I keep seeing commercials for something called “Chasers” which are apparently some sort of pill that you take before drinking to orevent hangovers.
Now, I don’t believe for a second that these things work but what exactly is being sold here and what does it do?
I haven’t seen a list of ingredients, but being sold OTC I would suspect it’s just a bunch of herbs and whatnot. I think it was Maxim a few months ago that tested these remedies and Chaser came in dead last.
FTR, they aren’t OTC drugs. They are dietary supplements and unlike drugs do not need to be tested for effectiveness and safety before being released for sale.
There are a number of products at this site with Chaser in the title. All have some form of calcium carbonate in them (limestone, essentially). It says that it absorbs harmful chemicals in alcoholic beverages which cause hangovers.
Uh huh, that’s great. :rolleyes:
I once saw a hangover cure in a 7-11. It was a packet of powder that mostly contained aspirin and Vitamin C. The instructions said to mix half of the packet in a 16 ounce glass of water and drink it before passing out and then do the same thing in the morning. I would guess that this is only marginally better than just drinking the water.
Haj
Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) and vitamin C (ascorbic acid) are (big surprise here) STRONGLY ACIDIC :eek: . When combined with the corrosive action of alcohol on the lining of the stomach this CANNOT be good. This would be worse than drinking water alone.
In actual fact, a hangover is most likely caused by an electrolyte imbalance, the result of the alcohol in any form (forget “whiskey on beer, all clear”), which turns off the (hold on here) “antidiuretic hormone”, encouraging the kidneys to excrete lots of water (“you don’t buy beer, you just rent it”). With the loss of water you also lose electrolytes (read: potassium and sodium) and this makes you feel REAL BAD. In addition, the corrosive effect of alcohol on the lining of the stomach can upset your stomach (read: puke).
If you must try something, consider an antacid and Gatorade. Some researchers recommend vitamin B tablets. I’m usually too miserable to find them.
I guess this means that you aren’t a friend of Bill W. , as Qadgop posted in a previous thread. 
Welcome aboard, DR.
You’ll be a welcome addition.
I’m sure everyone is different, but I’ll share my recent personal experience with these things:
BF and I went to a Blues and Brews Fest last weekend. We both took Chaser on Saturday (two doses each throughout the day). We both drank a LOT of beer (uh, like, over a 6 pack each, best guess). We both felt fine later, but I have to tell ya, we both had gas…LOL.
Sunday we were still at the festival and only had one dose of the stuff left. I told him to go ahead and finish the things. That night, I was sick as a dog. He felt fine. And both of us drank a lot…he drank more than I, though.
The opinion of these two human guinea pigs? Yes, we would buy the stuff again. But of course, YMMV.
Argh! I meant to type dietary supplement and OTC came out instead. :smack:
Cherry2000, I think it’s aimed at people drinking more than a 6 pack. Lots of Dopers won’t even feel a buzz after 6 beers. Especially if it’s at a daylong festival. hic
If you read the fine print for the Chaser’s ads, it says, essentially: “We don’t guarantee this works and none of our claims have been tested.” On their web page, they say,
The problem with the first sentence is that it’s hard to quantify what is meant by improvement, since it’s subjective. And a “statistically significant” difference can be a fairly small one. As for the second claim, you can get that sort of response with any patent medicine. Finally, it’s hard to believe in a scientific report that uses “double blinded” instead of “double blind,” the standard term.
I’m no expert on hangovers, since I’ve never had one. (Even the time I got completely blasted on Russian vodka, I woke up drunk, not hung over.) However, since a large part of the problem is dehydration, it makes sense to drink some noncaffeinated liquid (water or fruit juice) before going to bed to prevent that.
My wife tried those things a few weeks ago. Didn’t work for her. Of course, she was drunker than I had ever seen her (I don’t drink anymore due to medical problems)
When I was in college, I used to keep a two quart jar of water in my fridge, when I was drunk, I would down it before going to bed, refill it and put it back in the fridge. About 2 hours later, I would have to pee, so I would down it again, keep going all night. Never had a hangover.
Odinoneeye is right on – water is the magic bullet against hangovers.
When I first started learning to drink alcohol socially, I was prone to massive headaches the morning after a night of drinking. Eventually, through trial and error and a little bit of advice from a fitness magazine, I hit on the idea of taking a Centrum multivitamin and downing about a pint or two of water before I went out to drink. On top of that, while out for a night of drinking, I would begin alternating glasses of water with alcoholic drinks after about the first three or four drinks. When I returned from drinking, I took Maximum Strength Tylenol and another pint or so of water (note: the Tylenol would be ineffective if I didn’t drink enough water before and during drinking).
The Centrum provided Vitamin C, the B vitamins, and plenty of potassium and other minerals. How much of a difference the Centrum actually made, I don’t know – but the method above kept me hydrated, and invariably helped me avoid the dread hangover headache.
LOL…maybe I should clarify “6 pack”
…over a six pack of craft beers (some with alcohol contents pushing 12%) consumed at high altitude (about 10,000 feet) 
No cite, but I’ve heard that it’s bad for your liver to take Tylenol if you drink.
Not to hijack the thread too much, but …
I hadn’t heard anything about the Tylenol-liver damage connection back when I was a regular social drinker. Since then, I have heard that Tyenol somehow promotes liver damage all on its own – no alcohol required, from what I can gather.
However, I am unclear on the facts. For instance, was it one of those studies where they had to give rats immense doses of acetaminophen (aka Tylenol) to cause even the slightest hint of liver problems? The acetaminophen–liver damage link must presumably take into account dosage amounts, regularity of dosage, and overall length of time taking the drug. On top of that, the studies have to be repeated over and over, and come up with the same findings. How much is known and how much is suspected?
Still in all, one could perhaps take Advil or Motrin – I don’t think it would make a difference to the hangover-prevention method I used.
I should mention that the NIAA article is not specifically on acetaminophen and alcohol, but it does mention it somewhere in the middle, under enviromental factors.
Good link, bouv – I found the relevant passage on the NIAA site:
That leads me to believe that I was totally in the clear taking a single dose of Tylenol after a night of drinking. I wasn’t downing a handful of pills – thanks to hydrating thoughout the night, I wasn’t feeling bad when I got home from drinking. The Tylenol was taken as a preventative, and there was no impetus to overdose.
I won some “Chaser” off the radio a while back. I lost the things before I could use them, but I did read the instructions. They said to take two of the pills with 8 oz water before you started drinking; after every alcoholic drink have another 8 oz water; after every two alcoholic drinks have another pill with 8 oz water.
So, drink a metric assload of water, and you won’t be hung over. Duh. If the product does anything, I’d guess it just acts as a reminder to drink more water.