Posted on: Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Hung over? Try taking a little cactus next time

By Rita Rubin
USA Today

Imbibe too much? Hair of the dog may only make you feel worse. Try skin of prickly pear cactus instead.

A study out yesterday found that an extract from the hardy plant, an extract found in a few dietary supplements, can lessen some hangover symptoms.

The best hangover prevention is abstinence, but the problem is so pervasive — three of four drinkers have at least one hangover a year — that reducing harm would be worthwhile, the authors write. Between sick days and lower productivity, "there's substantial economic loss that goes with the alcohol hangover," says lead author Jeff Wiese, an internist at Tulane Health Sciences Center.

For the study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Wiese's team recruited 64 healthy medical students, ages 21-35, who'd had at least one hangover previously. The students were randomly assigned to get either two capsules of the prickly pear extract or two dummy capsules. Three hours later, at 6 p.m., they chowed down on a cheeseburger, fries and a soda.

A simulated party ran from 8 p.m. to midnight. Participants picked one type of liquor to drink during the party and ended up downing five to 10 drinks each. They also drank as many non-alcoholic beverages as they liked.

Besides drinking, they spent the evening dancing and chatting (previous research suggests that people who drink too much might dance too vigorously, adding to their pain).

At 1 a.m., scientists measured participants' blood alcohol and sent them home by limousine. At 10 a.m. the next day, they returned for their hangovers to be assessed.

Two weeks later, the process was repeated, except this time the placebo group received the prickly pear extract and vice versa. The volunteers drank the same liquor as previously and were not allowed to consume more than they had the first time.

The extract reduced three of nine hangover symptoms — nausea, dry mouth and loss of appetite — and halved the risk of a severe hangover. Wiese speculates that the extract works by gearing up cells' production of heat shock proteins, which in turn reduces inflammation associated with a hangover.

The study received support from Perfect Equation, a maker of products with the extract.