It has a positive affect on an irritated stomach lining, I've found. This is easy for me to explain when it's slime/phlegm doing it, as the bubbles helping enzymes and stomach acid dissolve the goo.
I'm seldom enough drunk to have a good sample, but liquor isn't good for the stomach, and I've cautiously drunk a pint of sparkling water with complete success, while knowing that still water would have come back up within five minutes.
Maybe the stimulation of the bubbles promotes the lining to exude what it's supposed to, which alcohol strips away? No idea but I do think it materially helps.
works for me too, but vitamin c powder (emergenC or whatever) seems like magic to prevent one before I go to sleep, along with lots of water. I'd love to know why that works so well.
Next time try lots of water, without adding the vitamin C. I got absolutely blasted at my brother's wedding a few months ago, blasted as in I lost an entire hour of dancing and attempting to win an auction of whiskey that I don't even drink. My parents and family were astonished when I woke up the next morning at like 10am, very very groggy but with no headache and actively shoveling greasy hotel breakfast into my stomach to prepare for a 6 hour drive home.
My secret? I was far too drunk to sleep when we got to the hotel so I stayed up drinking about 100oz of water over the course of an hour or so, while sobering up. Just drink water, you probably don't need the vitamin C, or if you somehow messed up your "electrolytes" or something, just sip gatorade.
Most of a hangover is dehydration, or not having enough excess water in your blood to easily expel the literal vinegar the metabolism of ethanol creates.
Yeah massive amounts of water os of course the standard. But the vitaminc/d powder really does do something extra. Its consistent and after a friend told us about it both my wife and I have had success with it after making a dilly mistake like have drinks on an empty stomach or not paying attention to the abv on a bottle.
I have no hypothesis why it might work, but I'm absolutely convinced it does so, and well, vs water chugging. Its mainly just the headache you skip. It doesn't replace hydration or speed up metabolism of the alcohol. I think it may speed up conversion of alcohol metabolism byproducts, but I don't know why that would be the case.
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_metabolism#Acetaldehyd... it seems the ascorbic acid MAY help neutralizing free radicals produced when Acetaldehyde breaks down, though that paragraph seems to be in the context of a pregnant person metabolizing alcohol for some reason.