Do hangover supplements work?

Small wonder, then, that a cottage industry of supplements exists to help people avoid the experience. With brand names such as DrinkDefendly, Myrkl and de-liver-ance, they promise a world of consequence-free drinking. Many of the products are advertised on social media, sold directly to consumers and manufactured by unknown companies with little public profile. Although there is some evidence they may work, says David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London, more robust studies are needed before any can be recommended.

Hangovers are complicated. Some symptoms, including fatigue, are brought on by the negative effects alcohol has on sleep. Others, such as headaches and dry mouths, are made worse by the dehydration that results from alcohol’s suppression of vasopressin, a hormone that regulates kidney function.

But many of the more severe consequences are caused by the toxic effects of the drink itself. Whether you imbibe grape or grain, aged or fresh, neat or mixed, you will mainly experience the intoxication of ethanol. And although the human body is capable of metabolising the stuff, it does so in a slow and uncomfortable manner. First, an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) breaks down the compound into acetaldehyde, which can dilate blood vessels in the head, producing headaches, and irritate the lining of the stomach, leading to nausea. These pass when another enzyme, acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), in turn breaks acetaldehyde down into less harmful chemicals.

Most hangover supplements, therefore, claim to help ADH and ALDH do their jobs a little faster. DrinkDefendly, for instance, contains dihydromyricetin, a plant extract that is supposed to boost the activity of ADH. Supporting evidence is pretty thin: a review paper published in Addiction, a journal, in 2022 reported that dihydromyricetin produced a statistically significant reduction in hangover severity, but a different study showed no meaningful effect on ethanol metabolism.

Pre-Alcohol, another supplement, tries something else. Made by ZBiotics, an American startup, it contains a strain of beneficial bacteria that has been genetically engineered to produce ALDH. If allowed to settle in the lower gut, the idea is that it could help break down acetaldehyde and limit some of a hangover’s unpleasant digestive symptoms. Although research conducted by ZBiotics and published in PLoS One in 2024 showed the bacteria performing well in simulated gut conditions, real-world evidence is lacking.

Even if further trials justify the marketing claims, such supplements can do only so much. Structurally similar chemicals, collectively known as congeners, are also present in alcoholic drinks in small amounts, and may have their own harmful effects. When methanol breaks down, for example, formaldehyde and formic acid are produced—even tiny quantities of which cause systemic poisoning, adding to the unpleasantness of a hangover. For a headache-free route to being headache-free, you might have to drink a little less.