You might well think that it sounds too good to be true – a pill that means you can enjoy alcohol without suffering any harmful side-effects.
But scientists are one step closer to developing this very thing, with a gel that, swallowed 30 minutes before your first drink, stops you getting drunk or suffering alcohol-related damage to the liver and other organs.
The gel, which has so far only been tested in animals, works by breaking down alcohol into a harmless liquid as it passes through the gastrointestinal tract.
When we drink alcohol, it is absorbed by the mucous membrane that lines the stomach and intestine. It then passes into the bloodstream, which carries it around the body, including to the brain, liver and kidneys.
Acetaldehyde contributes to many of the symptoms of a hangover, such as headaches, dehydration and fatigue
Within five to ten minutes, it starts to affect the brain – stimulating the release of ‘feel-good’ hormones dopamine and serotonin.
But as we drink more, the alcohol starts to suppress the central nervous system, affecting speech, vision and coordination.
As the body – mainly the liver – metabolises the alcohol, it converts the ethanol in it into another form of alcohol called acetaldehyde.
It’s the acetaldehyde that contributes to many of the symptoms of a hangover, such as headache, dehydration and fatigue, before it then eventually gets converted into yet another liquid, called acetic acid.
Acetic acid is colourless and harmless and gets flushed out through the kidneys as urine.
A new gel (not pictured) sits in the stomach and absorbs the alcohol before it can enter the bloodstream
The new gel, developed by researchers at ETH University in Zurich, Switzerland, sits in the stomach and absorbs the alcohol before it can enter the bloodstream, cleverly converting it into benign acetic acid. The acetic acid then passes through the stomach or intestine and into our circulation.
Stripped of its toxic ingredients, the alcohol produces neither the ‘highs’ we get from a few drinks nor the dreaded hangover.
Scientists mixed together three ingredients – iron, glucose and gold – which they found can trigger a reaction in the gut that quickly breaks down the alcohol and makes it into acetic acid.
This mixture was added to a gel made from whey – a kind of protein found in cow’s milk that is broken down very slowly in the gut (which means you can have it up to 30 minutes before alcohol). The team then tested the gel on eight mice that were fed small pieces of the gel and then given alcohol 20 minutes later.
The results, published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, showed that the blood alcohol level of gel-fed mice was almost half that of the other group.
Six hours later, all the mice underwent tests to find their way out of a maze. Those that had had the gel found the exit much faster.
Crucially, tests also showed the high amounts of alcohol appeared to have no effects on the liver in the gel group, while in the other group their livers showed signs of inflammation.
The team has applied for a patent for the gel and hopes to soon test it in humans.
But if the gel stops not only the ‘pain’ from alcohol but all pleasure, too, what’s the real benefit?
‘The obvious alternative is just to drink less or not at all,’ says David Nutt, a professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London.
‘The gel might be of some help to those who are unable to cut back on alcohol, as it might be able to reduce intoxication and alcohol-related damage,’ he says.
‘But for everyone else it doesn’t make economic sense, as there would be the cost of the gel plus paying for the “wasted” alcohol.
‘Similar alcohol-cancelling products have been tried in the past without great success,’ he says. One of the most recent, launched in 2022, was a probiotic (made from gut-friendly bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus coagulans) called Myrkl, marketed as a ‘pre-drinking pill’ by the Swedish firm of the same name. The pill has to be taken at least an hour before drinking.
The manufacturer claims just two tablets, which cost £1 each, can reduce the amount of alcohol that actually gets into the bloodstream by about 70 per cent, instead breaking it down into harmless water and carbon dioxide that gets flushed out of the body via the kidneys.
But the evidence supporting the efficacy of Myrkl is limited, with just one study on humans, published in 2022 in the journal Nutrition and Metabolic Insights.
Researchers at Pfutzner Science and Health Institute in Mainz, Germany, gave the probiotic tablet to 24 healthy young people before giving them alcohol.
The results showed that blood alcohol levels in the probiotic group were 70 per cent lower than in those given a dummy pill.
But could the weight-loss drug Wegovy reduce people’s appetite for drink in the first place?
Several animal studies have shown Wegovy curbs the tendency towards binge-drinking, although it’s not currently licensed for this use. It is thought the drug works in a similar way as for obesity – dampening down the ‘reward’ hit the brain gets when alcohol is consumed, so reducing the urge to keep drinking.
Earlier this year, Novo Nordisk – the Danish company which makes Wegovy – announced it is planning a study to see if the drug could prevent alcohol-induced liver damage by reducing the amount that people drink.
