Everyone knows that an effective anti-hangover strategy is moderation. This posting is about the next part of the story. Text below sent recently to several journalists in my region. (Professors Lipton and Deis, who also contribute here, are among the scientists I alluded to.)
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Esteemed Bay Area food/drink editors:
Should you be planning an annual New Year's Eve "hangover-cure" or "hangover-prevention" story, you could add reader interest, and stand out from the pack, by giving this information to the writer.
1. Along with the inevitable colorful, mutually contradictory folk advice, please research and mention the two substances reported to substantially aid liver detoxification: water, and milk thistle seed extract. The latter is inexpensive as a dietary supplement, more expensive as the active ingredient in commercial "hangover remedies."
2. Before suggesting specifically acetaminophen, a.k.a. Tylenol (tm) for this purpose, please Google the word combination acetaminophen+alcohol and check results. Each separately can cause liver damage; acetaminophen carries manufacturer's danger warnings with alcohol use. (Example quotation from UC-Davis site: "Taking acetaminophen after a weekend drinking binge can prove fatal. The amount of alcohol and acetaminophen necessary for this toxic reaction varies from person to person, and thus, unfortunately, it is not possible to give guidelines for safe alcohol ingestion with acetaminophen use.")
(I've no professional connection with any of this, but along with some scientist friends around the US, have raised such points annually on Internet food-drink discussions. Not everyone knows about them.)