Two students at Yale named Liam McClintock and Margaret Morse have partnered with to advisors to create an “all natural” hangover cure. The product called SunUp is currently being offered on their IndieGogo page, which has already pulled in $41,770 or 209 percent of their initial goal.
The product aims to work by preparing the body to break down the alcohol more effectively. One of the main reasons that hangovers are so painful is due to the toxic byproduct acetaldehyde. We aren’t very efficient at breaking that byproduct down, and when it hangs around it causes pain. The SunUp formulation supposedly contains ingredients that can help the liver more effectively break down acetaldehyde.
The students also say that SunUp can help suppress the immune responses that occur when we drink alcohol. Part of the pain that we feel after drinking is due to the inflammation that occurs when our bodies go into panic recovery mode after drinking. The product also contains nutrients and electrolytes that will help to replenish the body of things that it’s robbed of during a crazy night out. It also aims to help restore normal sleep patterns which are also disrupted when we drink.
What will be interesting to see is how this product differs from supposed hangover cures that are already on the market. In addition the B vitamins, potassium, and other nutrietns that are an obvious addition, their ingredient list also includes Sulforaphane (from broccoli extract), Epigallocatechin gallate (from green tea extract), and Mung bean powder.
They explained that they spent seven months working on the formulation, which required researching both the physiological effects of alcohol as well as ingredients that are already known to help combat those effects. Once they had their perfect concoction created they sent their ingredient list to professors at Yale and nutritionists to get their take on it. Then they partnered with a pharmaceutical manufacturer for even more advice.
They only needed the original goal of $20,000 for the pharmaceutical manufacturer to start producing the product, which they passed with leaps and bounds. They expect it to retail for $5 a serving, but donations made to the IndieGogo page will get you some of the stuff sent to your door before it’s available in stores.
It’s pretty obvious why some college students might like to come up with an awesome hangover cure, but they also mentioned the culture impact of hangovers at large. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention hangovers cost the U.S. over $200 billion each year. When you break that down by how much we drink, that comes to about $1.37 in costs for every single drink ordered. Yikes.
Anyone who’s experienced a hangover will know that they can be anywhere on the scale from slightly annoying to downright debilitating. And they tend to get worse as we get older. Time will tell if this newest hangover cure is the savior we’ve all been waiting for.
Tags: alcohol, alcohol intoxication, hangover, hangover cure, Health, Yale University
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