Hacking the Hangover

Tis' the season to raise our glasses with friends and family! The good news is that the resulting hangovers can be hacked.

Many biohackers choose to abstain from spirits altogether but especially during the holidays, they are missing out on a lot of good times, unforgettable memories, and festive fellowship with their loved ones. This article will present a holistic protocol for mitigating all the downsides of rowdy revelry so you can indulge in some drinking guilt-free and without hating yourself the morning after.

Skip the pre-packaged "Hangover Cures"

Years ago I had a dubious career as a nightclub promoter, my job was to organize and host raucous parties at nightclubs. Several companies offering "hangover cures" sent me ample samples of their funny-tasting dissolving tablets and packets. I did quite a bit of drinking, I tried them all and they really didn't do much to mitigate the headache, sluggishness, acid reflux, and cognitive downgrade the morning after. I suspect that a lot of these products don't contain high-quality, bioactive individual ingredients or just rely on the placebo effect. Hacking a hangover requires a few supplements and vitamins, you'll want to get these individually from credible sources which ideally verify purity with a publicly published certificate of analysis.

Block the Acetaldehyde

Crucially, you want to take some supplements that will block the alcohol from converting into poisonous Acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is the culprit to blame for much of the damage that alcohol does to our health; it causes cancer, liver damage, fatigue, loss of intelligence (as you've certainly experienced after too many drinks) along with skin wrinkles (just go and look at the current Facebook photos of your old drinking friends if you want to see this!)

You'll want to start your booze biohacking with N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC), take 500 - 1000 milligrams BEFORE drinking.

Vitamin C - Is a notable poor man's boozing biohack (which even an elitist like myself uses). Vitamin C is ascorbic acid which helps your liver to metabolize the liquor and clear the toxins from the body. Take it before or while drinking, serious boozing biohackers will take one Vitamin C tablet with each drink.

Detoxify the Liver

While you're relaxing and enjoying a drink, your liver is doing the dirty work of processing the booze and filtering out the worst of the toxins in it. You'll want to take some steps to fortify your liver and detox it.

Glutathione is the master antioxidant, and it's a smart idea to supplement it if you're going to be doing a little (or a lot of) drinking. In a sense, you always have a mini-hangover as your body is depleting Glutathione all the time but alcohol is especially costly of your Glutathione stores.

* It's rocket fuel for your liver function. From a 2017 clinical trial, Glutathione plays crucial roles in the detoxification and antioxidant systems of cells and has been used to treat acute poisoning and chronic liver diseases...

* It's a powerful intercellular antioxidant. Glutathione as a molecule is very charitable with its electrons, thus blocking the oxidizing free radicals that the booze introduces from their rape and pillaging of your biology.

* It enhances immunity. As you may have experienced, alcohol retards immunity. If you've ever caught the flu or a cold in the chilly days following some holiday binge drinking you have only yourself to blame! Glutathione fortifies the immune system, from some German research The immune system works best if the lymphoid cells have a delicately balanced intermediate level of glutathione.

Double Wood Supplements offers COA-verified pure S-Acetyl L-Glutathione, manufactured in the USA. Glutathione supplements are all the rage but most Glutathione is not highly orally bioavailable (nor is it cheap) so I suggest you choose the S-Acetyl version which is better absorbed. Double Wood's customers praise it highly as a boozing biohack, Juan reported:

I put it to the test by consuming alcoholic beverages [to] the point of intoxication (in a safe monitored environment) and then immediately took two capsules of the Acetyl L-Glutathione. Surprisingly the next morning my hangover was dramatically reduced. I then repeated the test a week later with the same amount of alcohol without the supplement and my hangover was very bad. I did this 4 more times and every time the hangover was almost nonexistent with the supplement vs not taking it.

From a verified customer review, Works great for detox and hangovers, on Amazon:

I take this with DHM when having a few cocktails. 1 of each before drinking, 1 of each before bed, and 1 of each first thing in the AM. Hangovers are either completely prevented or very short lived!

Take 100-300 milligrams during or after drinking.

Colostrum - Taking your Glutathione hacking to the next level demands the chelation of the heavy metal iron in the gut. Chelation comes from the Latin word, Chela which means Claw, so chelators claw stubborn toxins out of your body. Chelating supplements and foods are a smart idea for any biohacker, but Colostrum contains Lacto-Theron, a quintessential Glutathione cofactor.

Alpha Lipoic Acid - This is another formidable antioxidant that supports Glutathione. The ALA supplements should be refrigerated. Take 400 milligrams before drinking.

Clean up the Toxins

What makes you hungover is the toxins in the alcohol that hang around in your body wreaking havoc. There are a couple of supplements you'll want to take after drinking that have a molecular affinity for toxins, they capture toxins so they can be washed out of your body.

One of the more pharmacologically interesting and effective hangover hacks I've tried is Dihydromyricetin (DHM), it's been widely studied (+200 papers on Pubmed). It has the curious effect of sobering you up when 300 - 900 milligrams