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The pill is made from a few key ingredients: liver hydrolyse, vitamin C and alpha lipoic acid, dihydromyricetin (DHM), n-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC), and milk thistle (I will go on to talk about the effects of these later). It is recommended to take two capsules before you start drinking, and/or before you go to bed. The pills are also gluten free, non-GMO, completely bioavailable, and GMP certified. If you’re interested, they are available on Flyby’s website: www.flyby.co. So how do they work?
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When you drink alcohol you are borrowing happiness from tomorrow.
Alcohol is known to suppress a hormone in your body called vasopressin, which is responsible for reducing urine excretion and helping your kidneys reabsorb water back into your bloodstream. With less vasopressin in your system, you’ll feel the need to visit the restroom more often, which can rapidly dehydrate you. In fact, depending on how much you drink, you can lose up to four times more than the amount of liquid you’re consuming - scary stuff! With so little water now left circulating your body, your organs begin to take water from each other. This is dangerous when organs begin to starve the brain of water as it can cause it to physically shrink, which is what gives you that splitting headache when you wake up! The nausea you experience is due to alcohol’s effects on your stomach acids as it promotes more hydrochloric acid formation. Too much acid can be harmful to your stomach lining, and for this reason, your stomach expels it - the burn you will feel in your throat is not from the alcohol itself, but from the over-secretion of stomach acid.
The first, liver hydrolyse, has been reported to have alleviating effects on ethanol-induced toxin build up. As the name suggests, it’s a liver enzyme and promotes activity which breaks down ethanol, thus removing it from your system faster. A study was even conducted involving rats which were fed small amounts of alcohol - it was noted that the rats which were given the enzyme boost were better at walking across beams and had a higher food intake. Vitamin C and alpha lipoic acid, on the other hand, are immune-supportive supplements. When your body lost all that water, it also washed away nutrients from its system - Vitamin C prevents malnourishment, helps the body heal, as well as being an antioxidant (which is why it’s present in a lot of cold medicine). Lipoic acid in combination with Vitamin C extends the activity of the vitamins in your system, and helps the breakdown of carbohydrates, providing more energy for your organs (and making that late-night stop off at McDonald’s sound even better!). Something which will help you feel more awake and alert are flavonoids, such as Dihydromyricetin (DHM), which are chemical compounds with antioxidant effects thought to improve cell signalling in the body. DHM has been used in patients who suffer from alcohol dependency to aid their recovery. The unpronounceable n-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC), is perhaps the most important ingredient in these pills. It’s made from amino acids, which make up various essential proteins in the body, but its uses extend far beyond anti-hangover pills, as NAC has even been used in treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and for reducing cholesterol levels. But in this case, it’s more useful in preventing alcoholic liver damage and kidney failure. And finally, milk thistle, which you may have seen on the shelves of Holland and Barrett - it’s a flowering herb similar to a daisy, known to improve liver functionality and help reduce the risk of liver damage. All in all, it’s certainly a more beneficial cocktail than that tequila sunrise! You can see why the combination of the above would help get rid of that hangover…just remember to drink lots of water as well!
Mila Georgieva Photography by Nicole Cumming
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Your liver can break down approximately one unit of alcohol per hour, so when your intake exceeds this, toxins build up and you get the effects of being ‘drunk’. Your movements are slowed, your vision impaired, and you may experience blackouts due to your brain functionality reducing. Flyby’s cocktail of vitamins and supplements combats these toxins to aid the body’s natural cleansing system whilst the detoxifying components of the pills help cure the late nights and prepare you for the early mornings.
So what were those fancy ingredients in Flyby’s pills?
SCIENCE
Make That Hangover Flyby.
ew York based company, Flyby, is setting out to fight hangovers one night out at a time, with the creation of their all-natural antihangover pill. Their CEO and founder, Eddie Huai, was inspired by a trip to Japan where he came across a ‘drinking supplement’ which worked its magic and reduced his hangover symptoms the next morning, despite his all-you-can-drink partying the night before.