In Great Britain
Hangover pill: This remedy is supposed to take the devilishness out of alcohol
First looked too deep into the glass, then too deep into the toilet? This would not have happened with a hangover pill.
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Nothing spoils a good evening like a hangover the morning after. A pill is now on the market in Britain that aims to end the misery. Is the hangover pill the long-awaited game changer?
The last beer was bad and now Swan Lake is being performed in bed. The brain presses against the skull from the inside, the stomach tries to clean up and everything, really everything is a great misery. The high can be a wonderful thing, but the hangover afterwards isn’t. But what if it could be canceled with a stupid pill? Isn’t there? Yesterday in the UK. There is now a dietary supplement on the market that wants to put an end to the alcohol hangover.
If you believe the manufacturer, “Myrkl” is a kind of magic pill that makes the alcohol in the body disappear in no time at all. After just one hour, up to 70 percent of the alcohol consumed should already be broken down. That would of course be sensational. You could have a drink with the somewhat difficult relatives at a family celebration and still say goodbye to them in a timely manner. One, at the latest two hours after the last drink, according to Adam Riese, you should at best be fit for public and traffic. A game changer.
Viewed soberly, however, this all sounds a little too good to be true.
Alcohol breaks down faster
What is Myrkl: miracle pill or just a blank cartridge? According to the Swedish manufacturer, the tablet helps break down alcohol quickly before it reaches the liver. For this, two pills of the preparation must be taken at least one hour before the first sip. Within 30 minutes, the pill then ensures that the alcohol content is reduced by half, after an hour by up to 70 percent. The pill works for up to 12 hours and continues to break down alcohol. Researchers at the company came to this conclusion in a joint project with the Pfützner Institute for Science and Health in Mainz and the pharmaceutical company De Faire Medical. The results were published in the journal“Journal Nutrition and Metabolic Insights” published.
What magic formula can create this miracle? The British news site “i” has had the ingredients of Paul Skett tested. He is a pharmacologist and a specialist in alcohol metabolism, i.e. all processes related to the breakdown and conversion of alcohol in the organism. While it is impossible to speed up the elimination of alcohol from the body, he believes that slowing alcohol absorption could have a positive effect. Myrkl’s published research explains that using a probiotic, which appears to be normal bacteria, reduces alcohol intake, Skett said. And further: “Of course this could reduce the severity of a hangover and I suppose it could work in that sense.”
The rest of the ingredients in the anti-hangover pill are also not surprising. The amino acid L-cysteine and sugar. So nothing that is not found in most foods. Among other things, the pill contains vitamin B12, which is also supposed to provide an energy boost. All ingredients are approved by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), says the manufacturer.
Anti-hangover pill is also anti-intoxication pill
And this rather unspectacular recipe is supposed to take the diabolical from the devil alcohol. Get rid of the hangover after a night of drinking, nausea and headaches. Joris Vester doesn’t believe in that. He heads the Department of Pharmacology at Utrecht University and is the founder of the Alcohol Hangover Research Group. He told the “i” that only the direct effect after drinking alcohol was examined. But there is “no scientific evidence that this product is effective against hangovers”. Especially since the study to which the manufacturer refers was very small. Only 24 people took part in it. Half got an anti-hangover pill twice a day for a week, the other half got a placebo. On the day of the experiment there was a glass of vodka for a small breakfast. It should be noted here: The pills were not only taken on the day of alcohol consumption, but for a week. The amount of alcohol was limited to a single glass of vodka.
If there is some truth in the manufacturer’s statements, then it can be expected that the anti-hangover pill will come with at least one side effect that not everyone will like. Rapid breakdown of alcohol also makes intoxication less likely. In other words: you can tolerate more. British TV doctor Dawn Harper sees it that way too. The Independent quotes her as saying, “To be clear, this is not a product for people who want to get drunk. Taking Myrkl before drinking makes getting drunk much more expensive and takes a lot longer.” The company also does not want the pill to be seen as a license to consume more alcohol. Myrkl should never be an excuse to drink more alcohol. However, for moderate drinkers, it is a “breakthrough” product.
The pill was invented by scientist Johan de Faire in 1990. More than 30 years of development, the hangover pill is now available in the UK.
Source: TheTelegraph, Independent, i, DailyMail, myrcl