Downing Flaming Sambuca shots at last call may seem like a good idea at the time, but come sunrise your body most likely won’t be thanking you for it. A new wave of pre-drink supplements promises to combat this, however, and lighten the burden of the dreaded hangover.
Aiming to ease the effects of an excessive night of food and alcohol, these supplements include ingredients supposedly designed to break down alcohol in the gut before it reaches the liver, or boost your body’s defenses with essential vitamins and minerals. In turn, so the claims go, this can help to eliminate (or at least drastically reduce) headaches, upset stomach, and nausea post-partying.
While small independent studies have been conducted to test the validity of these supplements, proof that they actually work as a hangover preventative is an area that remains to be satisfactorily explored. However, this hasn’t stopped brands from launching these supplements that tap into the “one too many” market.
You may have heard of Myrkl (pronounced “miracle”), which has been highlighted in the press as the “hangover prevention pill.” Launched by Swedish probiotic company De Faire Medical, Myrkl is described on its website as a food supplement that “makes you feel refreshed the next day after the fun of the night before.” It contains AB001, which claims to be “the first formula in human history that shows promising results of breaking down alcohol effectively in the gut before it reaches the liver.” Survivor is another such supplement brand with a lofty promise to “reduce alcohol’s negative impact on health and productivity.”
“The theory behind these supplements is that they work to lower your blood alcohol level and support your body with vitamins, reducing the chances of a worse hangover,” says Nadja Auerbach, clinical operations associate at Thriva. “The active ingredients in these popular pills include things such as the amino acid L-cysteine, vitamin B12, and two probiotics, or healthy bacteria, Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus coagulans.”
“Because they are classed as supplements and not medications, the studies to support their efficacy is limited,” says Auerbach. “There is the risk that people will use these pills as an excuse to consume even more alcohol in one sitting and not suffer the consequences, giving rise to worsened binge drinking. Eating a nutritious, balanced meal prior to drinking will support your body to deal with the toxic effects of alcohol as best it can, however. While there are no miracle foods, eating a hearty meal balanced in protein, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates will slow down the rate at which your body absorbs alcohol, reducing the negative effects.”
WIRED’s Anti-Hangover Pill Experiment
Heeding Auerbach’s wise words, WIRED wanted to see whether we could notice any beneficial effects of these miracle tablets. And the only obvious way was to test them in a real-life situation.
Here, we enlisted the help of the Wimborne Rugby Football Club team, based in the UK. We tagged along on their Christmas party night out and plied willing volunteers with a selection of different booze-busting options, keen to see whether they could, in fact, minimize the effects of an excessive night of food and alcoholic beverages.
Most PopularGearThe 15 Best Electric Bikes for Every Kind of Ride
Adrienne So
GearThe Best Lubes for Every Occasion
Jaina Grey
GearThe iPhone Is Finally Getting USB-C. Here’s What That Means
Julian Chokkattu
Gear11 Great Deals on Sex Toys, Breast Pumps, and Smart Lights
Jaina Grey
We included a range of “anti-hangover” supplements in our admittedly unscientific experiment, and asked members of the rugby team to each give a different one a try. Without lab equipment at our disposal, we tried to be as fair as possible and chose nine players from the team who all considered themselves to have a similar drinking tolerance.
Five participants took a different supplement brand before the evening got underway. We asked another participant to simply consume a diluted sachet of Dioralyte before bed, which (as urban legend has it) is supposedly excellent at hydrating you while you slumber to tackle a hangover. We asked another member to drink only plain water before bed, and a final participant to have nil-by-mouth, no preventative measures whatsoever, at the end of the night.
WIRED was on hand to ensure our panel all drank the same amount over the course of the evening, toasting “To science!” with every drink. Each participant had a couple of slices of pizza and consumed an identical mix of drinks, from wine, beer, and cocktails, to Sambuca shots (which turned out to be the most popular order of the night).
Below we’ve highlighted how effective the ingredients are in the different products we tried, how best to consume them, and asked the rugby team to report back on how well they thought the supplements did at curbing a hangover.
Best Overall “Anti-Hangover” Pill: Myrkl
Instructions: Take two capsules two hours before consuming an alcoholic drink.
Myrkl contains a patented AB001 formula made of bacteria and L-cysteine. Vegan-friendly, it includes vitamin B12 to “help combat tiredness and fatigue.” An independent peer-reviewed study conducted on a small-scale has shown that the AB001 found in Myrkl managed to break down up to 70 percent of alcohol within 60 minutes after consumption. With this in mind, we were keen to see how well it fared on our rugby player.
Most PopularGearThe 15 Best Electric Bikes for Every Kind of Ride
Adrienne So
GearThe Best Lubes for Every Occasion
Jaina Grey
GearThe iPhone Is Finally Getting USB-C. Here’s What That Means
Julian Chokkattu
Gear11 Great Deals on Sex Toys, Breast Pumps, and Smart Lights
Jaina Grey
Den Champ, who took the supplement before our night out, certainly seemed the perkiest member of our experiment the morning after. “Even by my excessive standards, the power drinking that we indulged in was at a strong pace,” says Champ. “I had the Myrkl, which was exactly that. I didn’t have a headache the next day, and the tiredness I experienced was probably down to staying up too late—all in the name of science, though.”
Maite Brines von Melle, biohacker and holistic health coach at Superhealth Playbook, was interested to see a certain bacteria in the ingredients, which she notes makes it different to other “hangover supplements” she’s seen. “It’s not just the liver, but your gut lining that also gets affected by alcohol, so including ingredients to combat this can only be a plus,” she says. “But there are a couple of anti-caking agents included in the formula that I personally wouldn’t want to see in a ‘health’ supplement.”
$35 (£30) for 30 capsules (15 doses)
Buy MyrklSurvivor
Instructions: Take two capsules after every four alcoholic drinks consumed, followed by two capsules before bed.
You can buy Survivor in packs of 10 capsules, as a “party pack” containing 10 sachets with four capsules in each sachet, or on monthly subscription. It is designed to supposedly accelerate the breakdown of alcohol’s most toxic byproduct, acetaldehyde, which can cause inflammation, headaches, nausea, and the like. The brand website states that the capsules contain both Ampelopsis grossedentata (a source of vine tea extract) and the flower of Pueraria lobata, a traditional remedy. It claims to boost the function of ALDH, the enzyme responsible for breaking down acetaldehyde.
We asked rugby player Dan White to try Survivor on our night out, then report back the next day. “I think it’s quite funny that on the packet it tells you to ‘avoid cheap, dark colored rum, or sickly sweet wine stuffed with sulfites, and veer toward clearer, dry drinks’—so it’s a good job Sambuca was on the menu,” says Dan.
Most PopularGearThe 15 Best Electric Bikes for Every Kind of Ride
Adrienne So
GearThe Best Lubes for Every Occasion
Jaina Grey
GearThe iPhone Is Finally Getting USB-C. Here’s What That Means
Julian Chokkattu
Gear11 Great Deals on Sex Toys, Breast Pumps, and Smart Lights
Jaina Grey
“I had to take two Survivor capsules after every four drinks, and then two before bed. You also can’t take more than 10 capsules over a 24 hour period, so it’s really limiting you to eight drinks max. We ended up getting through more than 10 drinks on our night out, so in all honesty things got a little hazy toward the end. Surprisingly, I didn’t have a headache the next day, but I did have a very dry mouth, and didn’t feel great overall.”
Brines Von Melle points out that this supplement contains choline, which is found in foods such as eggs and is good for the liver. “I like this combination as it contains a good vitamin B complex, ingredients designed to help the nervous system, and, in particular, chromium, which helps with blood-sugar management.”
£12.74 ($15.38) for five 10-capsule packs
Buy SurvivorAWKN
Instructions: Take one liquid sachet at the start of your evening, or two if you’re planning “a very heavy night.”
This “pre-alcohol vitamin and botanical liquid sachet” is apparently inspired by traditional Korean remedies. The fruit-flavored liquid food supplement can simply be consumed from the sachet before you start drinking. We asked rugby player Lawesy to take two and report back.
“The liquid tastes a little sickly sweet, but is generally pleasant to drink,” he says. “The next day I initially felt OK, and thought that perhaps the supplement was really helping. But after being awake for an hour or so I felt as hungover as usual, with a cracking headache and zero appetite. I think this is perhaps a good supplement to take if you’re having a couple of drinks and want to feel fresh the next day, but not if you’re planning to have more.”
Brines Von Melle is impressed at how clean the combination of ingredients included in this supplement is. “Vitamin C, milk thistle, and prickly pear are all going to help after a night out,” she says.
Most PopularGearThe 15 Best Electric Bikes for Every Kind of Ride
Adrienne So
GearThe Best Lubes for Every Occasion
Jaina Grey
GearThe iPhone Is Finally Getting USB-C. Here’s What That Means
Julian Chokkattu
Gear11 Great Deals on Sex Toys, Breast Pumps, and Smart Lights
Jaina Grey
£3.95 ($4.80) per sachet, £18.95 ($23.04) for a pack of 5
Buy AWKN on AmazonBuy AWKNKA-EX
Instructions: Take one sachet in 300-ml of water after drinking, and repeat with one sachet in 300-ml of water in the morning.
This nutritional supplement is marketed as being suitable for both after-sport and after-party. It contains a mix of electrolytes, amino acids, vitamins, basic salts, phosphatidyslerine, betaine, choline, zinc, selenium, fructose, and glucose.
We asked rugby player Jay “Corky” to try this product and tell us what he thought. As it turns out, Jay was impressed with this mix after a night on the tiles. “We drank a lot more than usual on our Christmas bash, and I was expecting to wake up feeling awful, but I felt surprisingly OK,” he says. “I had a slight headache, and felt a twinge of nausea when I first woke. But as the day progressed I felt fine. However, I definitely think having the 300 ml of water with the supplement helps both before bed and in the morning to hydrate the body.”
While Brines von Melle thought the choline, salts, and electrolytes were a good mix, she was not so impressed at how much fructose was included here. “While there is good stuff such as magnesium, calcium, and choline in this supplement, there is also 40 percent fructose listed in the main ingredients, which isn’t so good for blood-sugar levels.”
£20 ($24.23) for six sachets.
Buy KA-EX on AmazonBuy KA-EXWill Powders Rise & Shine
Instructions: Take one color-coded capsule before, at the end of the night, and again in the morning.
Championed by English actress and female biohacker Davinia Taylor, Rise & Shine by Will Powders is an indulgence recovery aid. You take the capsules before, during, and after a night out. The capsules supposedly work together with ingredients that claim to protect your liver, help your blood-sugar levels, and increase the oxygen in your bloodstream.
We asked rugby player Will “Pingu” to take this supplement on our night out. The first blue pill claims to “help maintain and protect your liver from excessive use of inflammatory foods, drinks, and stress.” The second pink capsule taken at the end of the night is an antioxidant allegedly designed to maintain blood-sugar levels, while the final yellow pill is (in theory) there to increase oxygen and improve alertness.
Most PopularGearThe 15 Best Electric Bikes for Every Kind of Ride
Adrienne So
GearThe Best Lubes for Every Occasion
Jaina Grey
GearThe iPhone Is Finally Getting USB-C. Here’s What That Means
Julian Chokkattu
Gear11 Great Deals on Sex Toys, Breast Pumps, and Smart Lights
Jaina Grey
“I don’t remember much and felt pretty awful the next day, if I’m honest,” says Will. “If it’s a particularly big night out you have to remember to take the pink capsule before bed, which I would find a bit of a chore. I think having something like this makes you more aware of what you’re consuming, and for that reason alone I think it’s a positive.”
“There are a lot of ingredients in these capsules to help protect your body from excess alcohol, including milk thistle, choline, and vitamin B6,” says Brines von Melle. “It’s a great formula, and my only hesitation as a purist is that I am not the biggest fan of anti-caking agents found in some health supplements.”
£12.99 ($15.75) for a pack.
Buy Rise & ShineWhat About the Other Rugby Players in Our Experiment?
Nathan Steele, who had absolutely nothing before bed, not even a sip of water, reported somewhat predictably that he felt “utterly awful” the next day. Meanwhile, Trevor “Smax,” who was allowed water before bed, told us that he “needed to drink a lot of water pre-bed, and again in the morning, to feel like he was suitably hydrated.”
Lastly, Leo, who took a sachet of Dioralyte rehydration salts before bed, said that in the morning he felt he “needed a lot more than a glass of electrolytes to help tackle a hangover like this.”
There are, of course, a vast range of factors—such as age, body mass, ethnicity, biological sex, and even your DNA—that impact the way people metabolize alcohol, and consequently experience a hangover—which in turn impacts the effectiveness of these pills and potions. With this in mind, WIRED freely admits we had a bit (OK, a great deal) of fun conducting our “anti-hangover” experiment, so we’ll hold our hands up and admit these results are very much subjective and can in no way be judged scientifically. We’d also like to underline that, unless you want to end up feeling as bad as Smax, Leo, and Will, you should always drink responsibly.
How to Hack Your Hangover!
Brines von Melle offers up some basic tools to hopefully help the body with alcohol consumption:
1. The gut takes as much a bashing as the liver, so on the day of have plenty of fiber in cruciferous vegetables and fermented foods. Eggs, in particular, are great for extra choline, as your liver will use choline stores to mitigate the damage of drinking alcohol.
2. Antioxidants and extra antioxidants are important to help mop up the free radicals released when drinking alcohol. This could be extra vitamin C (1,000 mg), glutathione, or even Chaga mushroom extract.
3. Take 300 to 400 mg of magnesium, as alcohol depletes magnesium. Magnesium is found in dark chocolate, lentils, peanuts, cashews, and more.
4. Take collagen and/or bone broth. Gycine is an amino acid found in bone broth and helps to reduce lipid peroxidation and antioxidant depletion in the liver. To help with recovery, both chlorella and milk thistle are also good.
5. To fight fatigue and help with stress on the body (and nervous system), use vitamin B12 or a whole vitamin B complex.
6. Remember that alcohol dehydrates the body, so try to drink one glass of water with each unit of alcohol. It’s useful to add a pinch of quality sea salt to your water to stay hydrated, which is an easy way to keep up your electrolytes.