Understanding the Anatomy of a Hangover

Understanding the Anatomy of a Hangover

When reading the topic, "Anatomy of a Hangover" by Donald G. Ross I was a little confused by what it meant. I know what a hangover meant, the after effects of heavy alcohol consumption the night before, but I was not sure what anatomy meant. I thought that anatomy had to do with a science, but after looking it up in the dictionary I learned that it meant, a detailed analysis. After using what I didn't know and what I did know I was able to put the two together to come up with an easier way to understand the topic. Knowing that the topic, "Anatomy of a Hangover" actually meant a detailed analysis of the effects of heavy alcohol consumption the night before, I was able to move on to reading the article.

As I read there were several words that I had to look up in the dictionary and a few things I had to look up online. There was one word, acetaldehyde, that I underlined to find the definition, but as I continued to read the article provided me with what I needed to know about that word. Excretion and diuretic was a couple of words that I had to look up in the dictionary for their definitions in order to understand any part of the sentence. A few things were mentioned in this article that I didn't know if I fully understood, such as sleep apnea, Finnish men, and cortisol levels. For those that I didn't quite understand I looked up on the internet. Having the dictionary and the internet available made it easier to comprehend this article compared to reading it without those resources. Not only do you get to read an interesting article about hangovers, but you also get to spread your vocabulary.

When speaking with a friend after they read the article "Anatomy of a Hangover", I was told that they were very bored. He also told me what he knew about hangovers, and what he found out after reading the article. He already knew that certain alcohol gave you hangovers while others didn't, but he didn't know that a hangover is like withdrawals. Together we discussed different things we have done or heard of doing to prevent having a hangover the next morning after drinking. We also discussed times that we have had horrible hangovers, such as a time I had to go to Six Flags, and a time that he drank too much tequila and was sick for a whole day. Discussing the article with my friend brought on a new perspective of how it could go about as just talking about hangovers to talking about graduating from high school.

"Anatomy of a Hangover", was an article about the scientific reason why we have hangovers and why some people don't have hangovers after a long night of drinking. It mentions some of the certain alcohol beverages that cause hangovers and some that do not cause hangovers, which being college students I think we all should take a mental note of these. Also, mentioned in the article