Famed hangover cures are as old as drinking (give or take a few hours). What’s new is the aggressive marketing of them. And the authorities are not pleased by the development.
The Food and Drug Administration wants you to avoid heavy boozing altogether, but if you have a lapse in judgment (or plan to later tonight), don’t trust the folks promising you a miracle cure in the morning. The companies peddling Happy Hour Vitamins and Hangover Heaven’s Nightlife Prep Supplement (its IV hydration treatments, which are basically post-party outpatient procedures, have also been compromised) were threatened with FDA warning letters last week.
Seven companies recently received such letters for marketing and selling unapproved dietary supplements claiming to “cure, treat, mitigate or prevent hangovers,” a violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. In other words, the supplements were pretending to be bona fide drugs, much like Michelob Ultra pretends to be beer. The agency has required each company to respond within 15 working days with details about correcting violations or face potential legal action.
Now, it doesn’t loudly market them as such, but the FDA does acknowledge some over-the-counter foods and drugs that offer relief for “overindulgence in alcohol.” Those include acetaminophen, aspirin, caffeine, and some other -ides and -ates not too easily pronounced.
The agency doesn’t recommend those remedies because it would really rather you not drink. It was unambiguous in its press statement about the letters, saying (emphasis added), “Dietary supplements that claim to cure, treat, mitigate, or prevent hangovers could potentially harm consumers, particularly young adults, who may be led to believe that using these products, rather than drinking in moderation or not at all, can prevent or mitigate health problems caused by consuming too much alcohol.”
Since hangover cures have gone from folk recipes cooked up by your roommate to who-knows-what sold by capitalists, it seems fitting that the job of telling you not to drink too hard has shifted from your mother and father to the FDA.
