Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Hangovers

Episode Date: January 3, 2014

Welcome to Sawbones, where Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin McElroy take you on a whimsical tour of the dumb ways in which we've tried to fix people. This week: We cure your hangover. Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers (http://thetaxpayers.net)

Saw bones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, time is about to books! One, two, one, two, three, four! We came across a pharmacy with a toy and that's lost it out. We were shot through the broken glass and had ourselves a look around.

The medicines, the medicines, the escalant macaque for the mouth Hello, we're pretty welcome to solbos a Mandal two were of misguided medicine. I am your co-host Justin McElroy and I'm Sydney McElroy Where are you? Are you taking a drink of there? Hey, man. Well sit. It's a little Well, hair of the dog. Oh, hair of the dog, huh? Well, hair of the dog had kind of a rough one yesterday and just need a little hair of the dog.

Yeah, got a little carried away last night, did ya? Yep, just a pinch of the hair of the old. Yeah, celebratein' too hard. A little pinch the old hair of the dog. Well, it's a little late in the day for that. How long you been, you've been having some of that hair of the dog. Well, it's a little late in the day for that. How long you been having some of that hair of the dog there? Well, Sid had a little kind of rough one yesterday. So I'm having a little hair of the dog today.

And well, I mean, I had a little hair of the dog yesterday in the morning because I had had kind kind of rough one the day before that. Uh-huh. K-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k Yes, that's right, since Christmas, hair of the dog. Okay, now when you say hair of the dog, you mean that you're drinking in the morning? Just a drinky poo in the morning. A little taste of something. Without the haw. A little taste of something.

Without the haw, in it. A taste of something cheerful, Peter O'Toole said. Just a little hair of the dog. Now, tell me though, okay, in the morning, how long though, because like I said, it's not morning right now, so how far into the day do you continue this? Well, here's the thing about hangovers that I've discovered. We're talking about hangover cures today on the show

and I want to let you in on my little seeker, hair of the dog, the thing about it is, if you don't have little seeker, hair of the dog, the thing about it is, if you don't have a drink after the hair of the dog. Sometimes, sometimes that old dog, he'll catch up with you. You gotta stay one step ahead of the dog. You have to keep having his hair once you've had it in the morning.

So I guess what I'm saying is I drink all day. So you've been drinking continuously since Christmas. Continuously since Christmas. Yes, that is correct. Listen. Does that make you, I mean, how do you feel? Good. Good. I mean, you know, super productive. Uh-huh. a little balance issue.

Yeah, in terms of time. Does your boss know this? He does not. I work on the internet. That is one of the things that makes hair to the dog work so well for me. Right, but like, has your spelling been really bad? I'm a breathalyzer on Google, baby.

No breathalyzer on Google. I get on a prodigy, no matter how many, I've found it now. There's no worrisome for me. You see see there's a problem with this theory. Hit me. I mean, eventually you've got to stop, right? No, no, no, no, no, cannot cannot, cannot stop, can no stop it. Well, let me rephrase that as with a more definitive eventually, you have to stop. Okay, all right, I will take that as gospel, but failing hair of the dog, just fistfuls of the hairiest dog for days and days and days since Christmas,

what do you have for me, said? What of our ancestors try to do when they've had a few too many sips of something cheerful? Well, it's funny, you start off with hair at the dog, which is the oldest known cure for a hangover. Oh, yeah, it's been around for a while. Yeah.

Since there's been alcohol, there's probably been the idea that, hey, I feel really bad after I drank a lot of alcohol, maybe I just shouldn't stop drinking it. Yes. Now, I mean, of course, the logical problem with that is at some point, you do have to stop and then, you know,

you're headed for a really righteous hangover. Sure, it's like putting money into a bank that you eventually will withdraw tears. Yes, exactly. An Advil. But good luck because there wasn't, you know, Advil and like caveman days. That's right. They just have logs that they would hit themselves over the head with and black out. You know where the name hair of the dog comes from?

Uh, no, I do not. It was, uh, for a, an old, um, cure for rabies or thought to be, obviously, it was not a cure for rabies, but, uh, but a thought. It's about as good a cure for rabies as it is a cure for hangovers. If you, if you could literally, you know, imbibe or ingest some of the hairs of the dog that bit you, then you would cure your rabies. It wouldn't don't do that. If you think you have bit you, then you would cure your rabies. And it wouldn't, don't do that. If you think you have rabies,

please immediately report to your nearest ER. No one's ever survived, except once. I like some other terms, just before we talk about some more curious, some other terms for hangovers that I found. So before, hangover came around like the 1900 or so. And hangover used to be just a word for like anything that was left over, but it used to be just a word for like anything that was left over. But

it began to be specifically applied to that feeling that's left over after you drink. And I think it's really a great, it's a great word for that. Especially when you consider that prior to that, we call it sometime maybe the morning fog. Morning fog. Yeah, like that. That's classy. Oh, I have just a bit of the morning fog. The touch of the morning fog. You caught the bottle ache? Bottle ache. I don't know. I think that screams sort of chemical dependency to me.

I really like the Jim jams. The Jim jams? I got the Jim jams. That's festive. Doesn't that sound like a great thing to have? It actually sounds much more, I was gonna say, it sounds much more festive than you actually feel when you are at the specific jams. great thing to have. It actually sounds much more, I was gonna say, it sounds much more festive than you actually feel

when you are have the specific jams. I know, I won't be into it. Work today, I got the gym jams. Gym jams? Well, can't blame you there. It was also called black dog and a bust head. Bust head? It's kind of descriptive.

It's kind of on the nose, isn't it? Some other ways, we talked about the oldest cure, probably, is the idea that you just keep drinking. The ancient Greeks had a great idea, and this is, I think, especially helpful this time of year, in our new year. You could eat some boiled cabbage. Which your mom has tried to foist on us every new year, since we've been together for at least a decade.

I don't know if she was into it before then. Oh, yeah. As long as I can remember and I have I mean I eat it when she when she is relentless. Yeah, I never do it, which is which is fascinating. No, she's not she does. She says she does. Supposedly the strong smell would clear your head. I maybe it would induce vomiting and then I don't feel better? Or just like... Get that rush of endorphins. Fresh with death. Everything's in perspective. Yeah. Boy, this is much worse than that hangover I had because now I'm eating boiled cabbage.

Right. The Greeks also had a god of hangovers. I like that. That's direct. Posse Crepulas. Posse Crepulas. I'm sure that's how that's pronounced. And they would, on their like drinking vessels,

they're cups that they drank out of, they would engrave like prayers and, you know, please, please to him to, you know, please don't give me a hangover. Yeah, yeah, no, I just pray that to Jack Dana, please, please Jack, be gentle. The ancient Egyptians also had a goddess of drunkenness that you could pray to, hapthor.

And if you said a specific prayer to hapthor while you were drinking, then you would spit up all of your alcohol and you wouldn't have a hangover. It's expensive though. I'm guessing you could probably forego the prayer and just drink enough and then you'd spit up all your alcohol. It would look good out of there.

Maybe that's how that got started. I don't know what happened. I felt so bad. And I prayed that I got better. It was half-thor. Thanks, half-thor. The Romans had their own idea, specifically, Pliny, the Elder. You remember Pliny?

Oh, Pliny. What was Pliny's game? What was Pliny into? So Pliny recommended a couple different things first of all try eating some raw owls eggs Groat. What would you have never even seen an owl? You've never seen an owl? No like not even in like a book or online or something. I mean yes, and he like I saw like a cartoon Yeah, the sorcerer and the stone stuff like like Harry Potter. Yeah, like I saw Harry Yeah. I saw like the sorceren, the stone stuff. Like, like Harry Potter? Yeah, like I saw Harry Potter said, I mean like, in my day to day where I could go up there

and scoop those eggs. Well, you're not out at night a lot. You need to go out at night and look in the trees. That's when the owls are out. Right? That's, I guess, isn't that what, I guess they're hunting then. But I don't think they like, bro or hide something during the day. They like eat mice. They should be your best friends.

Yeah, I do appreciate that, Alice. Good looking out, Alice. So the idea will never eat your eggs. That's a Justin Macaragherity, Alice. I'm sure that they're very thankful for that. Well, you know, the idea of eggs as a cure, you actually find again and again and like hang over cure a lore because eggs contain cysteine and it's thought that you're low on that when you have a hangover so you should eat them. I don't know that raw ow's eggs are a great idea or a roggs of any kind. You could if you didn't like that. Pliny recommended fried canary. Where are those? Where's a canary? I know coalmines. That's it. You gotta go. You got to go to a coal mine. I want tainted like coal smelling

Take the canary deep fry it Because ancient Romans had deep fryers. Yeah, that's how they cook their jerks I've never seen that at a fair stand before just like step right up just like the ancient Romans did is fry butter deep fry canary Or you could try some roasted sheep and test them. Delicious. See, he's cooking up something like, you're hanging over here a big mac and fries. I like this. I don't think that a big mac and fries

are anything like a roasted sheep and test. It's the best they have, Sydney. Don't look down on your ancestor plenty of the elder. As we go through, I'm going to give you some more kind of ancient cures and a lot of them, I think are just kind of gross stuff that maybe again, I don't know if the idea is like let's make people throw up. But the Mesopotamians had an idea that you could mix licorice with beans and oleander and oil and while you're at it, throw some wine in there.

Hey, why not? Well, here are the dog. My guess is that the wine was doing the work there. Yeah, I think the wine was doing all the heavy lifting. And all that other stuff just sounded good. Yeah, we'll cover it up with that stuff to pretend it's a cure, but like really, there's wine. The Assyrians had another gross idea,

which is you should grind up a swallow's beak. Oh, like what is wrong with these people? I don't know where you get that. And what is the swallow is supposed to do after that, huh? Where does the swallow go from there, you know? Well, I love that you would consider the swallow in the scenario, but unfortunately I doubt it survived the debaking. I was just going to fry this up too, huh?

Got these sandwiches. I mean, why not? It's already there. Yeah. And you already fried up all the canaries. Yeah. A little upper teeth. You got to do something new to stay relevant at the fair.

That's right. You can't be frying up canaries every year. You got to switch to fried swallow beak. That's a, that's a, that's a, uh, uh, uh, 17 BC game. It's 13 BC. You got to get with it. Yeah. And now of course swallow beak.

I don't know when you have it. By the way, don't email me. I know. Romans course swallow bee when you have, by the way, don't email me by your Romans word. And I don't, I don't, I can't. No, and he can't do like backwards time either. I can't do backwards time. That show dinosaurs was exceedingly confusing to me. It was to everyone.

Yeah. How many years was it on the air? Because that's the most confusing part. Yeah, like many, many years. And then end it with, okay, no, I don't want to spoil it, but it's crazy looking up. Anyway, sorry. So you don't want to just take your ground swallow beak powder, you want to mix it with something so it's more of like a tonic.

Yeah. And the obvious choice would be mer. And that is how we got Coca-Cola. That is. That's where it comes from. That is where that comes from. I think that it sheds a whole new light on why the three wise men were bringing some more. Maybe Jay.

Hey. Had a crazy one. You're gonna need this. Gotta trust us. This fourth wise man, all swallow speaks. Don't even worry about it. There's gonna be a wedding someday. Yep.

You're just gonna get this crazy urge. There's gonna be wine everywhere. Yeah. Next thing you know. History's fratiest miracle. You will pull it off. You're gonna need this more the next morning. You trust me.

You're an all 12 of your homies. There's enough for everybody. The Mongolians took it a step further. Why not try some pickled sheep's eyes? I mean, again, if you think about things you're in the mood for, that's got to be so low on the list when you're hung over. Which I think it's actually they beat out because in the middle ages, they came up, of course, everything was gross in the middle ages. We know that. Yeah, absolutely. But somehow what they came up with...

You imagine what King Arthur's beard smelled like, like the worst. Everything was the pits in the middle ages. Everything was gross then. But it's crazy because they couldn't even beat the Mongolians. You know, pickled sheep size, that's a high bar. And the best they could come up with was raw eel. Yeah. Up your game, middle ages.

I mean, like that's a, that's a, you know, a delicacy. Yeah. That's like a sushi thing. Lots of lots of people are into that. Right. You can have some raw eel. So, so they did. I and and they also had some bitter almonds.

I don't think that probably helped much either. Just try guys. I like in the 1600s we see one of our first like medicines that was created. I guess a maybe an early version of like a patent medicine. Um, Goddard's drops created by Dr. Jonathan Goddard. And basically what these drops were, were ammonia. Okay, unpleasant. Yeah, and that's, that was the primary ingredient.

And then they had a lot of other, what they call irrelevant ingredients. Yeah, what I would also agree with them in that assessment. They, but they varied. Some things you might find in your gutter drops were bits of skull from a hanged person. I mean, they say they have bits of skull from a hanged person, but I don't know. Who can trust packaging, you know, in the 1600s? That's like saying the barbecue sauce I buy has a little extra love from Casey masterpiece. I can't guarantee that Mr. Masterpiece actually put a little extra love in every bottle of sauce

I can't guarantee that it's no way of proving that but I believe I believe that he does that said if you haven't tried Casey masterpiece hangman's goal edition it is delicious little gritty but worth it super earthy If you can't get that flavor you could try the dried Viper flavor. Oh good. That's better 1600s. Got it's drops are actually pretty popular. Why I couldn't tell you. I actually think it's become so much more history easy to parse history once we get into branding. That's the problem with everything prior to apparently the 1600s. I can't keep tabs on anything, there's no brands. Why was nobody into branding?

You hadn't shown them the way yet? Yeah, apparently. Apparently I've been alive for 500 years, and I'm vintage branding. Well, your first leap was back to the 1600s. I keep hoping, I really believe we'll be the leap home, but not yet. But you're just leaving around branding things.

What did I come up with in the 1800s? You weren't very creative in the 1800s. What do we have a lot of laying around near our chimneys? We've got some soot. Got shell-bren. Well, there's that. That's not a good hangover cure. Now we try to make the clean the chimneys.

It is sobering. It is sobering. That's true. Why don't you try some soot in a glass of warm water? Yeah, I can really. I guess we're going to do something with it. Got all this soot. I don't know.

Put in some warm water, drink it after a rough night. Is this become the main national export in London? It's soot. We have nothing, no purpose for it. I didn't see that part on Mary Poppins. Yeah. The only practical use of so was to make dig vandai with cheeky and more charming. That's yeah. If that's possible. I know. He's

America's sweetheart from then back then from back then. I don't think it was 1800s. Dig vandai is the sweetheart of the 1800s. Next. Move on. Uh huh. Um still in the 1800s. Why don't you try drinking some vinegar and then rubbing some of it on your temples? That doesn't sound terrible, but if that doesn't help the next step in this process is to throw a bucket of cold water over the person who's hung over. That actually seems like the most practical one we've come across so far actually. Unpleasant shore but effective. Well you'd get really angry so then you wouldn't be so focused.

Yeah, not really wet. And I'm mad at you. Why'd you throw a bucket of cold water on me? It, they're also, we see one of the first kind of hangover like drink cures, you know, nowadays there are lots of like drinks that like bartenders like to tell you about like, oh yeah, just do a shot of this, you know, pickle juice and something and it's also always got alcohol in it and that'll cure your hangover. In 1878 we got the prairie oyster. Hit me.

So it was raw egg yolk, Worcestershire. Worcestershire. Worcestershire. Worcestershire. Worcestershire. Worcestershire. Tabasco, vinegar, salt and, and then usually some kind of alcohol third and forget measure. But those are the ingredients that are consistent.

Yeah. Don't like it. So do a quick shot of that. No. You'll feel something. It's Tabasco. Yeah, I mean, you're gonna get an effect. And I imagine there's a lot of these cures were built around some sort of physical effect the food had on your, whether it's the heat from the Damascus osso, just the yucks from the pickled sheep's eyes. You're gonna feel something. You're gonna feel something.

Well, I don't know if that, I think we've said this before, that the idea that if something made you feel different, maybe it was working somehow. I mean, I guess that's where this comes from. And a lot of it is also just, you know, everybody who, everybody who likes to drink has that thing that they'll tell you always works for them. Right. Just like everybody's got their hiccup here. Exactly. And so, and that's been pervasive throughout history.

Mine, by the way, spoonful sugar, trust me, not just for the medicine. Springful raw sugar, just eat it. I cured her sister last week. Is it a hiccup cure? Hiccup cure. Okay. Perfect. I thought you met you cured my sister of a hangover. No.

And she's 13. So that would be an okay. She's got a couple more years for her needs to start carrying her. She's going to have to write out her hangovers on her own and learn her own hangover. Yeah. She has to hang a lady.

Learn this lesson. In the in the late 1800s early 1900s we also of course stumbled across cocaine. Hey, okay, it's back. Everything. Man, plenty of yelder and cocaine. This is like a reunion special. Everybody's here. One of my favorites in 1905 we got more branding so Justin must have been there. Yeah. It was a product called Mercein, and it was initially used for sea sickness. But what they found is that if it helped with like the

dizziness and whosiness of sea sickness, maybe it would help with hangovers. And so they started marketing it for hangovers. And they had this whole story about how it was discovered, these herbs from remote part of India and brought back and given to us and it was great. In reality, it was powdered potato.

Okay, not helpful, but makes that with a little boiling hot water. Get yourself a side. And some butter. A little butter, a little salt and pepper. That's not going. There's certainly something to be said about eating a lot of carbs to make you feel better after you have a hangover. Yeah.

There's probably more pleasurable ways than entaking them, certainly. Another cure I really like. In 1938, there was a bartender who came up with the idea at a party of taking a bottle of chilled Coca-Cola, and you shake it up, you know,, so it's gonna spray out when you open it. And then you spray it into a glass of milk. Okay. And then you drink that. Okay.

What's great is that they recommend that you follow it up with a nice long nap. And then you're gonna feel okay. Wow, okay, yeah, well, sure. Also, be suspect of any hangover cure invented at a party. Because that's a guy guy saying hey, you know what might work tomorrow Let's try this. Let's give it shot. I don't know so I put this in a book that I'm doing this So future people read it be like what?

Why did they do that? Why did they do that? But we won't tell we never tried it. Oh, and you know that then some hipster is gonna read about it and try it. Yep For sure, I know Maybe it's delicious. It's a new brunch hit. I haven't had coconut milk. Let me know. It sounds a little weird. Now as we move across cultures, we see a lot of different ideas that some of these are still

kind of in practice. Well, not all of them. But in Haitian voodoo culture, if you take pins and jab 13 of them into the cork of the bottle that you drank, take that bottle. Yeah, then that can cure your hangover. So make sure that you drank something out of a bottle with a cork, I guess. I would get about, I would probably get about three or four pins in before I was like, ah, hair of the dog.

This is taking forever. I'm beginning to think you have a problem. I already stuck myself three times. I'm just going to hair the dog this. Well, we can talk about that later. The Germans have a word for a breakfast that you're supposed to eat when you have a bad hangover called a cotter fru-stuk. And it's a breakfast of herring pickles and goulash. I don't know.

I don't know, Germany. I love your beer, but I just don't know about this one. I don't know about that. Who else? The Russians don't don't need to drink anything. Just hop in the sauna, sweat it out, and maybe, you know, flagulate yourself with some birch branches. That sounds good. I'm into that. You know, then you complete it out a little bit. I think that would actually, you would come out of that a little, feeling a little better.

I mean, that one would work. Again, you'd feel a little something. It's real something. One of the earliest American cures, there was something called Jack Rabbit T. Again, I don't think this is persisted, but maybe it has. And it's actually a teammate from Rabbit droppings.

I am cool. I'm okay, thank you. actually a teammate from rabbit droppings. I am cool. I'm OK. Thank you. I don't know, cabboys. Because you just did whatever you lived on the land. There's a book that I have discovered in my reading. And now I desperately want to read, which was written in 1972 by Kingsley Amos.

And it was called On Drink. And it's a book about drinking, as you may imagine. But it included a lot of hangover c you may imagine. But it included a lot of hangover cures, as well as kind of a discussion of hangovers in general. One of his big theories was that the physical part of the hangover is bad, but the metaphysical part of the hangover is actually much worse. Like the spiritual part? Yes. Like the guilt that you feel, the imbalance that you feel, that you let yourself go, you were out of control, you did things that you regret, that that part of the hangover is much worse.

And so that really if you want to fix the hangover, you kind of get your psychological house in order, which I think is pretty interesting. You know, the other thing about Kingsley Amos, he wrote about James Bond. My dad just talked about him when we were at the murder mystery. Well, hey. He wrote about James Bond.

Isn't that weird? That is weird. He wrote the book of Bond and the James Bond dossier. Oh, it makes sense that he would also read about drinking. Yeah, he's a piece of real-renessons man He did have some actual physical cures as well There was a maybe like some beef paste and vodka Okay, okay, no, but that's fine. What about some baking soda and vodka? Okay, see I'm I see a trend for there. There were a lot of cures that ended with and vodka and vodka and vodka the cure There's a lot of scary there's a lot of really scary stories that strike that way too if you didn't like that

Or you know if you don't like vodka, you could try his other method, which was And he he notes that if your partner is willing, you should have some really vigorous sex with them. Yeah, I mean, okay, first off, good on you Kingsley. I get consent totally with you on that. I'm not so sure the partner is the hurdle to the vigorous sex. No.

I'm not sure that he or she is going to be the stumbling block for that. I don't know, but I don't know about you, but when I have a real bad case of the Jim James, the last thing I want to do is have vigorous sex. Yeah, literally last. But maybe King's Lee's right, and if you just powered through, you'd feel great.

Yeah, who knows, we'll never know. Or you're gonna take very unromantic turns throwing up afterwards. Either way. I do wanna talk a little bit about before we finish up. There are nowadays, there are like some hangover pills, anti-hangover pills that are on the market. I've seen some of these, yeah.

Yeah, things like, you've probably heard of chaser, things that you can take before, like when you're drinking, before you drink and when you're drinking, and they'll help prevent a hangover. The history of this concept actually goes back to the Russian Academy of Sciences trying to develop an anti-hangover pill for the KGB, which I think is really cool. The idea was that they wanted the agents to be able to drink as much as they wanted and not get drunk, you know, so they could stay sharp and all KGB-ish and all that.

Yeah, right. Now, the pill that they invented, that they gave their agents, did not help with the getting drunk. They definitely still got drunk. There was a get smart episode that involved this as a subplot where Maxwell Smart had a pill in his mouth that would absorb the alcohol as he drank it.

And then of course, he accidentally swallows the pill and gets incredibly drunk. It gets really drunk. It was funnier when he's like, yeah. I'm not gonna get smart. Yeah. Well, that's probably what it was based on. I'm sure. You did get drunk anyway, but what they said is that it did help with hangovers, that it

would prevent hangovers. Now of course, it varies with what you drink, how much you drink, what your age is, what your individual body chemistry and all that. But the idea is that it absorbed the toxins so you wouldn't get the hangover the next day. This is kind of the basis of current anti-hangover pills. There's no great evidence for this stuff. There are always studies that are done, they're smaller, obviously they're not regulated

through the FDA, so they don't have to be as rigorous, but it's based on something that actually sounds like good science. What is that? So have you ever heard of like if somebody eats or drinks something that they're not supposed to or takes a bunch of medicine, they're not supposed to, that they get activated charcoal in the emergency room.

Yeah. Okay, it's based on that idea. The stuff that's in chaser and a lot of these pills are some called alcohol acts and some called RU-21. Get it? RU-21. Got it. Is vegetable carbon.

So it's kind of like activated charcoal. It's a bunch of carbon. So it's kind of like activated charcoal. It's a bunch of carbon. And the idea is that it will bind and filter out toxins from your stomach. The problem with that is that it's well for one, you're absorbing the alcohol into your bloodstream pretty quickly. So, you know, if you're taking it after you've drank, it's definitely not going to work. And the other thing too is that, you know, it depends on how much you drink and how fast and, I imagine that how hurt, it makes the research more difficult too, because hangovers are something that, as we have both proven, are notoriously difficult to control

for. So, you know, getting the same kind of hangover twice and seeing, you know, testing between the two, I imagine is pretty difficult. Well, and they're very subjective and conditional. You'll see people power through a hangover that they might have another day when, let's say it's a Saturday and they don't have to do anything that just floors them.

So it is hard to do research on this. The idea is that the thing that gives you a hangover is called a congener. And it's a congener. A congener. And it's the stuff in alcohol that basically makes anything you're drinking different from grain alcohol. The stuff that gives it color or aroma or flavor, anything that adds that, your body has trouble processing and so you get.

So you're saying stick with grain out a hole. That I am not saying that. Got it. I am not saying that. Along these same lines, same lines, that's probably why some people swear by burnt toast. Because of the carbon. It's the carbon.

Maybe that's why you like burnt popcorn. Same thing. Maybe it is because I drink all the time. Not well know. I mean, I was saying that sweetheart, I just was saying sometimes you like a little burnt popcorn. I do love burnt popcorn along this same line with these other things I've mentioned. There's one other compound called dawn 808 It was developed by a South Korean businessman same ideas these other pills

But what I like both the best about it is what dawn DAWN stands for hit me drinkers are winners now Finally getting their day drinkers are the winners now. I don't know if this stuff really helps. Anacdotally people will tell you that it does. It's probably not dangerous because it's just a bunch of vegetable carbon. Okay, Sydney, give me the real actual boring cure for hangovers. Well, the best cure for a hangover, it's kind of like the best way to not get pregnant. Just don't. Yeah, I mean, don't have sex, don't get drunk. If you really don't want to have a hangover,

don't drink a whole lot. But if that's not a possibility for you. Seek help. Talk to somebody. You know, a lot of people think that a hangover is just dehydration. It's more complicated than that, but certainly fighting the dehydration can help. So trying to drink a lot of people think that a hangover is just dehydration It's more complicated than that, but certainly fighting the dehydration can help so trying to drink a lot of water While you're drinking although that can be kind of a bummer

But while you're drinking and then certainly the next day replacing your electrolytes You know with things like like Gatorade or P. D. Alight or whatever Resting you're gonna feel crappy. You need to rest. The one that actually does work for me is the one we learned from that episode of House of Works. Just takes an eyebrow fin, drink a whole lot of water, and then sleep for like a half hour. I think that magic sleep does help.

And there is a lot of people will say that if you take something like ibuprofen or aspirin or Advil the night before, but like right before you go to bed, that that'll help. Oh, yeah, that's the other thing. One ibuprofen or aspirin or adveil the night before, but like right before you go to bed. Oh, yeah, that's the other thing. Yeah. One ibuprofen before bed and then drinking a lot of water with it. Now one thing you want to be careful about, we should know and you'll read this is that one, I don't have good evidence for that. And two, alcohol sends your blood, medicines like ibuprofen

aspirin, they do the same thing and you don't want to cause a hemorrhage, you know, or bleeding in your stomach. So you want to be careful with that one. Most people can tolerate it, but if it's something you don't do well with. If you're planning on self-treating your own hangovers, talk to your physician and get ready for some weird looks, but then some concern, but give it a shot at it. Overall, I learned from your mistakes. You know? You know.

You know. That's no. You know, having a good night out is a good idea, but if you're paying for it the whole next day. Or from Christmas until two days after New Year's? I mean, look, Justin's gonna have a rotten day tomorrow. For a few days. Let's be honest.

You're done with that drink. Oh, man. Yeah, we're done. Hey, Drink, we had a good run. And Sydney, you and I had a good run today. Talking about hangover curers, just another one of the many topics we've covered here on saw bones.

We do this nearly every Friday, took a little break for the holiday, had some family in, priorities. That's what I hope you all did too. That's what Susie Orman talks about. People first, you know? Then jackets. Then jackets.

We missed you very much though, and we are back now. And in the interim, we got a bunch of new brothers and sisters on the maximum fun network. There are five new programs. Well four new programs, one reborn program. We're going to be talking about all of them over the next few weeks. I'm sure I want to talk about one song, Exploders, one of the new shows. It is a really interesting pot little podcast where one song is examined by the artists that created it.

And after playing the song, they walk you through, you know, the instruments, the idea behind it, the recording process, just the whole song, really take it apart. And I thought it was really fascinating. Sounds really cool. Yeah, get on board. There's a whole lot of other shows, maximum fun network, classic, classic max fun shows like Judge John Hodgman, stop podcasting yourself. Jordan J. C. Go, International Waters, Bullseye. My brother, my brother, me. Thank you so much.

Wemba and Pout, my brother, Travis McRoy, who co-hosts my brother, my brother, me with me is on the new episode of W Bam, pal talking about back to the future. So, uh, go. Oh my gosh, I'm sure he has a lot to say about that. Yeah, he has some opinions. So go listen to that and thank you to the taxpayers who provided the theme song for our show. Uh, you can go check out their stuff,

uh, all over their website. And I believe they're just at the taxpayers on Twitter. So go follow them and thank them for being so generous to us and thank you very much for listening our show share it with somebody you care about this week and be sure to join us again next Friday of another episode of Saul Budden until then I'm just an acroix. I'm Sydney Macroix always, don't drill a hole in your head. Alright! Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture, Artistone,

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