Today we have a drug to treat everything from cancer to Alzheimer’s, erectile dysfunction and constipation.
But there is one illness that millions of people suffer from every weekend and that has so far escaped science: the dreaded hangover.
However, wellness companies have developed a number of remedies for this, including patches, pills, and even homemade IV cocktails. One of them, Safety Shot, claims to cure your hangover before the night of partying is over.
Safety Shot, a blend of B vitamins, caffeine and salt, is a drink that, when launched last year, promised to be the “first” proven remedy for reducing blood alcohol content within half an hour by breaking down the alcohol before it reaches the gut.
At $19.99 for four cans, it sold out on the day it was released and the company’s stock rose 85 percent in a month.
EVE SIMMONS: I tried Safety Shot both the night I drank it and the morning after.
Earlier this week, Safety Shot announced that this claim was backed up in a clinical trial, with participants reporting they were less fatigued, had more energy, and were able to focus better after just a few minutes of drinking it.
However, the study is not publicly available, so it is unclear whether it had many limitations. This made two journalists skeptical, so they put the remedy to the test to see if it could prevent hangovers.
Eve Simmons, Health Editor
Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m a cheap girl. Two drinks are enough to make me laugh.
After one bottle, it’s not uncommon for me to crash, and the next day I’m totally lost.
According to the Safety Shot website, the ingredients are effective both during the night of drinking and the next morning, so I did both.
For the first part of my experiment, I tested the drink with a bottle of Chablis.
Eve tried a number of supplements to combat her hangover, including an IV that made her feel more alert, but it did nothing to relieve her dry mouth, headache and nausea.
Halfway through, I realized I didn’t feel like checking my work emails (usually the first sign I’m drunk). My tongue was loose and my voice a little higher than usual.
I opened the can and oh my god it tasted disgusting.
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of taking vitamin B12 pills (not capsules), it’s a bit like eating three at once.
I didn’t notice much of a difference. And remembering to drink that metallic concoction between glasses of wine was quite a challenge (think the old “glass of water with every drink” method on steroids).
Still, I managed to drink about a quarter of a can, which apparently wasn’t enough to get back on track.
Then there’s the hangover. I woke up feeling a little less bad than expected.
But that could have been the liter of water I drank after waking up at 4 a.m. with an unquenchable thirst.
I sat up in bed and took another disgusting swig of Safety Shot. That’s when I decided to get up and, for some reason, grab a pair of hand weights from under my bed at 7am.
This unexpected burst of energy likely came from the drink’s 200 milligrams of caffeine — more than two cups of coffee and half the FDA’s recommended limit.
It kept me afloat for most of the morning and gave me energy for three hours of Christmas shopping in crowded downtown Brooklyn.
But then, at 5pm, I had a terrible breakdown. I walked in the door, collapsed on the couch, and only moved to find the man delivering my shawarma at the front door.
I also had a strange side effect from the caffeine that I wasn’t expecting: my heart was beating unusually fast. Or so it seemed.
While it might explain the early morning weightlifting session, it’s unlikely to have made any difference to the alcohol in my blood the night before.
Dr George Dawson, former president of the Minnesota Psychiatric Society and an addiction expert, told DailyMail.com: “Caffeine has been specifically discredited in a toxicology text as a way to reverse the acute effects of alcohol.”
In fact, he says, “none” of the drink’s ingredients have been shown to increase alcohol metabolism or reduce the impact of hangovers in high-quality clinical trials.
Dr. Dawson also highlighted the presence of two other little-known ingredients that could partly explain my pounding heart.
Theobromine, which is used to produce caffeine, and synephrine, which is extracted from the peel of bitter oranges, are also known to cause palpitations.
The former is typically found in cocoa beans, while the latter is naturally present in the peel of bitter oranges and other citrus fruits.
If it worked for other people in the trial, great for them. But after trying other methods like hangover patches, IV drips, and Liquid IV packs, I don’t think there is a quick cure for a hangover, unless you drink heavily most days of the week, which I also don’t recommend.
Emily Joshu, health reporter
I’m not one to drink entire bottles of wine, but on the rare occasions I do, it never ends well.
It only takes a couple of beers or glasses of wine for me to trip over my own feet, but I like to think I’m pretty good at staying hydrated and avoiding hangovers.
I’m that friend who throws water in her friends’ faces between drinks (even at my own bachelorette party) to avoid being totally useless the next day.
But I decided that if I was really going to put the Safety Shot to the test, I would have to play a game of Hangover Roulette.
With two cans of the drink in my bag, I hired one of my best friends to witness my fall firsthand.
I met her at one of our neighborhood hangouts, where we each ordered a fruit cocktail with a long list of ingredients I paid no attention to and the restaurant’s “Girls’ Dinner” special: Caesar salad, fries, and boneless chicken wings.
After drinking each cocktail and an ice-cold cup of Miller High Life, I could feel my cheeks warming slightly as it became a little harder for me to get up.
But I didn’t feel drunk enough to open the Safety Shot, so we decided to go somewhere else.
Since my friend’s husband was out of town, we decided to head over to his apartment to hang out with his pup and pick up two bottles of wine on the way.
That’s when things started to go downhill. I opened one of the bottles and curled up on the couch with the dog. As the contents of the bottle quickly ran out, I could hear my voice slurring slightly.
I took a sip of the Safety Shot, which was a mistake. The orange liquid was so bitter that it felt like drinking slightly expired orange juice that had been sitting out in the sun.
My friend also took a sip and immediately made a “wow, that was awful” face.
For some reason, we decided now was a good time to watch the movie Saltburn.
I’m not sure how much I would have understood what was happening sober, but after what was at that point an indefinite amount of alcohol, I was completely lost.
My friend’s dog, Millie, was a faithful drinking companion, but that’s when things started to go wrong.
I forced myself to drink more Safety Shot. I didn’t feel any less drunk, by any means, but the caffeine took effect in my system quickly. I’m pretty sure at one point I said out loud, “I feel like I’m vibrating.”
Although I am a regular coffee drinker, I may have felt this effect more than other people who drink Safety Shot.
I have a very mild heart condition called inappropriate sinus tachycardia (ISS), where my heart can beat faster than normal for no good reason.
In my case, my heart rate can skyrocket and I can get out of breath from something as minor as a hot shower or walking up a flight of stairs.
Caffeine doesn’t usually trigger my symptoms, but after drinking about a quarter of a can, my heart was pounding and my hands were shaking. I grabbed my phone and awkwardly typed “drunk but fast” into my Notes app.
I staggered home and left the second can of Safety Shot in my friend’s fridge, where I’m pretty sure it still is. I fell asleep quickly, but as always happens when I drink a lot, I woke up every few hours tossing and turning, alternating between hot and cold drinks.
When I finally got out of bed around 9am, my head was hurting just above my right eye, as if an ice pick had been stuck in my brain. My whole body ached and I could barely sit up without feeling nauseous.
I didn’t try to drink any more Safety Shot, as the first can had clearly made no difference to the drunkenness or hangover.
The same friend from the night before brought me a McDonald’s hash brown and an iced coffee, and I spent the day lying on the couch, moving only to make some soup.
Next time I think I’ll just stick to water and a greasy plate of bacon, egg and cheese the next morning.