The supplement aisle has tried to fix hangovers for years. Milk thistle pills. B-vitamin pills. Liver pills. Electrolyte powders. Hydration drinks made for sick kids.
Most of these products have good ingredients. So why have hangover products not worked?
The answer is how you take them. When you swallow a pill, the medicine has to fight your stomach first. Then your gut. Then your liver.
Scientists call this first-pass metabolism. Your body burns most of the medicine before it ever reaches your bloodstream. By the time it arrives, 80 percent of the dose is gone.
For most medicines, doctors know how to work around this. For hangover supplements, it has been a big problem.
The label might say 500mg of glutathione. Your bloodstream might see 50mg.
Hydration drinks have a different problem. They put back water and salt. That is helpful.
But they do not touch the toxic stuff in your blood. They do not help with sleep.
Drinking electrolytes is fine. It is not a hangover fix.
The ingredients were not the problem. The way they got into you was wrong.
The patch is sold by a company called NXTDAY. It is the first hangover product to use a patch. The ingredients inside are not new. The way they reach your blood is new.