10 ms·
New gel breaks down alcohol in the body
- jjgreen 3y ago... convert alcohol in the intestine into harmless acetic acid before it enters the bloodstream. You could put it on your chips post-pub and eliminate the need for vinegar!
- tguvot 3y agopretty sure it's what zbiotics do
- striking 3y agoZbiotics targets acetaldehyde, not ethyl alcohol. From the article: > The gel shifts the breakdown of alcohol from the liver to the digestive tract. In contrast to when alcohol is metabolised in the liver, no harmful acetaldehyde is produced as an intermediate product,” explains Professor Raffaele Mezzenga from the Laboratory of Food & Soft Materials at ETH Zurich. Acetaldehyde is toxic and is responsible for many health problems caused by excessive alcohol consumption. Using this gel would manifest as simply not being as intoxicated, whereas Zbiotics is intended to allow for intoxication but prevent the hangover afterwards.
- tguvot 3y agoi meant conceptually even if mechanism of action is different.
- throwup238 3y ago> In the future, people who take the gel could reduce the harmful and intoxicating effects of alcohol. I understand harm reduction but what is the point of reducing the intoxicating effects of alcohol? What's the point?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- sva_ 3y agoYeah people who want that could just drink beer with a low alcohol content (so called "alcohol-free beer", which usually still has some 0.5%)
- colecut 3y agoTo drive home? =)
- zolbrek 3y agoI would love a supplement with that effect. It's not always fun having to slowly sober up while watching your friends drinking.
- alamortsubite 3y agoNon-alcoholic beer sales are close to $40B/year globally and going up. Generally speaking, the flavor of non-alcoholic beer pales in comparison to the real thing. Then there's also the market for wine and spirits.
- 2024throwaway 3y agoThere are some new, very good, NA beers on the market these days. Untitled Art and Athletic are two brands that are doing great work.
- ahahahahah 3y agoYes, those both make some good NA beers. I wouldn't categorize them as good beers, but they are drinkable.
- circlefavshape 3y agoSomething to sober you up if you're already drunk would be amazing, but I don't think this will do that
- aantix 3y agoSulforaphane. Take something like Broccomax - or eat lots of Brussels sprouts, and broccoli.
- BobbyTables2 3y agoI’d probably have to drink heavily before I could eat significant quantities of Brussels sprouts…
- petesergeant 3y agoBritish people combine both at Xmas
- satvikpendem 3y agoBrussel sprouts are quite good these days, because they've been genetically engineered over the past 30 years to be less bitter. They're not your parents' sprouts anymore (especially roasted for that Maillard reaction, not boiled as they would've likely done).
- tayo42 3y agoBrussel sprouts at restaurants are basically candy lol. Yeah they're roasted and crispy and cooked with bacon fat and usually some sweet sauce added lol.
- verall 3y agoMost restaurants deep fry them nowadays
- romafirst3 3y ago
- jawns 3y agoIf you're an alcoholic, and your body is physically dependent on alcohol consumption, would this allow you to satisfy your physical cravings without the deleterious effects normally associated with alcohol addiction? Kind of like how a nicotine patch helps satisfy the physical addiction?
- sandworm101 3y ago>> breaks down alcohol in the gastrointestinal tract without harming the body. Likely no. This stuff will destroy the alcohol before it enters the bloodstream. So it sounds useful to stop people absorbing more alcohol (pumping the stomach situations) but won't do much for alcohol already in the blood and causing effects in the body.
- gus_massa 3y agoWoudn't people just consume more alcohol to compensate the one destroyed by this invention? My guess is that some persons drink until they are drunk, not until they took N glasses of drinks.
- sctb 3y agoThat's exactly what benzodiazepines are for, but only for short-term taper protocols as the dependence/withdrawal profile over the long term is worse than alcohol. Medium-term can be covered by gabapentin.
- readthenotes1 3y agoI know an alcoholic who was also addicted to gabapentin. It didn't reduce his alcoholism, and even when he tried to stop drinking, he would get stoned on the gabapentin (and was largely unaware of his diminished state)
- fragmede 3y agoHow did ozempic treat him?
- ginko 3y agoI wonder how that would affect the calories of the alcohol. Apparently the ethanol gets broken down into acetic acid, which I believe can't be digested further? Does that mean you also wouldn't gain weight when drinking dry beer or wine? EDIT: Apparently acetic acid _does_ have calories. Didn't know that.
- mft_ 3y agoInteresting question! From this article[0] it seems ~60% of the calories in lager come from the alcohol - presumably ~40% come from carbohydrates. And from Google, acetic acid is 349 kcal / 100g, versus pure ethanol at 700 kcal / 100g. So if this approach converted 100% of alcohol to acetic acid, you'd drop the calories from lager by ~30% overall. To your question, dry wine or lower-carb beer would be proportionally even better. The flip-side of this is perhaps consumption of too much acetic acid! It's impossible to calculate potential toxicity without understanding the strength of the acetic acid generated, though. [0] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331119759_Nutritional_composition_and_energy_value_of_different_types_of_beer_and_cider https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331119759_Nutrition...
- Tade0 3y ago> And from Google, acetic acid is 349 kcal / 100g, versus pure ethanol at 700 kcal / 100g. Metabolism matters. Gasoline is over 800kcal/100g, but you wouldn't get that much from it (if anything at all). Alcohol has a particularly long metabolic pathway, which after ingesting approximately 20-30g gets cut short to one where acetic acid is excreted (commonly known as "breaking the seal") and the overall upper energy yield limit becomes approximately 110kcal/100g. Executive summary is that on a given session it's the first two 12oz (330ml) beers which provide most of the calories from alcohol and their contribution is on par with a snickers bar.
- grujicd 3y ago> Apparently acetic acid _does_ have calories. Didn't know that. Calories are measured by burning the substance. While it very precisely determines contained energy in the physics sense, it's a question whether all that energy is used by digestion? Especially if it's something the body treats as a toxin and wants to remove as soon as possible?
- gwbas1c 3y agoI honestly don't "get" why someone would use this? It doesn't reverse intoxication, and it doesn't prevent alcohol from entering the bloodstream. I get that alcoholic drinks taste better than their non-alcoholic counterparts (frozen margaritas are so much better than slush puppies,) but this won't prevent the buzz / intoxication.
- jonwinstanley 3y agoAgreed, something that can sober you up or reduce hangovers would be incredible.
- Tepix 3y agoJust one example: Closing a business deal in China or Japan might require you to drink a lot of alcohol.
- aeturnum 3y agoDepending on the time of action it could be very useful in addressing the "lag" in alcohol hitting your system. If someone is drinking heavily, they regularly reach an uncomfortable level of intoxication before all the alcohol in their stomach has been absorbed. This could help folks in that situation.
- teekert 3y ago[flagged]
- shepherdjerred 3y agoHave you ever struggled with addiction (food, drink, drugs, media, games, sleep, porn etc.)? I can't provide a study, but anecdotally I suspect nearly everyone does. > Show some discipline and restraint This is such unhelpful, unsympathetic advice.
- try_the_bass 3y ago> This is such unhelpful, unsympathetic advice. I think writing this advice off as unhelpful is actually more harmful than offering it in the first place. I think this is very real and very helpful advice. Is it hard to follow? Speaking from experience: absolutely. Self-control is like a muscle: exercise it frequently, and it gets stronger. It also gets tired and needs rest, and it atrophies with disuse. And like exercise, it's almost always beneficial. Even folks with physical disabilities see very real benefits from exercise, even when it's hard and painful! I used to live next door to a man who walked with a cane and very obviously struggled to go up and down stairs... And yet any time I would offer him help, he would refuse, because he knew the effort would keep him as mobile and active as he could be, given his circumstances--and do accept that help would actually harm him in the long run by accelerating the decline in his abilities. I doubt I would have his level of discipline were I in his situation, and to this day I envy that of him. I think going so far as to say "telling someone to exercise self-control is unhelpful/unsympathetic" is exactly analogous to telling someone exercise is harmful. Not "too much exercise is harmful", but "any exercise is harmful", which is obviously untrue. I'll be the first to acknowledge that humans are innately lazy, and that exercise is hard/boring/inconvenient/whatever. However, we do no one justice by giving them reasons to excuse that laziness. Justifying a lack of internal effort/ability should be and explanation of last resort, not the baseline. Put differently: very few people are physically incapable of doing a pushup (or whatever other basic exercise you want to reference) due to actual physical limitations. Most who cannot simply haven't put in the work to reach the point where they can. [E] This turned out longer than I anticipated. It turns out I feel strongly about this, and feel like this is one of the most toxic aspects of the society I feel like I inhabit. People should be encouraged to push their abilities, not given excuses not to. It's all too easy to accept those excuses as truth, and this prevents us all from reaching our highest potential. This feels like a net harm to society and a driver of very real inequality
- jebarker 3y agoI honestly wonder whether people would drink alcohol if there weren't intoxicating effects. What I mean is, does anyone really believe that alcohol is pleasant to drink or is that purely a trick of the mind/body to get you to satisfy the craving?
- shepherdjerred 3y agoPlenty of people drink alcohol in moderation, e.g. only having 1-2 drinks at a social event, pairing a while for dinner, trying a new cocktail, etc.
- jebarker 3y agoSure, but maybe it's a really powerful drug that has a small effective dose for some people?
- shepherdjerred 3y agoI have known some people to have an absurdly low tolerance (or at least act drunk after two standard drinks), but I don't think it's that common. I do have plenty of friends who drink in moderation simply because they enjoy the taste of beer/wine and almost never get drunk (they might drink enough to be drunk once a year). I think the comparison is most understandable when you compare alcohol to caffeine. Some people drink coffee for the sake of the caffeine, but some also just genuinely enjoy the taste/social aspect (hence why decaf exists).
- khazhoux 3y agoDon't know how common it is, but my tolerance is super low. Even a single sip of wine, and I'll start to feel pressure in temples. One full glass and my head movement -> visual perception latency will be noticeable, and my words will start a bit getting in the order wrong. That one glass will also hit me like a sleeping pill within an hour. And if it's beer or red wine, I'll enjoy itchy arms, chest, and legs for a couple of hours. So partially a reaction to alcohol (the sleepiness for sure) and partially an allergic reaction to tannins/hops/etc. I love a riesling or a mint mojito, but I keep to probably one drink every few months... and then regret it all over again. On the other hand, there's so many alcoholics in my extended family and my best friends growing up, that I consider my body's rejection of alcohol to be a strong contributor to me being successful in life and work.
- adfm 3y agoJim Koch, founder and brewer of Sam Adams, says that he mixes a teaspoon of bakers yeast (not sure which) and yogurt to break down the alcohol before it hits the bloodstream and has been doing it for years if not decades. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/07/10/327854051/alcohol-test-does-eating-yeast-keep-you-from-getting-drunk https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/07/10/327854051/al...
- pavel_lishin 3y agoDoesn't yeast produce alcohol? edit: ah, I read TFA: > "Yeast can degrade ethanol," says microbiologist Benjamin Tu of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. "But they love other sugars — glucose, maltose — more. When those sugars are around, the cells turn off the genes needed for alcohol degradation."
- joshuahaglund 3y agoOne guy says it works. The rest of the article is about a small experiment that showed otherwise. Then it quotes experts who explain why it doesn't work and called it an urban legend.
- adfm 3y agoYou are correct!
- somesortofthing 3y agoHypothetically, if the yeast could work fast enough(I'm 99% sure it can't unless he's leaving the mixture in a sealed container for a few months before drinking it) wouldn't this result in straight vinegar
- Bognar 3y agoI heard a different variant of this, which is that Jim Koch the brewer at Sam Adams is a functioning alcoholic who drinks a lot throughout the day. The yogurt and yeast is an unrelated thing that he claims to work.
- patall 3y agoReminds me of Ro15-4513, an antagonist of alcohol that stop (some of) the symptoms of intoxication. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ro15-4513 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ro15-4513
- James_K 3y agoAlcohol-free drinks already exist. They're a much easier sell than alcoholic drinks + some weird gel.
- _djo_ 3y agoMaybe, but so what? If this enables people to have a few drinks after work in the evening and be fully sober for work the next day, I’m all for it. Also, anything that can rapidly break down alcohol in the body will help as a medical treatment for alcohol overdoses.
- James_K 3y agoYou can have a few drinks and not get drunk because the alcohol is broken down before it reaches your blood. In other words you can have a couple of alcahol-free drinks where the alcahol is removed from your stomach by strange gel product.
- hi-v-rocknroll 3y agoThis seems to be useful for people who are either allergic to alcohol or who are trying to keep up or competitively pressure others into intoxication. Otherwise, it would be wiser to just avoid EtOH that has no safe lower intake threshold and is conspicuously expensive.
- James_K 3y agoI don't think this would help anyone with an alcahol allergy, since you are still consuming alcahol.
- qwerty456127 3y agoAlcohol-free beer can be fairly good but all the rest of alcohol-free drinks are too different in taste from their alcoholic originals.
- chefandy 3y agoYes: I also think we must vocally, expressly reject anything that I don't find to be completely necessary. Other use cases == doing it wrong.
- hi-v-rocknroll 3y agoSpy and drink competition ringer toolkit. Back it up with ~25 year old hangover prophylaxis (2 before + 2 with ea drink) https://www.ru21.com/ https://www.ru21.com/.
- BobaFloutist 3y agoHoly shit, four aspirins with every drink? How much do you hate your liver?
- hi-v-rocknroll 3y agoIt's not aspirin. That would be toxic and fucking stupid. It's a mix of vitamins and amino acids.
- 4ggr0 3y agoThe active ingredients in RU-21 are 250mg Aspirin and 50mg Caffeine... https://www.ru21.com/cdn/shop/products/StudioSession-571_480x480.jpg?v=1612485678 https://www.ru21.com/cdn/shop/products/StudioSession-571_480...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- binary132 3y agoSounds like a good way to save someone from severe alcohol poisoning. Not sure I see much of a point otherwise, tbh.
- jszymborski 3y agoSome folks, like myself, love the taste of a peaty whiskey, but have bodies that don't agree with alcohol.
- notnmeyer 3y agohrm, smoke peat cigarettes instead?
- test6554 3y agoI can’t stand the taste of any alcohol. I literally only consume it for one reason. The intoxicating effect. I get enough to get the job done then stop. So this gel seems like drinking less booze with extra steps. I do see a use for women and undercover cops though. Or to make people think you are drunker than you are.
- dullcrisp 3y agoBecause everyone who isn’t you is a woman or an undercover cop?
- SOLAR_FIELDS 3y agoThey already noted in the article that once it’s passed into your bloodstream this approach is useless. I see it more like being a better form of naltrexone, someone takes it before going on a night out and saves themselves a nasty hangover while getting to party. I’ve always disliked the lack of availability of low alcohol beers in the States (1-2%) and this could be a decent solution for that. As is the easiest thing to do for moderation when going out in the States for me is to do the One On One Off where you alternate between one moderate alcohol drink and one NA drink. It would be more ideal to just pop a pill right before I go out that lets me tailor the level of absorption exactly as I want it.
- rootedbox 3y agomix it with your syrup for a real hangover helper pancake.
- qwerty456127 3y agoAs an alcohol-hating wine-lover I can't wait to get this product. Hopefully something similar is going to be invented to break down sugar as well.
- stockboss 3y agowhat for? sugar is already broken down in your body into glucose to be absorbed. there are already enzymes you can take to help break it down faster, but it's all going to be absorbed regardless. perhaps what you really want is something to block glucose absorption?
- Jensson 3y agoYou could invent resistant bacteria that eats all the sugar in your stomach. There are already such but they are lethal if you don't do much about them, but maybe it is possible to make nice versions of them that just eats sugar and don't kill you by eating everything.
- jajko 3y ago[flagged]
- misja111 3y agoEhm, we humans need a certain amount of blood sugar to survive. Having such a resistant bacteria living in my stomach seems a terrible idea ..
- qwerty456127 3y agoSure, humans need a certain amount of blood sugar but don't need any amount of dietary sugar.
- SCAQTony 3y agoWith great advantage comes equal disadvantage, I wonder what the side effects are?
- rldjbpin 3y agoi wonder if it is also effective against methanol to help those who consumed denatured alcohol.
- Myrmornis 3y agoI've always been slightly surprised that there have been no breakthroughs on ways to sober up, and especially on ways to feel less of the effects the next day. Yes it would be a worthy thing for society, but also, whoever achieves it would make vast amounts of money.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- more_corn 3y agoAnything you can do with a magic chemical you can do with preparation. Here’s a mind-blowing option. Stop drinking and then you don’t have to deal with: The fact that it’s killing you. The fact that you might kill somebody else while driving. The latest science says the safe number of drinks might be one. Per week. If you’re not keeping it to that you’re harming your health. (And if you’re keeping it to one per week there’s no need to break it down in the body) just keep it out of there to begin with.