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New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

ethz.ch

41–50 of 263 posts

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#41

Something to sober you up if you're already drunk would be amazing, but I don't think this will do that

> Something to sober you up if you're already drunk would be amazing ... But it's the fun of alcohol! What'd be amazing would be something that really works against the headaches and/or prevent vomiting. Basically something for the next day or even the next two days (when you get old, if you party too hard it can take two days to feel good again: I hate it so at 50 I very rarely party hard anymore: maybe once a year)…

Hangovers are a good part caused by by the body reacting to the "damage" that alcohol does:

  - Alcohol loosens the blood vessels, whereas a lot of the effects of a hangover are caused by the body then "over-constricting" when the aclohol goes away, causing headaches and nausea.  The cause of the headache is similar for a brain-freeze from too much ice cream causing the veins in your neck and throat to constrict, though the brain-freeze goes away as you warm back up.
  - There's also the dehydration as alcohol throws off the balance of water in your system as it makes you want to pee more, but interferes with the body's ability to actually absorb water.
  - Alcohol causes your body to pump out more "feel good" hormones, which then lead to a crash later.
So the way to prevent a hangover is to not get drunk in the first place, same as always. If you want to drink and limit the effects of alcohol (including the initial "benefits") then this has potential. It may prevent vomiting in the sense that vomiting is your body trying to eject the poison as it's building up faster than it can process it (eg when you're already trashed an on the train to hangoverville).

However, people often tend to drink for the "good" effects that this gel prevents. If what you want is alcohol's fun, then you're going to need another cure (essentially an IV drip, and drugs to replace the hormones and loosen your blood vessels - all of which are not readily available for other good reasons).

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#42

Something to sober you up if you're already drunk would be amazing, but I don't think this will do that

> Something to sober you up if you're already drunk would be amazing ... But it's the fun of alcohol! What'd be amazing would be something that really works against the headaches and/or prevent vomiting. Basically something for the next day or even the next two days (when you get old, if you party too hard it can take two days to feel good again: I hate it so at 50 I very rarely party hard anymore: maybe once a year)…

> But it's the fun of alcohol!

For a while it is. But sometimes you don’t want to keep being drunk.

Maybe you want to drive home, or your childcare ends, or you just have other things to do that day.

If I could just end the whole thing at will, including the hangovers you mention, that would be ideal.

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#43
post #7

> In the future, people who take the gel could reduce the harmful and intoxicating effects of alcohol. I understand harm reduction but what is the point of reducing the intoxicating effects of alcohol? What's the point?

To drive home? =)

I would love a supplement with that effect. It's not always fun having to slowly sober up while watching your friends drinking.

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#44

Something to sober you up if you're already drunk would be amazing, but I don't think this will do that

Dihydromyricetin[1] can accomplish this remarkably effectively. It's available on Amazon.

Also works great for hangovers.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3292407/

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#45
post #39

> In the future, people who take the gel could reduce the harmful and intoxicating effects of alcohol. I understand harm reduction but what is the point of reducing the intoxicating effects of alcohol? What's the point?

The hardest part of reducing my alcohol consumption is that I love red wine so much. The flavor, the aroma, the acidity, everything. I have stopped drinking all alcohol except red wine because of the health effects. I would be delighted to have a way to drink wine without any intoxication.

Red wine being healthy is a myth.

But misunderstood, see below…

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#47

> In the future, people who take the gel could reduce the harmful and intoxicating effects of alcohol. I understand harm reduction but what is the point of reducing the intoxicating effects of alcohol? What's the point?

From alcohol, I love: - drinking it: I really enjoy the feeling of just ingesting beer, wine or spirits, especially with friends or family - having a nice buzz from it. However, those two things are, for me, incompatible. If I start drinking a little bit, I usually don't stop until I'm way beyond the "nice buzz". As the joke goes, "one beer is not enough, two beers are just enough, three beers really aren't enough".…

Microdosing psilocybin (shrooms) is amazing at letting me go out and just have 1-2 beers while still giving the slight affect of a nice anxiety-free buzz. I'm what I'd call a nervous drinker. I'm ADHD and sitting still can be rough for me, so at bars I tend to drink a lot very fast because the only fidgeting I can do without looking strange is .. cup to face over and over.

Obviously not something everyone wants to do or can do, it's legal for me, but it's great for basically taking my interest in alcohol away after a beer or two. Microdosing is usually 1/10th or less what a "normal" light dose would be (going with 1-2g dose here, so 0.1/0.2). No weird/visual/hallucination effects or anything like that.

You just feel a bit lighter and relaxed. Been a big game changer for me since I go out all the time. A bunch of my service industry friends and I do it and they've all started drinking significantly less.

Naltrexone is great too but it's probably easier to get someone to microdose than ask their doctor for that which is unfortunate. You won't get a buzz with that, you'll just get bored of drinking by your 2nd beer and move on to doing other things which can also be nice at times.

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#48
post #16

Something to sober you up if you're already drunk would be amazing, but I don't think this will do that

Sulforaphane. Take something like Broccomax - or eat lots of Brussels sprouts, and broccoli.

Should I take it when I'm ready to sober up or before drinking as well if I want to make sure I don't get too drunk but still have a good buzz?

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#49
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hardest part of reducing my alcohol consumption is that I love red wine so much. The flavor, the aroma, the acidity, everything. I have stopped drinking all alcohol except red wine because of the health effects. I would be delighted to have a way to drink wine without any intoxication.

Red wine being healthy is a myth. But misunderstood, see below…

[deleted]

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#50

Something to sober you up if you're already drunk would be amazing, but I don't think this will do that

> Something to sober you up if you're already drunk would be amazing ... But it's the fun of alcohol! What'd be amazing would be something that really works against the headaches and/or prevent vomiting. Basically something for the next day or even the next two days (when you get old, if you party too hard it can take two days to feel good again: I hate it so at 50 I very rarely party hard anymore: maybe once a year)…

I'd love to take one of these when I'm going home. There's no use to keep absorving alcohol when I want to go to sleep.
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