The best hangover cure is to avoid it. At least it’s the only really effective remedy we have so far. Drinking alcohol is never recommended, much less in large quantities, but since we can all overdo it on special occasions, we keep looking for a method to avoid, cure or reduce the effects of drunkenness
And it seems that there is good news on the horizon, although it will still take time for a remedy to be marketed that we can turn to like someone who buys cough syrup. A new study published on March 7 in the specialized magazine Cell Metabolism has achieved promising results thanks to a hormone that is produced in the liver.
It is, more specifically, fibroblast growth factor 21, the FGF21 hormone which many mammals, including humans, produce naturally in the liver. The team of researchers who carried out the work, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, discovered that an injection of said hormone help mice sober upavoiding the effects caused by excess alcohol in the body.
As stated in a statement by the biochemist Steven Kliewer, co-author of the study, “the liver is not only involved in the metabolism of alcohol, but also sends a hormonal signal to the brain to protect it from the harmful effects of intoxication, such as loss of consciousness and coordination.” In this way, at directly inject the hormone FGF21 in animals, recovery from alcohol poisoning can be rapidly accelerated.
It was already known that this hormone is a mechanism that the body has to defend against poisoning by ethanol, a natural adaptation to cope with dehydration, starvation and metabolic stress. But now the key lies in the ability of the hormone to activate a specific part of the brain capable of controlling and stimulating the alert state of the subject.
The study involved administering a toxic dose of ethanol to mice whose livers contained normal amounts of the hormone, and then they were injected with more FGF21. That extra amount of hormones helped the mice quickly regain coordinationand they took half the time to wake up than the mice that did not receive the added dose, which also took longer to recover both their balance and the righting reflex, typical effects of a drunkenness.
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The researchers hope these results will help develop effective and rapid treatments. against alcohol poisoningthus avoiding even extreme situations that endanger life, such as ethyl coma, and favoring the recovery of consciousness and motor disturbances.
In addition, since the brain is the main organ where this hormone has its effects, he concludes David Mangelsdorfthat “we are exploring in greater depth the neural pathways why FGF21 exerts its sobering effect.”
Images | jcomp – senivpetro
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