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Can Science Make Alcohol Safer? (scientificamerican.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader Zorro was the first to spot this story. Scientific American reports:
Could there be a "liver-friendly" vodka? One company claims its proprietary blend of additives reduces stress on the body... The researchers concluded that consuming the alcohol with the additives -- glycyrrhizin, derived from licorice; D-mannitol, a sugar alcohol; and potassium sorbate, a preservative -- may support improved liver health compared with drinking alcohol alone. Marsha Bates, a distinguished research professor and director of the Center of Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University, said the study design "seemed appropriate." But, she added, study itself was small, with only 12 healthy men and women, and "doesn't really provide any information of what the long-term effects of consuming alcohol with this additive would be. It's a positive preliminary study but certainly does not provide a firm basis for speculating about long-term impact."
Functional or not, Harsha Chigurupati needs approval from federal regulators before he can tout curative powers on a label... Specifically, Chigurupati is seeking approval to make the claim that his blend, known as NTX for "No Tox," provides "antioxidant and inflammatory support" and "reduces the risk of alcohol-induced liver diseases," among other claims... Chigurupati said his goal is not to enable people to drink more, but to drink with less physical harm.
The claim "leaves some experts deeply skeptical," adds the article, while 33-year-old Chigurupati admits that an earlier formula "tasted terrible and it actually burned my mouth." But his company later developed a formula which he says tasted good and is easier on the liver. "I don't believe in abstinence," Chigurupati told the Wall Street Journal. "What I do believe in is using technology to make life better. I'm not going to stop drinking, so why not make it safer?"
Functional or not, Harsha Chigurupati needs approval from federal regulators before he can tout curative powers on a label... Specifically, Chigurupati is seeking approval to make the claim that his blend, known as NTX for "No Tox," provides "antioxidant and inflammatory support" and "reduces the risk of alcohol-induced liver diseases," among other claims... Chigurupati said his goal is not to enable people to drink more, but to drink with less physical harm.
The claim "leaves some experts deeply skeptical," adds the article, while 33-year-old Chigurupati admits that an earlier formula "tasted terrible and it actually burned my mouth." But his company later developed a formula which he says tasted good and is easier on the liver. "I don't believe in abstinence," Chigurupati told the Wall Street Journal. "What I do believe in is using technology to make life better. I'm not going to stop drinking, so why not make it safer?"
Can't I not just put tonic in my gin?
Synthehol, from Star Trek Cannon. An Alcohol substitute that has all of the pleasant effects of Alcohol but none of the negative side effects. I'm sure a bottle of Romulan ale would beat Synthehol any day though.
Because drinking in general moderation is not considered unsafe?
If you wanted to make it safe you'd be drinking alcohol free beverages. You're far more likely to die from impairment than liver damage.
The only thing I see wrong with alcohol as it is today is misuse and over use. Perhaps what we need is a little more self discipline and self control. Have a glass of wine with dinner or a beer at the ball game but donâ(TM)t go nuts.
I have been out drinking all night some times, never had a problem. At least, not that I can recall. I'm sure its perfectly safe.
Alcohol is already safe absent prexisting medical conditions. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. Population level studies have found that all cause mortality only increases beyond 3-4 drinks a day in men and 2-3 drinks a day in women. All cause mortality is the gold standard for medical data, since it balances the health benefits with the health risks of alcohol consumption.
Its easy to make it safer, make it unpalatable to stupid humans that insist on drinking it.
"One company claims its proprietary blend of additives reduces stress on the body..."
More like millions of businesses.
Chigurupati said his goal is not to enable people to drink more, but to drink with less physical harm
Alfred Nobel would like a word with you. No matter your intentions, people, both good and bad, will find uses and applications for your invention that you cannot possibly imagine. Worse, they will find uses and applications that you have imagined. That is human nature.
The only additives I need in my vodka are a tiny splash of vermouth and maybe an olive.
Olives are an important food group, and contain omega-something. I forget which one, but I know it's one of the omegas.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Decades ago an entrepreneur came up with a plan to add vitamin C to beer as a means to make it healthier. Apparently the product tasted good but I don't recall if any tests were done regarding health benefit. In any case, it seems that there is a formula for beer that is acceptable to the Food and Drug Administration. Adding any ingredient not on that list makes it not be beer. Thus it would have to go through an expensive approval process.
Millions of brain cells have been destroyed due to this negligent attitude at the FDA. And that's just in my brain alone!
...omphaloskepsis often...
... They'll just turn it into something even worse.
Just like with all those "research chemicals". E.g. how they turned Meth into... Krokodil.
D-mannitol is an Osmotic diuretic. Tastes sweet but difficult to digest. Grain alcohol (ethanol) is prioritized over sugar when it comes to metabolizing (it is a poison that the body tries to rid itself of). Mixing normal sugars with ethanol can cause hyperglycemia which can cause the body start converting sugars into lipids (hyperlipidemia).
Potassium sorbate is more than a preservative, it slows the uptake of alcohol. You could eat peanuts with your drink and get a similar effect.
Glycyrrhizin might not be the wisest choice of additive.
Research on glycyrrhizin at University of Helsinki published in American Journal of Epidemiology (2017):
1. It has harmful effects on a foetus.
2. New research has discovered that it impairs children's IQ's by at least 7 points.
3. Scientists are unsure whether there is even a safe limit of this natural sweetener
4. In separate research, it was proven to be a carcinogen even in normal doses.
5. It is responsible for the liquorice taste which is unpleasant to disgusting by over 30% of adult males.
As somebody from northern Europe... Fuck ya! Licorice is love, licorice is life! Black, strong, salty!
You are more correct than you expect with your comment on flavor. I have two friends who are seriously into wine (or getting wine into them). One owns a liquor store that's mostly stocked with wines. I fooled and then amazed them when I gave them a few glasses to taste of fairly average wine without telling them I'd added just a touch of pure vitamin C to them. Add just a tiny pinch to a glass and it really "opens up" the taste. Try it, you'll be glad you did.
On the one hand you take life too seriously, and on the other, you do not take playful existence seriously enough. Seth
before I RTFA and comment about it.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Star Trek already did it.
It's the danger and skirting death that makes it fun.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
I strongly suspect this will, at best, make it *slightly* healthier. I mean, Coke Zero is probably technically healthier than Coke Classic, but neither are remotely as healthy for you as water.
Prof. David Nutt's work on a "synthetic alcohol" he calls alcosynth is likely to be vastly more healthy, because a) you are consuming the active ingredient in mg doses instead of gram doses, b) it doesn't release acetaldehyde, which is itself a deadly poison, and c) it "tops out", ie if it's designed to top out a 6 drinks, then 10 drinks won't make you any drunker than 6.
https://www.independent.co.uk/...
Science already invented a liver-safe "alcohol" millions of years ago. It's called "weed".
Which needs the additives ...
Korsakoff's syndrome: "This neurological disorder is caused by a lack of thiamine (vitamin B1) in the brain, and is also often exacerbated by the neurotoxic effects of alcohol." from Wikipedia, the source of all, often accurate information
I think I remember in the 1970's one department of the Federal Government proposed requiring a small amount of thiamine to be added to all alcoholic beverages. The proposal got a lot of push back from the alcohol industry, but it probably had little chance of going anywhere and died.
Jagermeister is German alcoholic beverage described as a digestif, with a gazillion herbs mixed in. Only the most commonly found medicinal alcohol in the USA, one of many.
If this synthetic alcohol becomes popular, maybe it’ll drive the price of good whiskey down a bit. And maybe I’ll finally be able to find a bottle of Ol’ Pappy.
#DeleteChrome
“A waste of good gin.”
I kid, I kid...
#DeleteChrome
They already tried that, and look how well that turned out...
If something is bad for you and you refuse to stop doing it despite the negative consequences then it's called an addiction. If you drink so much that you destroy your own liver then you have earned your liver failure because that is no simple feat as it require years of heavy drinking. The only thing doing this would accomplish is enabling addicts in their addictions in a way that will be a further drain on society. This is the wrong approach to solving the problem at hand.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
"I don't believe in abstinence," Chigurupati told the Wall Street Journal. "What I do believe in is using technology to make life better. I'm not going to stop drinking, so why not make it safer?"
I mean, take a look at how Diet Coke has reduced the amount of obese people in the U.S. Drink a bottle of liver-safe vodka along with your beer, gin, wine, rye, and you'll imagine to be fine.
Or how "light" cigarettes and "lady brands" have led to a reduction in lung cancer. This is just putting lipstick on a pig.
Much alcohol abuse is "self-medication" that got out of hand. It's not unusual for "medication" to be dangerous in that way. Morphine is a notorious example.
Alcohol abuse then is mostly a symptom. You're not beating your wife because you're drunk. You're beating your wife because you feel bloody rotten and getting drunk has taken away your selfcontrol not to beat her. Which isn't to say you should let such people have alcohol.
But not all use is abuse. I think that alcohol is not a problem when used as the occasional stress relief, administered in limited doses in good company. One reason why I don't have a problem with alcohol is that I can hardly bring myself to drink when alone, so most beer in my possession goes over BBE and then ends up in pancake batter or something. Which is fine also.
Maybe we could do a campaign promoting baking when feeling rotten. Pancakes, cookies, you name it. Homemade so less prone to cause obesity also.
The only reason ethanol is legal(again in the US) is tradition and ease of production.
A kg of sugar, water, and a box of yeast makes several liters of shitty hooch in recycled soft drink bottles.
But as an alternative convince an alcoholic person who needs that gabbanergic tune-down to cut the ethanol partially or completely with something else which produces less toxin during metabolism in the liver. It will also plug the dangerous cold turkey detox hole.
I don't believe drug dependence can be solved until the self-medicator is able to solve the psychological stresses which causes them to seek an escape. There is actually evidence that prohibition or even a culture which prohibits the escape to intoxication leads more quickly to actual suicide.
I was an urban firefighter/paramedic in the PacNW, Heroin was bad, meth gnarly, but alcohol killed more and the worst cases were chronic alcoholism.
TLDR I suggest permitting without prescription gabbanergic (Benzodiazepines, diluted GHB, and similar) drugs other then ethanol with warning label to reduce harm society wide.
As someone from Southern Europe who has been in Finland... give me all the salmiakki you can, please!
From an effect versus side effect standpoint, what's the best mixed drink per oz of alcohol?
Now there's a burning issue that both Demos and Repubs can talk about.
Yet weed has none of these effects, no hangover, and won't crash your car. Yet it is illegal.
It's not the alcohol that gives you cirrhosis. This was found out many years ago. It's a bad diet that does it.
Alcoholics who eat well don't tend to get cirrhosis. Those who don't eat well, tend to get it.
Anyone remember "safer guns and safer bullets?" Sounds just as "smart."
Where do people sign up for the long term studies necessary for general approval?
In the immortal words of Freewheelin' Franklin, "Better living through chemistry!"...
Sure can. Tip it out the window.
Isn't alcohol fundamentally a toxin?
How does one make a toxin itself less toxic, yet not change it?
-Styopa
Clinical Psychopath wants to make outrageous claim, based on dubious trials, for personal profit!
Someone trying to create Synthehol?
Ever notice that liver damage is held up as a sort of badge of honor? By drinkers?
"Yeah, I'm drinking and I'm killing my liver! What's it to you?"
Most people are perfectly aware of the liver damage and they don't care. Either that or they are perversely proud of the cirrhosis they can look forward to. See also smokers and lung cancer.