Can a pill REALLY cure a hangover? New rehydration remedy promises to zap symptoms of a boozy night… so we put it to the test the morning after the night before
Swiss Phizz tablets combine vitamins and rehydration remedy in ‘UK first’
Formula based on what you would give ‘someone found in the desert’
Our hungover tester experienced a surge in energy and mental clarity
While it felt like it helped, the positive effects were short-lived
Source: Daily Mail
By Annabel Fenwick Elliott
22 September 2015
A new rehydration formula from Switzerland promises to ease your hangover with the perfect mix of glucose, vitamins and minerals.
The formula for the Phizz effervescent tablets is based on ‘what you’d give someone found in the desert dangerously dehydrated’.
But did the the tablets, which cost £7.99 for a pack of 20, work? We got a FEMAIL writer to put them to the test after a particularly heavy night…
When a brand new hangover remedy all the way from Switzerland landed on my desk on the eve of an end of summer party, I saw it as fate.
So I took this journalistic experiment very seriously and made absolutely sure I turned up the following morning with some testable symptoms.
While I wasn’t entirely cured of my hangover, I was surprised by how much a dose of Phizz perked me up.
I trudged into work with all the classic complaints: sluggish brain, bloodshot eyes, and an overwhelming unwillingness to be at the office.
I’m lucky enough never to be cursed with nausea or headaches as part of my regular hangover package, but I do always feel exhausted and mildly to moderately poisoned.
Phizz founder Daniel Cray told me that he based the formula on the World Health Organisation’s tried-and-tested rehydration formula, which he says is ‘effectively what you’d give someone found in the desert dangerously dehydrated’.
Unlike similar products, including Berroca, Phizz is both a multivitamin – containing vitamin C, zinc, and copper – and a rehydration remedy, which is a first in the UK, according to Daniel.
It tastes bizarre – intensely sweet and strangely salty at the same time – but the crackling fizz as the tablets dissolve in my glass of water feels, for whatever reason, reassuring.
After guzzling it down, I set to work and promptly forgot about the experiment.
An hour or so later, however, I noticed that my head had cleared, I felt more alert and, while I was still squinting at the screen through sore eyes, I was typing faster.
My colleague Martha, who had stayed out longer the night before and was thus struggling more than I was, was inspired to give the tablets a go.
She had the same conclusion – her concentration and mental clarity definitely improved after consuming the orange elixir.
By the end of the day, however, the effect seemed to wear off and we both tanked most spectacularly.
After an impressive boost shortly after taking the orange elixir, the hangover re-emerged towards the end of the day – so while it certainly felt like it helped, it wasn’t a comprehensive cure
Whether Phizz actually helped our hangovers, however fleetingly, or whether we just really wanted it to – it definitely felt like it helped.
I was pretty enthusiastic with my wine over the weekend too and I felt comforted and revived after plopping two of my new fizzy friends into a tall glass of water the morning after.
Such is my optimism I’ve even started handing them out among booze-stricken friends in the manner of a sprightly hangover fairy.
So can this tablet really cure a hangover? Of course not. Whoever manages to invent a remedy that powerful will fast find themselves a millionaire.
But did Phizz make me feel at least a bit better? Yes. And in a much more virtuous way than the tried-and-tested hair of the dog.