Hangover cure ‘scientifically proven’ to work within 30 minutes… Did it work for our health journalists?

Nowadays we have drugs for everything: from cancer to Alzheimer’s, erectile dysfunction and constipation.

But there’s one ailment that affects millions of people every weekend, but has so far eluded science: the dreaded hangover.

However, wellness companies have developed a whole range of remedies for this, including patches, pills, and even home intravenous cocktails. One of these, Safety Shot, claims to cure a hangover before the night is over.

Safety Shot is a drink made up of B vitamins, caffeine and salt. When it was launched last year, it promised to be the ‘first’ proven remedy to lower blood alcohol levels within half an hour, by breaking down alcohol before it reaches the gut.

At $19.99 for four cans, it sold out on launch day and the company’s stock soared 85 percent within a month.

Earlier this week, Safety Shot announced that this claim was backed up by a clinical trial, in which participants reported feeling less fatigued, more energetic, and better focused just minutes after drinking it.

The study isn’t publicly available, though, so it’s unclear if there were many limitations. This made two reporters skeptical, so they tested the drug to see if they could avoid a hangover.

Eve Simmons, Health Editor

Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m a cheap date. Two drinks are enough to make me giggle.

After a bottle it’s not uncommon for me to fall – and the next day it’s all over.

According to the Safety Shot website, the ingredients are effective both during the drunken night and the next morning, so I did both.

For the first part of my experiment, I tested the drink with a bottle of Chablis.

Halfway through I realized I didn’t feel like checking my work emails (usually the first sign I’m drunk). My tongue was loose and my voice was a little louder than normal.

I opened the can and my god, did it taste bad.

If you’ve ever had the misfortune of swallowing chalky vitamin B12 tablets (not capsules), it’s a bit like eating three at once.

I felt little difference. And it was quite a challenge to remember to slurp that copper brew between glasses of wine – think of the old ‘a glass of water with every drink’ method on steroids.

Still, I managed to drink about a quarter of a can, but apparently that wasn’t enough to get me back up to speed.

And then there’s the hangover. I woke up feeling a little less bad than expected.

But that could also have been the liter of water I downed after waking up at 4am with an unquenchable thirst.

I sat up in bed and took another disgusting swig of Safety Shot. Then I decided to get up and, for some reason, retrieve a pair of hand weights from under my bed at 7am.

This unexpected energy boost likely came from the drink’s 200 milligrams of caffeine, more than two cups of coffee and half the FDA’s recommended limit.

It kept me going all morning and gave me three hours of holiday shopping in busy downtown Brooklyn.

But then, at 5pm, I had a huge dip. I walked through the door, collapsed on the couch and moved only to meet the man who delivered my shawarma to the front door.

There was also a strange side effect of the caffeine that I didn’t expect: my heart was beating exceptionally fast. Or at least it felt that way.

While it could explain the early morning weight training, it’s unlikely it had any effect on my blood alcohol levels the night before.

Dr George Dawson, former president of the Minnesota Psychiatric Society and an addiction expert, told DailyMail.com: ‘Caffeine has been specifically debunked in a toxicology text as a way to reverse the acute effects of alcohol.’

In fact, he says, high-quality clinical studies have shown that “none” of the ingredients in the drink speed up alcohol metabolism or reduce the impact of a hangover.

Dr. Dawson also highlighted the presence of two other, lesser-known ingredients that may partly explain my rapid heart rate.

Theobromine, which is used to make caffeine, and synephrine, which is extracted from the peel of bitter oranges, are also known to cause heart palpitations.

The former is mainly found in cocoa beans, while the latter occurs naturally in the peel of bitter oranges and other citrus fruits.

If it worked for other people in the trial, great for them. But after trying other methods like hangover patches, IVs, and bags of liquid IVs, I don’t think there is a quick fix for a hangover unless you drink a lot most days of the week. And I don’t recommend that.

Emily Joshu, Health Reporter

It only takes a few beers or glasses of wine for me to trip over my own feet, but I think I’m pretty good at staying hydrated and avoiding a hangover.

I’m that friend who throws water in her friends’ faces between drinks – including at my own bachelorette party – so that I’m not completely useless the next day.

But I decided that if I really wanted to test the Safety Shot, I should play a game of Hangover Roulette.

With two cans of the drink in my bag, I enlisted one of my best friends to witness my demise with my own eyes.

I met her at one of our regular neighborhood eateries, where we both ordered a fruit cocktail with a long list of ingredients that I hadn’t noticed, and the restaurant’s “Girl Dinner” special: Caesar salad, fries, and boneless chicken wings.

After knocking back a cocktail and an ice-cold mug of Miller High Life, I felt my cheeks warm slightly as it took a little extra effort to get up.

But I didn’t feel like I was drunk enough to open the Safety Shot, so we decided to go somewhere else.

Since my girlfriend’s husband wasn’t home, we decided to go to her apartment to play with her puppy. On the way, we bought two bottles of wine.

Then things started to go downhill. I opened one of the bottles and sat on the couch with the dog, and as the contents of the bottle quickly diminished, I heard a little slurp in my voice.

I took a sip of the Safety Shot, which was a mistake. The orange liquid was so bitter that it felt like I was drinking slightly expired orange juice that had been sitting in the sun.

My girlfriend also took a sip and immediately had a look of, ‘Wow, that was awful.’

For some reason we thought this was a good time to watch the movie Saltburn.

I don’t know if I would have understood what was happening when sober, but after an unknown amount of alcohol at the time, I was completely lost.

I forced myself to drink more Safety Shot. I certainly didn’t feel any less drunk, but the caffeine was hitting my system fast. I’m sure at one point I said out loud, “I feel like I’m shaking.”

Although I drink coffee regularly, I may experience this effect more than other people who drink Safety Shot.

I have a very mild heart condition called inappropriate sinus tachycardia (IST), where my heart can beat faster than normal for no good reason.

My heart rate can shoot up and I get out of breath just doing something light, like taking a hot shower or walking up the stairs.

Caffeine doesn’t normally trigger my symptoms, but after maybe a quarter of the can, my heart was pounding and my hands were shaking. I grabbed my phone and awkwardly typed “drunk but fast” into my Notes app.

I stumbled home, leaving the second can of Safety Shot in my boyfriend’s fridge, where I believe it still is. I fell asleep quickly, but as always when I drink a lot, I woke up every few hours tossing and turning, alternating between hot and cold.

When I finally rolled out of bed around 9:00, my head was throbbing just above my right eye as if an ice pick had been lodged in my brain. My whole body ached and I could barely sit up without rapid waves of nausea.

I didn’t try drinking Safety Shot again, as the first can clearly made no difference in terms of drunkenness or hangover.

The same friend from the night before brought me a McDonald’s hash brown and an iced coffee, and I spent the rest of the day sprawled out on the couch, only getting up to make soup.

Next time I think I’ll just stick to water and a greasy meal of bacon, egg and cheese the next morning.