
Hangover Cure #1: Before Elixir Alcohol Detox Drinkīefore Elixir Alcohol Detox Drink bills itself as a tonic for hangover prevention that provides liver support, replenishes nutrients, helps rehydrate and boost your energy with B vitamins. Regardless of the confusion and mystery about what truly causes a hangover, one thing is true: there's no such thing as an FDA-endorsed hangover cure, and there is instead a wild-wild west of purported hangover cures. Normally, the body might use cytokines to trigger a fever of inflammatory response to battle an infection, but it seems that excessive alcohol consumption can also provoke High cytokines can lead to symptoms such muscle aches, fatigue, headache or nausea, and the notorious cognitive effects you experience during a hangover, like memory loss and irritation.

Sound familiar? Finally, hangovers may also be driven by immune system dysfunction, and there are indeed strong correlations between high levels of cytokines (immune system signaling molecules) hangover symptoms.
#No days wasted pills skin
This compound can be 10 and 30 times as toxic as alcohol itself, and builds rapidly during alcohol metabolism, causing symptoms such as sweating, skin flushing, nausea, and vomiting. However, studies have shown that even in people with severe hangovers, there are not imbalances of electrolytes or glucose in their bloodĪ hangover may also result from an accumulation of acetaldehyde in your body. For example, one hypothesis is that to metabolize alcohol your body must convert the enzyme NAD+ into a form called NADH, and that with an excess accumulation of NADH combined with low NAD+, your cells are no longer capable of efficiently performing important metabolic functions such as glucose utilization and electrolyte balance. Some scientists believe that a hangover is driven by alcohol interfering with the body's natural chemical balance in a more complex way. But research has found no correlation between the hormones associated with dehydration and the severity of a hangover. One popular theory is that alcohol acts as a diuretic, thus increasing urine production and causing dehydration.


Given that they're such a widespread partying phenomenon, it's a bit surprising that scientists still don't fully understand the mechanism of a hangover (or what the labcoat-wearing nerds call veisalgia), or why, after all traces of alcohol have been fully metabolized by your body, you can still experience a headache, dizziness, fatigue, nausea, brain fog, sweating, dry mouth and the unique ability to be able to deposit the foul spawn of Satan out your backside and into any bathroom in sight. And so, armed with a proper excuse to get at least mildly sloshed, a handful of the latest newcomers to the hangover remedy market and a head nod to my soon-to-be-suffering liver, I set about my test. After all, the holidays are a perfect time to use yourself as an alcohol-swigging guinea pig for the sake of science, right?Īnd considering my holidays consist of an alcohol-fueled personal birthday, four family birthdays, three Christmas parties, two Christmas dinners and a New Year’s Eve celebration, I figured now would be the perfect time to discover whether any of these new, fancy elixirs could rescue me from the impending sledgehammers in my skull. It just seems that old-school hangover remedies such as extra water, a big glass of orange juice, a fat-filled meal, a cup of black coffee, electrolytes, ibuprofen, ginger ale, a cold shower and the infamous “hair of the dog” make nary a dent in a legitimately alcohol-swamped brain (although, to be fair, one fringe Chinese study investigated 57 different beverages and found that lemon and lime soda can indeed process alcohol out of your system more quickly).ĭon’t get me wrong: I’m not a teetotaler, and am indeed a complete lightweight who tends to get the dials in my head spun from a couple fancy martinis or an overpour on my glass of wine, but since I’m as disenchanted as you probably are with traditional ho-hum, ineffective hangover remedies, I figured I’d put four of the more “advanced’ remedies of late to the test for you. Let’s face it: popular hangover cures are a dime a dozen and, if you’re anything like me, you’ve tried a few of them after a night of ethanol-fueled debauchery with a disappointing grand total of zero to no effect.
