Study: No convincing scientific evidence that hangover cures work | Hacker News Reader

Study: No convincing scientific evidence that hangover cures work

addictionjournal.org

23 pointsrustoo56 comments

The hangover cures assessed in this study included Curcumin, Duolac ProAP4 (probiotics), L-cysteine, N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC), Rapid Recovery (L-cysteine, thiamine, pyridoxine and ascorbic acid), Loxoprofen (loxoprofen sodium), SJP-001 (naproxen and fexofenadine), Phyllpro (Phyllanthus amarus), Clovinol (extract of clove buds), Hovenia dulcis Thunb. fruit extract (HDE), Polysaccharide rich extract of Acanthopanax (PEA), Red Ginseng, Korean Pear Juice, L-ornithine, Prickly Pear, Artichoke extract, 'Morning-Fit' (dried yeast, thiamine nitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, and riboflavin), Propranolol, Tolfenamic acid, Chlormethiazole, and Pyritinol.

well, they didn't test the ones that work! sheesh.

I knew paramedics who wore by IV fluids as a rapid hangover cure.

The usual (water, coffee, OTC painkillers) will work eventually, but this was faster.

But method of administration matters as well as the substance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_bag

We used to top off a banana bag with a little bag of D50 and supplemental O2 via nasal cannula. You could always filch a replacement from the ER on your next visit.

As a recovery mechanism from a punishing night out -- like, say, a volunteer firefighter's bachelor party -- I highly recommend it!

Lol. They forgot hair of the dog..

And Paracetamol Plus, it seems.

I've heard Turmeric is good for preventing hangovers. I'm not sure if that falls into the hangover cure category.

Did anyone else parse "cures" as a verb at first?

Yep, I did, which made for a puzzling title that I assumed was going to mean an article playing on correlation or something.

Count me in, though I initially read it more like "work is the illness, here is the cure for it (and it's not hangover)" ...

Yeah. I had to read it 5 times. My brain was telling me that there was no evidence that a hangover is a cure for work. Duh! I thought. Hangovers only make work worse not better.

I read it the same but with the idea being a hangover incentivizes you to call in sick for work thus “curing” the affliction you have with working. Except it doesn’t cure the affliction as you still have to go in eventually.

I bet most non-drinkers read it this way.

yes but seriously, what will cure work?

As a species, we've been doing it for long enough that we can try without it for a while, no?

Yup, came here to make same remark! =)

Ed. I thought this was some kind of joke article.

Worth noting that this is a review of other studies. They don’t find that these things don’t work, they find that the other studies are so low quality as to be not highly meaningful evidence one way or the other.

> Although some studies showed statistically significant improvements in hangover symptoms, all evidence was of very low quality, usually because of methodological limitations or imprecise measurements.

I would be very surprised if naproxen (a common NSAID, and one of the cures in question here) doesn’t help hangovers somewhat, but the authors are correct that no high-quality research looks into this.

Edit: this is sort of one of the unfortunate things about academic research culture. If I’m a good researcher, I could spend time looking into whether NSAIDs help with hangovers… but there’s already a bunch of lower quality research that does the same thing, and it’s very probable that my results would align with everybody’s priors (no surprise that a painkiller and anti-inflammatory would help with hangovers, which are in large part pain and inflammation) - so getting a ton of citations off it would be unlikely. So there’s really no incentive to spend a lot of time doing high quality research on something like this.

Isn't the key to just drink as much water as possible before passing out? I've always just prepared a huge bottle of water next to my bed so that I would hopefully chug it before I go to sleep.

Works for me. Except I drink water while I'm drinking beer. Something like 1 drink of water to 3 or 4 drinks of beer. But I'm also at home, on the computer drinking and not out partying. So I don't know how well it translates to being outside the house.

Kingsley Amis, the novelist, has some excellent essays on drinking. He claimed that if you mostly drank large quantities of neat spirits, a large proportion would end up passing undigested out the other end, but by drinking water you were diluting it to the perfect concentration for max alcohol absorption.

Gotta be careful with amounts here -- one time I drunkenly drank tons and tons of water to the point I actually dehydrated myself even further than the alcohol would've. Worst hangover of my life.

Probably you drank way too much "pure" water, and you upset your salt balance. Most likely if you had had some salts in the water you would have been better off (if not fine).

Yeah. And salt. That 3am kebab makes wonders.

Try a big line of blow. There’s a reason cocaine was thought to be a miracle drug for years before the negative effects of addiction were realized.

Well, lots of people regard coca-cola as helpful with hangover. Now I wonder if this is a remnant from the time when the drink actually contained the stuff.

I find it comforting. Not sure it makes you feel physically better but it certainly gives comfort.

Currently dealing with a multi-day hangover. Wish there was a cure.

I've been using Dihydromyricetin (Ampelopsin) for a couple of years (Morning Recovery + standalone pill form). And can feel a noticeable difference every time, to the point where I won't go out without. But is more of a relief than a cure. It is like having hangovers as in my twenties (I'm in my forties now).

I also stack up with some extra electrolytes before going out, as well as the next day. I get a horrible brain fog that can can easily last for 4-5 days if I don't.

Finally, I try to do mostly daytime drinking, to avoid ruining my sleep too much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_rehydration_therapy

Works better than an IV because your digestive system can absorb it faster.

Basically one liter of water, 2 tablespoons (25g) of sugar, 1/2 (5.7g) teaspoon of salt. Make sure the salt to sugar ration is correct. It's ok to use more than a liter, but not less than a liter.

Gatorade can be used instead, but isn't as good. Pedialyte and other preparations are a better version of it.

I've never had a hangover, much to the irritation of others, what I do consistently get is a mildly bad mood that lasts about half the following day.

You're either young or lucky. Or both.

I'm 37, so not that young. I'll take lucky though.

ÜFÜ (über Fünfzig)/50+ here, walking 82kg at 181cm. Still don't know what a hangover is, or how exactly it feels. Though I rarely drink alcoholic stuff. What I do know is the 'emergency dumping' by vomiting it out when I had too much, though that happened only about 4 to 5 times in my life. Still, even when that happened, woke up, feeling normal.

Oriental Raisin Tea is a common hangover cure in East Asia. It's not clear to me whether the relevant compounds were covered in this study, but I would love to see more exploration of how well these Asian remedies work. (I'm personally skeptical of 中医 = Traditional Chinese Medicine, but am open to being convinced otherwise.)

>(I'm personally skeptical of 中医 = Traditional Chinese Medicine, but am open to being convinced otherwise.)

The "debate" is over traditional Chinese medicine can be pretty frustrating, since in principle it's a very simple issue: did the ancient Chinese (or anyone else, really) stumble onto something that worked and was reproducible, even if they weren't able to properly articulate why it worked? A simple example ought to be the brewing of beer. Due to the need to sterilize and introduce yeast, one might imagine that a properly functioning germ theory was necessary for the brewing of beer. Of course, this was not the case, and people got quite far on trial and error.

They didn’t look at DHM which is in most hangover remedies and imo the most effective.

I agree on the effectiveness of DHM. But it should probably have been covered by Hovenia dulcis Thunb. Which it is commonly extracted from.

Nonsense!

Step 1) Eat beef before going out. Beef takes a long time to digest, and the alcohol goes along for the long digestion ride.

Step 2) Pedialyte before bed.

Step 3) When you wake up at 4:30am, more pedialyte.

Step 4) HOT shower when you wake up finally. Finish off the pedialyte.

Done.

Alternatively: just drink white claws.

How is that scientific evidence?

Depending on the study in question and the criteria for what is considered weak evidence...

Metadoxine works. Not a miracle cure of course, but effective still.

I read this sentence as "No convincing scientific evidence that hangover, cures work". A great start to the new year I must say.

Yeah, I was also thinking “what does it mean to cure work? And who thought a hangover could cure anything?”

Not even drinking a ton of water before and during?

That's a prevantative measure, not a cure. (And yes drinking water prevents dehydration.)

The first sentence of the link asserts:

> ...evidence that substances claiming to treat or prevent alcohol-induced hangover work.

Which is kinda crazy right?

A real hangover cure would be worth an unbelievable amount of money to the alcoholic beverage industry.

I read this headline as a lack of evidence of hangovers being a cure for having to work. Damn.

I thought the main cause of a hangover was dehydration and the cure was drinking more water?

I believe that also your internal chemistry is out of whack and needs to rejigger itself back to the normal equilibrium

edit: according to this page[1] there's a combination of things:

- an inflammatory response

- irritated stomach lining

- blood sugar crash

- blood vessels expand

- alcohol can prevent deeper stages of sleep so you aren't rested the next day

[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hangovers/sym...

Wild guess: NSAIDs + melatonin + famotidine before you sleep, NSAIDs + caffeine after you sleep, both with lots of water. Hard part would be having the presence of mind to take those before you knock out.

Alcohol withdrawal is also a factor.

"Cured" by additional alcohol consumption. This "cure" can lead to multiday "chain" drinking.

I suspect that’s an oversimplification and the build up of acetaldehyde plays a part.

Toxic chemical flowing through your body, makes sense to me.

Pickle Juice.

You're welcome

bacon egg and cheese sandwich with some kratom tea works pretty well

Also kratom tea & coffee. Probably not the healthiest but you're hung over anyway so...

exactly, it’s funny how some people will downvote others for speaking what works for them. i’ll never understand that.

both kratom and coffee are related, kratom gets a bad rap because of headshops but people have been using it for all types of things for over 300 years with little to no issues.

there’s even some journals on it’s use with reducing some covid symptoms. not a cure but definitely seems helpful

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