Can it be? Is it possible that in my lifetime we may see a pill that will cure us of the inevitable hangover? The answer is…maybe. But I will take a maybe over a no any day of the week. For as long as we have enjoyed mass quantities of alcohol there have been hangovers. For me, it is a crap shoot. As soon as I open my eyes in the morning I know exactly how much my day is going to suck. If I wake up early enough, a couple Excedrin’s and a tall glass of water followed by about another hour of sleep will cure me. Other people aren’t so lucky. Take contributor Zwilly. He gets hangovers worse than anyone else I have ever seen. The dude will literally be horizontal until about 6 or 7 the next night. I also know a smokeface in South Cakalaki that has yet to have any type of hangover. I have seen this babe absolutely bombed and she is the first one up with absolutely no hangover. She really is a scientific miracle, but what would the dangers be if there were no hangovers for anyone? I always propose the question, usually when inebriated, “what if beer tasted like Coca-Cola?” and there were no hangovers? It would probably lead to a lot more alcohol related deaths and accidents. If there wasn’t any side effects from drinking, aside from that heffer you took home, then I think people would drink a lot more and do it more frequently.
Neuroscientists at the University of South Hampton have isolated a molecule in the brain responsible for the terrible morning after a night of boozing. The molecule they have isolated is a neuropeptide, a brain-signaling device that triggers withdrawal symptoms in the body as the brain attempts to adapt to different intoxication levels. Lindy Holden-Dye, a scientist who led the research team at the University’s School of Biological Sciences says this “enables us to define how alcohol affects signaling in nerve circuits which leads to changes in behavior”. They learned of this molecule after studying the brains of worms, which have a very similar make up to that of the humans. The worms were fed a diet of alcohol for a extended periods and then cut off. The result was withdrawal symptoms that mimic that of a hangover.
By getting these worms hammered these scientists have found what is responsible for a hangover, aside from the alcohol. With more studying of the human brain, they may actually be able to make a pill that will be able to make the molecule unresponsive which will lead to less of or no hangover. This is great for people that have a couple of casual drinks and wake up feeling like crap and it will also be bought by the crate by college students. So perhaps soon we will no longer will we need our quick fixes or antidotes to dodge the midgets with hammers in our heads. No longer will I need to get some “orange drink” from McDonalds to cure the brew flu the next morning (although I still will because let’s be honest, McDonald’s orange drink can cure cancer). We are standing at the threshold of the future ladies and germs and this has the potential to revolutionize the way we consume alcohol. Whether or not that is a good thing is an entirely different experiment though.
Source: Las Vegas Examiner
