Can the Bytox Patch Prevent Your Hangover? Should It?

By Anthony Todd in Food on Dec 2, 2011 4:00PM

We love to rag on bad press releases and ridiculous products, so when the solicitation for Bytox, a patch that claims to "stop hangovers before they start," came across our virtual desk, we sharpened our pencils. The release had everything: dubious medical claims with disclaimer stars after them ("The patch is 100% safe and really works!*), strange, unrelated claims ("Bytox has zero calories") and a promise of a "well-spoken" and "good looking" expert doctor whose background was not identified. However, after perusing their site and speaking with Bytox's medical expert, we had a change of heart. This product isn't just silly, it might actually be a bad idea.

Hangovers suck, and many people have their own remedies for dealing with them. Most of these remedies involve a combination of three things - water, vitamins and pain killers. Former Gourmet Magazine columnist (and novelist) Laurie Colwin swore by her cure, which combined seltzer, lime juice and aspirin. Hangovers are a bit of a scientific mystery, caused by some combination of dehydration, lack of sleep and the various toxins present in alcohol. Some people (20-30% in one study) are resistant to hangovers, and people of Asian descent seem to be more susceptible to them.

Bytox claims to prevent hangovers by delivering a constant stream of B vitamins into your system. This part isn't complete hogwash - B vitamins have been used for a long time to combat the effects of alcohol, and one study found that doses of Vitamin B6 were one of the only things that had any effect on hangover symptoms. Bytox contains 4160% of your daily allowance of Vitamin B12 and 10000% of your daily allowance of Vitamin B1. Plus, some Acai Berry. Why not? It seems to fix everything else. But Bytox presents no evidence that the product works, that B vitamins can be absorbed through the skin or that such high levels are needed. The only evidence of effectiveness that their medical expert presented? The fact that he'd tried the product himself. Bytox has also given the product to bloggers, some of whom have had good personal experiences. Testimonials without data are red flag #1 for anyone wary of medical claims. Red flag #2? "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration."

Why might this product be a bad idea? There is one thing that we can all agree on: hangovers help convince us not to drink quite so much. If you know you're going to wake up miserable, you might choose to drink less. I asked Dr. Leonard Grossman, a cosmetic surgeon and the medical expert for Bytox, if he was worried about this possibility. No, he replied. Why? "When Lipitor was invented, people didn't run out and start eating McDonalds."

That would be a more useful analogy if Lipitor was meant to mitigate acute symptoms like heartburn, or, say, hangovers. When pressed, Dr. Grossman pointed out that Bytox wouldn't stop you from feeling miserable if you drank several bottles of booze. But, if you engaged in "healthy drinking," which this medical expert defined as "10 martinis" (!) you'd be fine. It's worth noting that the doctor may have misspoken, because if a 160-pound man drank 10 martinis over the course of 6 hours, his blood alcohol level would be approximately .576%. .40% can cause coma.

Let's assume a more reasonable amount of drinking. Bytox doesn't claim that you can drink without getting drunk, but it does claim to mitigate the symptoms of drinking "before, during and after." (What does "before" even mean?) Their claims are carefully vague, and it would be easy for a consumer to get confused about what exactly is being treated.

The company makes it very easy for someone to think that the patch is preventing the other effects of alcohol, not just the hangover. Their website claims that "the most interesting people in the world remember what happened last night," which just barely skirts the line of implying that the patch stops you from getting drunk. The hangover isn't what stops someone from remembering the previous night, just from wanting to remember. Another slide shows a picture of a passed out drunk, with the words "don't let this happen to you." Once again, the hangover isn't what makes you pass out. Bytox, while claiming to be concerned with "responsible drinking," is marketing their product through reps on college campuses. Even if this product works, is it a good idea to hand it out to college students so that they can drink without worrying about feeling bad?

Any product that uses vague claims of effectiveness and irrelevant statements about a lack of calories, includes acai berries among its ingredients and spouts statements about how "natural" the product is makes us suspicious. Remember, anthrax and cyanide are also "made from nature's best," as Bytox puts it. Even if the thing works, we'd suggest taking a cheaper route - drink a glass of water, pop a multivitamin and drink less. As the British Medical Journal pointed out, "No compelling evidence exists to suggest that any conventional or complementary intervention is effective for preventing or treating alcohol hangover. The most effective way to avoid the symptoms of alcohol induced hangover is to practice abstinence or moderation."