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What if we really ended up with a hangover? If the best thing is of course to be responsible in your alcohol consumption to avoid this kind of unpleasant state, Swiss researchers have developed a gel that can be eaten to counter the toxicity of alcoholic drinks.
Food supplements, drinkable solutions or more natural indications… The market for (so-called) miracle cures for hangovers is not new, fueling the desire of many consumers under the influence of guilt after having forced too much on the bottle during an evening. Countering the harmful effects of alcohol is in fact a long-standing fantasy, which is not about to disappear with the latest findings from Swiss researchers. Their field of application: the development of a gel which would render alcohol harmless.
Described by the media NewScientistand published in the journal Nature NanoTechnology, this study from the University of Zurich involved preventing alcohol from transforming into acetaldehyde, which has the ability to destroy the liver. Toxic to the body, this organic compound interacts with DNA and can cause damage to cells. It’s actually better if the alcohol is broken down into acetic acid. To understand clearly, it is one of the compounds in alcohol vinegar, which is colorless and is an antiseptic.
Swiss scientists have thus developed a consumable gel based on a milk protein and iron which imitates the action of an enzyme so that the alcohol is transformed into acetic acid and not into acetaldehyde. The experiment was carried out on a group of mice. Some of them ingested ethanol as they pleased, without restriction for ten days. The rodents then consumed this gel and finally showed a blood alcohol level dropping by more than 55% after four hours. Likewise, acetaldehyde levels also decreased significantly.
At the same time, another group of mice distinguished themselves by consuming alcohol as well as this gel for ten days. The results are clearly convincing: their organs were found to be almost as intact as those of mice that had not drunk alcohol.
Morality: this invention is mainly of interest in the anticipation of its ingestion. “If you ingest this gel before drinking, most of the alcohol you drink is converted into acetic acid“, explains Raffaele Mezzenga from ETH Zurich in Switzerland. And adds “This means that alcohol does not enter the bloodstream and you do not suffer any side effects.” The start of a new fantasy after a drunken evening?
Slide: 10 effective hangover remedies: natural tips!