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There's No Such Thing as a Hangover Cure, New Research Says
Food & Wine ^ | January 05, 2022 | Mike Pomranz

Posted on 01/08/2022 8:05:55 PM PST by nickcarraway

A systematic review scrutinized 21 supposed treatments for hangovers.

Not that I don't love my go-to hangover meal — a fried chicken sandwich — but I'm also under no illusion that it will do what I really want it to do: literally cure my hangover. On the worst of mornings, the elusive hangover cure might seem like medicine's holy grail. And as you grasp your head, you may wonder if a cure exists and you simply haven't yet stumbled upon it.

But take nauseous comfort in this: New research out of the United Kingdom found no convincing evidence that any of the purported hangover cures out there actually work.

A team of four British doctors and professors completed a systematic review of 21 existing studies, each of which was a placebo-controlled, randomized trial of a different type of potential hangover cure. The list included simple natural cures like curcumin, clove extract, red ginseng, Korean pear juice, prickly pear, and artichoke extract and less familiar compounds like the anti-inflammatory loxoprofen and the sedative clormethiazole. It also included some branded cures like Rapid Recovery and Morning-Fit. (But the authors point out that common medical remedies such as Tylenol and aspirin were not part of the research.)

In the end, though some of these treatments did show statistically significant improvements in hangover symptoms, the authors concluded, "Only very low quality evidence of efficacy is available to recommend any pharmacologically active intervention for the treatment or prevention of alcohol-induced hangover." And certainly nothing they looked at could be described as a full-blown "cure."

"Given the continuing speculation in the media as to which hangover remedies work or not, the question around the effectiveness of substances that claim to treat or prevent a hangover appears to be one with considerable public interest," said Emmert Roberts, the paper's lead author and a doctor with the National Addiction Centre, Kings College London, and the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. "Our study has found that evidence on these hangover remedies is of very low quality and there is a need to provide more rigorous assessment. For now, the surest way of preventing hangover symptoms is to abstain from alcohol or drink in moderation."

That said, if you were looking for a place to start your hangover cure pursuits, the paper — which was published in the journal Addiction — did point to three options which were said to "most warrant further study": clove extract, tolfenamic acid (currently used as a migraine treatment), and pyritinol (a semi-synthetic analog of vitamin B6).

Let's go, scientists! We're only a couple of days away from the weekend.


TOPICS: Food; Health/Medicine; Hobbies
KEYWORDS: alcohol; drinking; hangover
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To: TigersEye

I recommend one with a cigarette butt in it.


21 posted on 01/08/2022 9:17:45 PM PST by HYPOCRACY (This is the dystopian future we've been waiting for!)
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To: HYPOCRACY

After discovering my “cure” for hangovers I learned very early on to examine the bottle for “contaminants” before consuming. :)


22 posted on 01/08/2022 9:24:10 PM PST by TigersEye (Ray Epps didn't kill himself.)
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To: nickcarraway

I don’t drink so I’m good.


23 posted on 01/08/2022 9:28:18 PM PST by Salamander ("Salamander has barbaric tendencies" /Gundog)
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To: TigersEye

A lot of us have been there...


24 posted on 01/08/2022 9:30:33 PM PST by HYPOCRACY (This is the dystopian future we've been waiting for!)
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To: Still Thinking

In a hangover, you are dehydrated, and your sugar has tanked as has your supply of B vitamins. So anything wet could help, a LITTLE something sweet, and a multi-B pill should help. None of which are sourced by anyone who can afford and is financially motivated to shell out the many millions it costs to get the approved studies. Also bitters are amazing as a preventive. Then if you really mess up, coffee enemas.


25 posted on 01/08/2022 9:30:54 PM PST by Bethaneidh
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To: Salamander

Some people have a condition called Auto-brewery syndrome, where alcohol ferments in their GI tract. It sounds made up, but it isn’t.


26 posted on 01/08/2022 9:31:38 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: BipolarBob

My niece’s husband uses Powerade as a mix.

Swears by it.


27 posted on 01/08/2022 9:44:51 PM PST by WeaslesRippedMyFlesh
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To: Salamander
I don’t drink so I’m good.

That's a good thing because ...

:)

28 posted on 01/08/2022 9:49:54 PM PST by TigersEye (Ray Epps didn't kill himself.)
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To: HYPOCRACY
A lot of us have been there...

As far as I can remember I was. :)

29 posted on 01/08/2022 9:51:08 PM PST by TigersEye (Ray Epps didn't kill himself.)
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To: Deaf Smith

Methanol? Eww!


30 posted on 01/08/2022 9:53:24 PM PST by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: nickcarraway

What happened to “Hair of the Dog?”

Always works


31 posted on 01/08/2022 9:57:06 PM PST by eyedigress (Trump is my President! )
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To: nickcarraway

I haven’t had a hangover in a long time, but I found that drinking about three glasses of water and taking some B-complex before going to bed was helpful. It didn’t completely mitigate the hangover, but it made me a lot more functional in the morning (as I consumed more fluids and wolfed down a bacon cheeseburger or some pizza.)


32 posted on 01/08/2022 9:57:55 PM PST by Allegra
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To: Roccus

There you go.


33 posted on 01/08/2022 9:58:09 PM PST by eyedigress (Trump is my President! )
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To: eyedigress

34 posted on 01/08/2022 10:01:08 PM PST by windsorknot
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To: Still Thinking

Methanol trace amounts are among by-products of fermentation. There’s more of them in darker liquors than in clear liquors.


35 posted on 01/08/2022 10:03:36 PM PST by jjotto ( Blessed are You LORD, who crushes enemies and subdues the wicked.)
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To: windsorknot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-pcvD03sBA


36 posted on 01/08/2022 10:06:56 PM PST by eyedigress (Trump is my President! )
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To: nickcarraway

Menudo


37 posted on 01/08/2022 10:09:52 PM PST by sockmonkey (Conservative. Not a Neocon.)
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To: nickcarraway

A couple good hits of OXYGEN works for about an hour.

And drink lots of water.

Used to work in a hospital when I was young and drunk a lot.


38 posted on 01/08/2022 11:02:58 PM PST by jcon40 (Machinery is only as good as its design and quality of parts. A citizen is only as good as...)
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To: nickcarraway

A lot of Mexican diners sell a lot of menudo on Sunday morning. Friend of mine used to swear by it.


39 posted on 01/09/2022 3:04:05 AM PST by hinckley buzzard ( Resist the narrative.)
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To: jcon40
A couple good hits of OXYGEN works for about an hour.

That's supposed to burn the alcohol out of the system. I suspect welders have resorted to it. Tom Wolfe, in The Right Stuff wrote about test pilots keeping a tank of O2 in their car to huff on their way to the airfield.

I no longer drink, but back in the day, after a night of excess, I'd go for a run. After a few minutes the endorphins would build up a little and I'd feel better. Finishing the run felt better still, but as you report with O2, the relief was temporary.

40 posted on 01/09/2022 6:41:56 AM PST by tsomer
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