‘Synthetic alcohol’ may free the world from hangovers
Many of us know all too well the consequences associated with a big night of drinking. The headache, dry mouth, uneasy stomach and general feeling of self-pity.
No one looks forward to a hangover. In fact, people will try pretty much anything (except not ordering that extra round of shots) to avoid one.
Cures range from the obvious like drinking plenty of water and popping a couple of aspirin before bed to eating prickly pear cactus, throwing back some activated charcoal and having sex.
But navigating your way through the ever-growing list of miracle hangover cures may be a thing of the past, with the invention of a new synthetic alcohol that eliminates the risk of a hangover altogether.
Drugs scientist and Imperial College Professor, David Nutt has created the aptly named “alcosynth,” which is designed to mirror the effects of alcohol minus the throbbing headache.
According to The Times (paywall), Professor Nutt has plans to roll out alcosynth in over one hundred cocktail bars by 2020.
Over the decade, his team has been experimenting with approximately 80 different substances that imitate the way alcohol works on the brain but poses less of a health risk.
These different options have been reduced to just five, one of which will be submitted to Britain’s Food Standard’s Agency as a novel “food ingredient.”
“I’ve been working in this field since 2005 without any (commercial) success. So a couple of years ago I started working with business people who explained that I would have to get investors,” Professor Nutt told The Times.
“We formed this company to explore a range of alcohol alternatives. The current plan is development as a foodstuff. We would hope to take this through the FSA to conform with the levels of safety and toxicology criteria for a food ingredient.”
Professor Nutt and his team are trying to raise $11.8 million (£7 million) to fund the final round of safety checks to ensure that the product is fit for human consumption before it can be put forward to be sold to the public.
The reason you can go out and chug alcosynth all night without feeling like death the next day but you can’t do the same with margaritas is because of a compound called acetaldehyde.
This is the compound that is responsible for hangovers when it gets broken down in the liver but, unlike regular alcohol, alcosynth doesn’t cause a build up of acetaldehyde, meaning you get to skip the nasty hangover.
Professor Nutt has hopes that alcosynth will be able to replace all regular alcohol by 2050.
“It will be there alongside the scotch and the gin, they’ll dispense the alcosynth into your cocktail and then you’ll have the pleasure without damaging your liver and your heart,” he told The Independent.
“They go very nicely into mojitos. They even go into something as clear as a Tom Collins. One is pretty tasteless, the other has a bitter taste.”