May 12, 2018 - 15:20 AMT
Hangover pill works on drunk mice, researchers say

Researchers have been working on a solution to treat massive hangover after a party, Great Lakes Ledger reports.

According to wine enthusiast Yunfeng Lu, who is a chemical engineering professor at UCLA, people shouldn’t have to worry about hangovers anymore.

Lu developed a solution to treat the negative effects of the alcohol you drank a night before. While his ‘hangover pill’ hasn’t yet been tested on human patients, lab mice showed promising results.

The pill Lu has developed natural enzymes that exist in liver cells. Their role is to help the body process alcohol. So, a pill could help the body process it faster. Not only will you get rid of headaches and dry mouth, but it could also treat people with alcohol poisoning in the emergency rooms from all over the country.

If you were wondering if the researchers had to get their mice drunk, the answer is yes. They got their mice drunk, and they gave them the treatment. In only four hours, the drunk mice’s blood alcohol levels dropped by 45% compared to the mice that didn’t get the treatment.

Even though mice didn’t complain about their hangovers, Lu explains that the levels of acetaldehyde, “a highly toxic compound that is carcinogenic, causes headaches and vomiting, makes people blush after drinking, and is produced during the normal alcohol metabolism, remained extremely low.”

In the alcohol market, hangover prevention is quite a big hit. Some drinks are said to be ‘hangover-free’ in some places. But the results can be inconsistent or debatable.