It’s the bane of every beer drinker’s life, the anti-christ who wants to take everything that’s fun and right in the world and spin it until it’s sickeningly bleak … the dreaded hangover.
The mere thought of a hangover after a day or night on the sesh is enough to send a very real shiver down my spine. And yet the pull of beer – and indeed other alcoholic beverages – is simply too strong for me to resist. Even though I know skulling ten pints and going to bed four hours before I’m due to start work is going to result in a brain-shattering hangover, I cannot, repeat cannot, say no.
Of course, I’m hardly alone in this. Every day, millions of pour souls the world over wake up with bleary eyes, dry mouths and an overpowering sense of ‘I’m never f*****g doing this again’ ringing through their addled brains.
Fortunately, if reports are to be believed, there’s finally light at the end of the tunnel; finally a beacon of hope that will have every lager-lout raising pints in the name of victory. Apparently, there could be an alcohol that gets you drunk but doesn’t give you a hangover ready within five years …
The synthetic alcohol is called Alcarelle, and by all accounts it promises to get you drunk (thus enabling you to live your rock-star life) with no damaging side-effects.
As per MailOnline, Alcarella is based on a molecule called ‘alcosynth’, and will let you drink alcohol without delivering the same toxic effects.
Sounds brilliant, right? Well, there is a slight catch in that it may be a few years before this heavenly nectar is on the shelves. It still has to be properly regulated – a process that usually takes around three years – but could take longer due to Alcarelle’s unique properties.
Speaking to The Guardian, Professor David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London who led the work on alcosnyth, said: “There will obviously be testing to check the molecule is safe. And we need to show that it’s different from alcohol. We will demonstrate that it doesn’t produce toxicity like alcohol does.”
According to Professor Nut, he’s been able to find a way to stimulate the receptors in the brain so that tipsiness is induced without adverse effects.
“We know where in the brain alcohol has its ‘good’ effects and ‘bad’ effects, and what particular receptors mediate that – Gaba, glutamate and other ones, such as serotonin and dopamine. The effects of alcohol are complicated but … you can target the parts of the brain you want to target,” he said.
Needless to say, we’ll owe Professor Nut a pint or five if he can pull off the production of alcohol with none of the bad stuff involved.
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