Scientists say drinkers who smoke don't get as drunk. Really? How do other central tenets of drinkers' wisdom bear up to scrutiny?

Contrary to how it may feel in the morning, recent research suggests smoking may reduce the effects of alcohol - nicotine may prevent the passage of alcohol into the intestine where it's easily absorbed.

In the long run, the scientists say this will harm drinkers, who will have to consume more to get the desired effect. But it provides a scientific basis for a belief long-cherished by some smokers - that their vice was ameliorating their other vice.

How about other pieces of conventional wisdom about drinking?

It's the classic piece of advice meted out in a nation where binge-drinking is next in the charts after Godliness and cleanliness - get something down you before you go out.

Dr Guy Ratcliffe, medical director of the Medical Council on Alcoholism, says the evidence suggests that drinking on an empty stomach appears to make you more drunk.

"Alcohol is a very simple molecule and is absorbed very rapidly. If you have a full stomach, the rate of absorption seems to be reduced. Whether that has any long term benefits is another question."

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, says the effects of drinking on an empty stomach are dramatically different, adding that health is best served by slow drinking.

Eating rich or fatty food before drinking delays the rate of "gastric emptying". Some alcohol is absorbed through the stomach, but the key place is the small intestine. If the booze isn't getting there as quickly, your body has a much better time processing it.

Not all alcoholic drinks are the same. There's different strengths, different types of alcohol and, importantly for a hangover's magnitude, what manufacturers call congeners - the chemicals that add flavour, smell and colour. Many are toxic, as alcohol is.

Dr Ratcliffe says darker drinks like red wine, port, whisky and brandy seem to contain higher levels of congeners than the likes of gin, vodka and white wine.

And the long-standing belief that a bottle of Petrus or Margaux is less likely than, say, Bulgarian plonk, to leave an angry armadillo nesting in your head, may have some validity as fine wines are thought to contain fewer of these chemicals.

"The so-called congeners almost certainly do contribute to the hangover," Prof Gilmore adds.

We all know this one. After a heavy night, there's nothing less appetising than a couple of pints of water. But those who force these down swear their hangover is lessened the next morning.

Both Dr Ratcliffe and Prof Gilmore agree that the science backs up your mother. Hangovers are in great part dehydration. The body is using water as it processes the alcohol. By the time you wake up you may have used too much.

Thinking ahead the night before will help. Interspersing drinks with glasses of water is recommended.

"Champagne goes straight to my head," goes the refrain, and the explanation for many a story of bad behaviour at weddings.

It's a piece of wisdom that makes it onto a government website on drinking, although the scientific reasoning behind it is not obvious.

Prof Gilmore says: "I don't know of any evidence but it's a common observation. It may be that champagne is usually drunk on an empty stomach."

Dr Ratcliffe is a bit more confident. "It does seem that bubbles do increase the rate of alcohol absorption," he says. "You may inhale some bubbles in the air you breathe."

It doesn't take a scientist to warn that a couple of pints at 8am the morning after the night before is not a realistic long-term plan at hangover avoidance.

"It is very much a slippery slope and a very strong indicator of alcohol dependence to drink as an eye-opener," says Prof Gilmore. "Drinking on a hangover will dull the pain but it is an extremely dangerous manoeuvre."