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22.10.2015

Three grams L-cysteine can soften a hangover

If you drink more alcohol than is good for you, a supplement containing a couple of grams of L-cysteine might help reduce the inevitable hangover. We, the ignorant compilers of this free webzine, make this bold statement after reading a 1970s animal study.

Doesn't work
Drinking lots of water after overdosing on the legal hard drug known to us as alcohol - and to chemists as ethanol - will not help prevent a hangover. [medicalnewstoday.com Saturday 29 August 2015] You may have seen the news articles on the web.

The article was based on a Dutch study of a demographic group well known for its disproportionately high alcohol consumption. We will not divulge which loud and at times irritating group was the subject of the study. Stigmatisation is not a habit of ours.

Alcohol itself is not directly responsible for a hangover. Alcohol is a relatively mild toxin. But the enzyme alcohol-dehydrogenase converts alcohol into acetaldehyde [aka acetyl-aldehyde], and that substance is very toxic. The negative consequences of alcohol use – including hangovers – are mainly due to acetaldehyde.

The enzyme, acetaldehyde-dehydrogenase, converts acetaldehyde into harmless acetate or acetic acid. So if you can manage to get acetaldehyde-dehydrogenase to work harder, you may just have worked out a strategy to keep hangovers under control.

L-Cysteine
In 1974 the American biochemist Herbert Sprince published an animal study that suggested that supplementation with the amino acid L-cysteine [structural formula shown here] is such a strategy. That's not so strange, as L-cysteine is a building block of glutathione, a tripeptide that is used by acetaldehyde-dehydrogenase.

Sprince gave lab rats a fatal dose of acetaldehyde, thus imitating the effect of a, ahem, really serious hangover. The blue curve in the figure below shows that 90 percent of the lab animals died within one day as a result of the dose they received.

Another group of rats were given not only the fatal dose of acetaldehyde but also L-cysteine. The human equivalent of the dose that Sprince used would be about 3 g for an adult weighing 80 kg. In that group 'only' 20 percent of the rats died.

You can buy L-cysteine supplements in lots of webstores. A capsule often contains 500 mg. Going by the results of Sprince's animal study, then you might be able to soften your hangover by taking 6 capsules just before and during a drinking binge.

Vitamin B1
Sprince did similar experiments with vitamin B1, and discovered that this vitamin on its own also reduced the acetaldehyde mortality, and that it also reinforced the protective effect of L-cysteine. Thats not entirely illogical, as acetaldehyde-dehydrogenase needs vitamin B1.

The doses of vitamin B1 that Sprince used were astronomically high, so we won't bore you with the results of those experiments. But even so, it might be the case that much lower doses of vitamin B1, which you could easily consume by buying legal supplements, might also reinforce the anti-hangover effect of L-cysteine.

Source:
Agents Actions. 1974 Apr;4(2):125-30.

More:
A capsule of L-ornithine may take the edge off your hangover 12.08.2020
Phyllanthus amarus prevents hangover 18.07.2019
Anti-hangover pill Eezup doesn't work 09.09.2017

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Strength athletes can boost immune system with cystine and theanine Many strength athletes who push themselves hard are more susceptible to colds and flu. Their training takes a heavy toll on their immunity and this reduces the activity of their Natural Killer Cells, the first line of defence in the immune system.	Immunocal boosts maximal strength Supplementation with Immunocal, a protein preparation containing extra cysteine, makes strength training more effective.	Combination of L-cystine and L-theanine reduces chance of catching cold by seventy percent Take a daily 700 mg L-cystine and 280 mg L-theanine and you'll reduce your chance of catching cold by seventy percent