RU-21 Hangover Cure
Pills Designed for KGB Aim to Keep Head Clear After Night of Drinking
I’m always leery of claims that a shiny new pill can rid you of hangovers. Alcohol is such a pervasive intoxicant that its lingering effects the next morning would seem hard to completely erase — and if it did actually work, that might be even scarier, not only encouraging more drinking but probably leading to some unforeseen side-effect disease down the road.
But a pill originally intended for the KGB that was made by the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics, a division of the Russian Academy of Sciences? I’m in!
That marketing combined with my clear-headed rationale led me to popping open my first bottle of RU-21, of which 140 million tablets have reportedly been sold. (So it must be safe, right? At least it’s now made in California.) Technically a dietary supplement, RU-21 is loaded with succinic acid and vitamins that are designed to inhibit the way our bodies turn alcohol into acetaldehyde, which is the nasty stuff that causes headaches, drowsiness, and so forth the morning after.
