Effect of drinking intoxicating amounts of alcoholic beverage on uropepsin excretion

¹ Laboratory of Applied Biodynamics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

In human subjects who drank intoxicating amounts of a strong alcoholic beverage (dry martini) the amount of uropepsin excreted before, during and after drinking was measured. Hangover symptomatology was also evaluated. Each subject was tested with alcoholic beverage alone, beverage followed by aspirin and beverage followed by antacid. The alcoholic beverage alone resulted in a marked increase in uropepsin excretion shortly after drinking, with hypersecretion persisting through the hangover period. Treatment with antacid obviated this increased excretion of uropepsin, and also significantly ameliorated some of the symptoms of hangover. It was tentatively concluded from these observations that the irritating action of the alcohol on the gastric mucosa caused the increased secretion of uropepsin and some of the hangover symptomatology.