Would you like a pill that that could instantly sober you up no matter how much you’ve had to drink, or a hangover cure that worked minutes after taking it? We may get to find out soon. Researchers are about to begin human trials on an “alcohol antidote” that may soon offer a cure to alcoholism, reports New Scientist.
The drug is a chemical called dihydromyricetin, or DHM, and is derived from a Chinese variety of the oriental raisin tree, which has been used for at least 500 years in China as an effective hangover cure. So far the extract has only been tested on rats, but with promising results.
Rats took 70 minutes to get back on their feet after the equivalent of 15 to 20 beers, but with DHM it only took five minutes. Instead of cowering at a maze, like rats do with a hangover, with DHM they were back to being normally curious.
It could be an amazing boon to those fighting alcoholism if it works the same way in humans that it does in rats. Jing Liang, lead researcher in the study, gavey boozy rodents a choice of drinking a sweetened solution of alcohol or sweetened water. Over a period of three months with DHM treatment, rats drank only a quarter the amount of alcohol that rats given no treatment drank.
Some scientists worry that it would be a bad idea to have this kind of instant cure available. They worry that people would drink more if they didn’t have to suffer the consequences.
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