There is no healthy amount of alcohol you can drink. It’s important to start this article by making this clear. However, if, even knowing the risks, we decide to drink and overindulge, we know that we will end up suffering from a terrible disease. hangover. Not to mention the typical symptoms. drunkenness. Both are so unpleasant that many scientists have tried to find ways to prevent them. Everything was planned, but for one reason or another most of these investigations did not materialize. An international team of scientists has just developed a curious gel extracted from whey that has shown very promising results in tests on mice.
This hangover gel is based on the fact that the harmful effects of alcohol are usually associated with the accumulation acetaldehyde. It is a toxic substance to our cells, produced as a result of ethanol metabolism. We literally poison ourselves with beer.
This acetaldehyde forms nausea, headache, dizziness, confusion and a whole range of other unpleasant symptoms. On the other hand, this does not happen with acetic acid. For this reason, these scientists were looking for a way to change the metabolic reactions carried out with ethanol so that it mainly produces a second product that is still similar to vinegar.
Milk protein gel to combat hangover
Many chemical reactions can be carried out thanks to enzymes, which are proteins that speed up reactions. This is very important because sometimes if they are not sped up, they cannot be completed correctly. Thus, we can think of enzymes as a necessary screwdriver to remove a screw or a blender without which cooked vegetables cannot be pureed. These are tools.
Moreover, these are very specific tools. They contain a region known as catalytic center, to which reactants are specially added so that they can be converted into products. Not any reagents can be added, but only those for which they are intended. designed.
Certain enzymes naturally interfere with the metabolism of alcohol. So these scientists researched how to generate biomimetic nanoenzymes. That is, very small artificial enzymes that mimic the catalytic center of natural enzymes in such a way that they can replace them. They needed an enzyme that could bind to ethanol, not to produce acetaldehyde, but to produce acetic acid.
After testing various substances, they confirmed that the key may be in milk. They took the liquid part that comes out of making cheese, known as serum, and they warmed him up. Thus they saw that a series of herbs had formed corresponding to a very common milk protein called beta-lactoglobulin. These proteins were anchored by the iron-containing substance and also reacted with the gold nanoparticles. The result was a false enzyme that could bind to ethanol and convert it into acetic acid. The reaction will take place in the intestines, where other natural enzymes will continue to break down acetic acid to produce carbon dioxide and water. These substances are completely harmless, so they reduce or even eliminate hangover symptoms.
Experiments on mice
When the whey is heated and reacts with other substances, it forms a gel that can be taken orally. To test whether it was truly effective, they gave it to a group of mice that had been poisoned with alcohol.
It was observed that those who received the hangover gel had a decrease in their blood alcohol levels. 40% in just 30 minutes. Moreover, the percentage was greater than 50% if they waited 5 hours. Let’s remember that a hangover doesn’t happen immediately, so these long-term effects are very interesting.
On the other hand, it was found that in mice that took this gel daily, fat metabolism was less affected. This is done in organs such as the liver, so this organ, one of the hardest hit by alcohol, would remain healthier. The gel would not only act against a hangover, but also have protective effect.
All of these results are very promising, but the study authors caution that they still do not have safety guarantees that would allow them to test the gel in humans. They will have to investigate further. If all goes well, your gel could be a good hangover preventative in the future. It will need to be consumed while the alcohol is still in the digestive system. Once in bloodThere’s nothing to do here.
Likewise, the percentage of ethanol that is not transformed into acetic acid has nothing to do with it. A hangover gel would be very interesting, but it would not open the door to safe drinking. These risks will still be present, so as we saw at the beginning, the best option will always be to do nothing.
Source: Hiper Textual
