If you haven’t guessed from the title and picture, here’s the TL;DR — Freshly picked pears will help your hangover. This can be boosted further by drinking water, taking an Advil and a thimble full of a clear drinking alcohol.
If you search for articles across the internet, and you’ve ever had a hangover, you’ve likely seen a lot of debate on the topic, ranging from people suggesting you eat raw eggs to people saying there are no cures (and both often claiming that they are the “scientifically correct” answer, all without ever citing a single research paper.
As people who’ve read my informational pieces (different than my opinion pieces) would know, I love citing research papers.
To quote one paper by Jeffrey G. Wiese, MD[4]
Symptoms of hangover seem to be caused by dehydration, hormonal alterations, dysregulated cytokine pathways, and toxic effects of alcohol.
The toxic part of your hangover going away basically comes down to two chemicals in the liver[2]:
- Alcohol dehydrogenase (this turns the alcohol into Formaldehyde)
- Aldehyde-dehydrogenase (this turns the Formaldehyde into something body-safe)
The bodies ability to produce these is accelerated or decelerated by certain situations. And pears have been shown to be a very good source of spurring the body into their production. [1]
In addition, you’ll want to stay hydrated so your body can actually move these chemicals around, which also counteracts the effects of the dehydration. [3] Though it’s worth noting, that fresh pears are 80% water [10].
Now, we get to the cytokine issues. It’s not uncommon for people to recommend painkillers for a hanger, but they generally recommend the wrong ones. You see, the hallmark of cytokine imbalance is inflammation [5]. This means, if you’re going to take a painkiller, you’re going to want one that fights inflammation. The normal recommendation is typical Aspirin. However, the inflammation-fighting Aspirin is specifically the high dosages[6], and Aspirin is tough on the liver[7], you know the same organ you’re trying to use to fight the alcohol?
So, if you want to fight the inflammation-causing cytokine problems, your better bet is either ibuprofen(such as Advil) or Aleve[6]. Although pears also have some minor anti-inflammatory properties, even if not as good as the Advil or Aleve. [11]
This just leaves with with hormonal balances to contend with. For this, we look at our Endocrine system [8]. Although alcohol slams your endocrine like a famous wrecking ball music video, one of the biggest hits is to Insulin. To that end, nutrient sensing place a big role [9]. So, you want to get nutrients. And guess what? Pears have nutrients! If you want to up the ante’ though, you could throw in a multi-vitamin for good measure. Although, score one for traditional remedies, a small amount of alcohol [8] (6) actually boosts your insulin sensitivity. However, that amount of alcohol is tiny. If you pass 48 g/day, the effect is gone. [Also [8]… this is a really informational paper!] which is just over one ounce. And that’s not saying “drink one ounce”, it’s saying, “drink a small amount, and the more you’re below one ounce, the better”. Although, did you know pears that are picked when slightly overripe can contain some amounts of ethanol due to fermentation? [12]
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266592711930005X
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7692803/
[3] https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/full/10.7326/0003-4819-132-11-200006060-00008
[4] https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/full/10.7326/0003-4819-132-11-200006060-00008
[5] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1359610102000266
[6] https://www.healthline.com/health/pain-relief/otc-anti-inflammatories
[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4435341/
[8] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3767933/
[9] https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/144/12/5172/2880440
[11] https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf303235h
[12] https://journals.ashs.org/jashs/view/journals/jashs/119/5/article-p976.xml
