Who doesn’t hate the morning after a party? Well, it looks like even researchers hate it because they’ve been working on a solution to treat that massive hangover. According to wine enthusiast Yunfeng Lu, who is a chemical engineering professor at UCLA, we shouldn’t have to worry about hangovers anymore.
Lu developed a solution to treat the negative effects of the alcohol we 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 we 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.
Drunk Mice Received Hangover Pill
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.
Tests on Human Patients in a Year
Lu focused on helping hospitals and not the party people. So don’t open those cans of beer yet, because Lu and his team are still looking into the side effects of their treatments. Researchers should be able to start tests on human patients in a year.
Lu will surely be able to find enough testing candidates, as he’s a professor at a university.
Doris’s passion for writing started to take shape in college where she was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper. Even though she ended up working in IT for more than 7 years, she’s now back to what he always enjoyed doing. With a true passion for technology, Doris mostly covers tech-related topics.