-rich sports drink, taking vitamin C, or having another drink. Those approaches may provide some brief relief (particularly hydrating), but none has been proven to be effective hangover cures.

CBD may be a different story, and we’ll get to it shortly.

What Does a Weed Hangover Feel Like?

The aftereffects of smoking too much cannabis aren’t felt as often as the alcohol hangover symptoms we’ve just listed, but there are quite a few in common including fatigue, headache, and nausea. Brain fog and lethargy are often experienced as well.

Research doesn’t provide much information about what causes weed hangovers. It’s believed that some of the effects may simply be caused by hitting the pipe way too hard, and that a few issues like brain fog may be caused by insufficient metabolisation of the cannabis’s THC. Hangovers aren’t particularly common, though, because THC’s effects wear off pretty quickly.

People try most of the same hangover remedies that are the go-to choices for many drinkers, usually with the same results. Again, however, CBD may be worth trying.

CBD and Hangovers

Experts caution that CBD shouldn’t be thought of as a “magic bullet” that cures alcohol or cannabis hangovers. However, the apparent benefits of cannabidiol may help alleviate some hangover symptoms. (They’re considered “apparent” benefits because they’ve only been demonstrated in preliminary research and haven’t yet been accepted in the medical world.)

• CBD appears to provide anti-inflammatory effects: The fatigue, weakness, and body aches caused by alcohol’s effects are often due to inflammation, and cannabidiol may help to fight those effects.
• CBD is believed to be an antioxidant, which as mentioned earlier, may help the body detoxify.
• CBD is believed to help ease anxiety, a common aftereffect of overindulgence.
• CBD has been shown to help relieve nausea and stomach distress, and is often used by chemotherapy patients to battle those side effects of treatment.
• CBD appears to ease insomnia and sleep issues; the poor sleep quality that’s common after drinking or smoking too much can lead to fatigue, lethargy, and brain fog.
• CBD may help move fluid through the bladder more efficiently, potentially easing the dehydration that’s common after alcohol use.
• CBD has been shown to potentially help diabetics manage their blood sugar levels, so it might have some positive effect on the low blood sugar levels caused when alcohol is metabolised.
• CBD appears to help lower blood pressure, which naturally rises when people drink alcohol.
• CBD appears to have a modulating effect on the body’s endocannabinoid system, easing the stress that can be created by alcohol or cannabis use.

That’s a lot of preliminary evidence — so while there’s no firm proof that cannabidiol can help people recover from weed or alcohol hangovers, it would certainly seem that trying a CBD product when trying to minimize “morning after” suffering could be a worthwhile chance to take.

There’s one final subject to address. Widely-publicized research into the effects of combining the use of marijuana and CBD showed that low doses of cannabidiol seemed to boost the intoxicating effects of the THC in cannabis, while high doses of CBD appeared to make the weed less intoxicating.

That could imply that using both cannabinoids together might lessen the chances of experiencing a weed hangover. However, more recent studies seem to refute those findings, leaving an open question as to whether downing a CBD edible while smoking up might let you avoid feeling lethargic or foggy the next morning.

As with all research involving cannabidiol (and THC, for the most part), all there is to go on right now is preliminary evidence, and it doesn’t all agree. Caveat emptor.

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