Saturday morning, head pounding, stomach doing something unpleasant, and somebody in the group casually mentions hangover IV therapy like everyone’s already supposed to know this is the move. Kind of sounds too convenient, honestly. Fluid straight into a vein, feel human again within the hour, that’s the pitch anyway. Part of that reputation’s earned. Part of it’s just marketing wearing a lab coat. Worth sorting out which is which before booking one on your worst morning of the week. Why Hangovers Actually Happen Alcohol’s a diuretic, meaning you’re peeing out more than you’re drinking in, and that alone explains a good chunk of the misery: plain old dehydration. But that’s not the whole story. Alcohol also throws off blood sugar, triggers inflammation, and its breakdown byproduct, acetaldehyde, is genuinely toxic and part of why everything feels foggy and nauseated the next morning. Dehydration’s a piece of it, not the entire explanation, which matters for figuring out what an IV can realistically fix and what it can’t.