World's First 'Pre-Drinking Pill' Claims To Stop Alcohol Hangovers & Here's What We Know
They say it's a "game-changer."
Women cheers at a bachelorette party. Right: A hungover woman.
What if you could enjoy a boozy night out with your friends and then wake up chipper and ready for brunch the next morning, without paying the price of a hangover?
A new "pre-drinking pill" called Myrkl promises to help make that dream a reality by breaking down the alcohol in your system over the course of a night of drinking. The pill supposedly spares you from the alcohol remnants that give you a hangover in the first place, allowing you to carry on headache-free the next day.
Makers of the new Myrkl pill say it's the world's first effective hangover prevention supplement. And at a cost of just £1 (about CA$1.50) per pill, it's not that expensive to give it a try.
According to Myrkl, all you have to do is take two pills at least an hour before drinking. Once you've taken them, the pills use a few types of bacteria to break down the alcohol in your gut so that your liver doesn't have to do it for you.
Myrkl claims that the pill can zap up to 70% of the alcohol in your body after 60 minutes, transforming it into harmless water and carbon dioxide.
But the big question is: does it actually work?
The Swedish company behind Myrkl claims the pill has been "independently clinically tested," although the only clinical trial it cites is one funded by its parent company involving 24 people.
For comparison's sake, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration needs to see three rounds of trials before it'll approve any drug, and that typically means data from over 1,000 people.
However, Myrkl is marketing itself as a supplement and selling only in Europe at this point, so it hasn't even tried to jump through those FDA hoops. They say the pill will be available to buy in Canada and the U.S. by the end of the year.
The Telegraph reports that British pharmacies are refusing to stock it, so the only way to get it is to buy a bottle of 30 pills online.
Myrkl says a Swedish scientist invented the concept in 1990 and that it's been "perfected over 30 years of R&D." Its website includes anonymous testimonials calling it a "game-changer" and a "must-have," but no other study results were available there as of Tuesday morning.
When Narcity asked Myrkl if they had any more scientific data or info on side effects to share, they referred us back to the earlier trial.
Myrkl doesn't claim to be a magic pill that can fix absolutely any hangover. Instead, it encourages people to drink in moderation and live a healthy lifestyle, even when using its pill.
The pill's purpose is to help "regular moderate drinkers to wake up feeling their best the next day," Myrkl CEO Håkan Magnusson said in a news release.
"The easiest way to avoid hangover symptoms is to drink responsibly," the company says on its website. "[Myrkl] is not suited and aimed to alleviate the impact of excess alcohol consumption."
In other words, Myrkl's pill is meant to be a supplement — not a miracle pill for a heavy night of boozing.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.