Ben Greenfield shares products to reduce alcohol's side effects: ZBiotics before drinking to process acetaldehyde, DHM after to bind GABA, transdermal glutathione sprayed over the liver, activated charcoal at bedtime, spirulina the next morning, and electrolyte packets to stay hydrated. He stresses these are mitigation tools, not replacements for moderation.
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About four to six sprays on a hairless area of skin.
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My name is Ben Greenfield. I'm a biohacker, celebrity trainer, nutritionist, New York Times best selling author and world renowned speaker. I'm on a constant quest to uncover powerful and practical health hacks to awaken, unlock and unleash the full potential of the human body, mind and spirit.
You know, I am not a a huge advocate of drinking to excess. I think I probably made that clear in many of my posts my podcast. However, I do think there's some benefits to small amounts of alcohol consumption without binging. But let's face it, sometimes you've got a date night out with your significant other and that darn waiter just won't stop refilling your wine glass. Or you're at a party and you're taking sips here and there and before you know it you've just had a little bit too much. Or, or perhaps that one margarita that you ordered is just mixed a little bit stronger than what you're used to. What do you do when you've had a little bit too much alcohol? I have a whole section of a chapter in my book Boundless about how to mitigate the effects of excess alcohol consumption. But just a few quick tips. Some of the 80 20, so to speak, from that chapter include first, putting things into your body prior to or after drinking that help to soak up some of the toxins. I'll show you a couple of my favorites. This is something called Zbiotics. I have a whole podcast on this. It's a genetically engineered bacterial blend that helps your body to process acetaldehyde, one of the toxic byproducts of alcohol consumption. You take one shot just prior to drinking. And I was a little skeptical about this stuff at first, but it actually works surprisingly well, whether you're going to have one drink or three. ZBiotics is kind of a new scientific way to equip your body, particularly your biome, to better deal with the effects of alcohol consumption. So something else that kind of works similarly is called dhm. This is from a company called Level Up Health, they're out of Australia. They do some cool oral peptide formulations. Dhm. Dihydromyricetin is what it stands for, something that you'll find in many anti hangover products these days. And it's basically a raisin extract that helps to soak up acetaldehyde. Now, one thing you should know about DHM is it also binds to your GABA receptors. Now, the release of GABA is one of the reasons that alcohol can make you feel good. Act like A social lubricant kind of knock off a little stress at the end of the day. And because DHM binds to those receptors, if you take DHM right when you're drinking, yes, you would soak up acetaldehyde, but you also may make it feel like you really haven't been drinking. And some people don't like that. So if you're going to use dhm, sometimes the best time to use it is after you've been drinking or even the morning after you've been drinking. But DHM is also a great addition to your lineup. The next is something that you may be familiar with is the body's master antioxidant, and that's glutathione. Now, glutathione is broken down when you consume it orally into a few different components in the body, some sulfurous based compounds, cysteine included. And the issue for some people is that they don't feel good when they use oral glutathione. I recently did an interview with a doctor who spent 15 years developing a transdermal bioavailable glutathione called Glutaryl. You do about four to six sprays on any hairless area of your body, wherever that tends to be for you, and it helps to equip your body with the proper antioxidant defenses. It works remarkably well. I like to spray it just over my liver in this case. But anyways, if you do a little extra transdermal glutathione before and or after drinking can really help your liver ramp up its antioxidant defenses. So a few other things. Charcoal is probably something you've heard of before. This is the Activated Ultra or the activated charcoal Ultra Binder from Quicksilver. I like it because it's well formulated and it has some other things in it that help with your gut health, like aloe vera, for example. What is tricky about activated charcoal is it will soak up anything else that you consume along with it, including any of these fancy, expensive supplements I'm talking about. So if you take activated charcoal, it's kind of like the last thing you take right before you go to bed to bind some things up in your system. But it can be a really, really handy thing to have by your bedside. It's great for bloating, gastric distress, food poisoning, even if you've had a lot of vegetable oils, things like that. It can assist with sopping up damage, so to speak, that you might have put into your body. So something that acts kind of similarly to activated charcoal but is also chock full of a whole bunch of added nutrients is spirulina. I've been a fan of this spirulina powder from, from a royal spirulina. It's a live form of spirulina. It's probably one of the highest quality forms of spirulina that I've been able to find. But you can use this very similarly to how you might use activated charcoal. You can, you can put it in some water prior to going to bed or what I like to do is if I've gone out to a restaurant, let's say I've, I've taken my wife on a date. I'm, you know, haven't asked about the sauces and the dressings. I've had vegetable oil and maybe a cocktail with an extra glass of wine. I will just make a spirulina smoothie smoothie the next morning because it's kind of like a mop for the body. Plus it's chock full of nutrients and antioxidants. So just had some this morning in case you see any green left in my teeth. But spirulina is also a great addition to your protocol. And then finally, this is probably no surprise to you. Antioxidants and hydration. I'm always traveling with my fanny pack full of some of these element electrolyte packets because I'll put them in a glass of water while I'm out drinking. And it serves two purposes. It helps you to stay hydrated because alcohol can be dehydrating. But I'll also often use it as a substitute for an extra drink. Right. So instead of ordering an extra cocktail, I'll order some sparkling water with a little bit of lemon. I'll stir an element electrolyte packet into it. I like the watermelon and the citrus salt flavors. Those are probably two favorites and it helps me to stay hydrated but can also give me the mouthfeel of having a nice cocktail esque drink while it's more of an actual mocktail. So those are a few of my, my remedies for when I'm out drinking. These aren't necessarily like hangover cures so to speak, but they can help to soak up some of the damage, help your body better deal with acetaldehyde and help you feel better the next day. So be responsible, drink in moderation. We all know that the hair of the dog concept doesn't work. Some of these concepts do. So hope this is helpful for you.
