Does Asparagus Help a Hangover

WHILE ALCOHOL IN your blood can make you feel good, the breakdown products give you a hangover. When you drink alcohol (ethanol), the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase in your liver converts it to acetaldehyde (ethanal). Then acetaldehyde dehydrogenase takes over and turns the ethanal to acetate, before it’s broken down into carbon dioxide and water.

Asparagus contains compounds that more than double the speed of both the alcohol and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase enzymes. If you took asparagus before you went out for the night, this would reduce how drunk you felt because the alcohol would be processed more quickly.

Taken the morning after, it would also help to mop up any remaining ethanal in your blood.

The downside is that a bottleneck is created that will increase the levels of acetate. This causes the chemical adenosine to accumulate in your brain, which lowers the activity of your brain cells. This is why a hangover also makes you feel sluggish. Luckily, caffeine binds to the same receptors as adenosine, so a cup of coffee prevents the adenosine from slowing you down.