Drinking Pear Juice Before Alcohol Can Help Prevent Hangovers

A team of CSIRO researchers from Australia's national science agency says pear juice, when consumed before drinking alcohol, can help eliminate the effects of a hangover. The researchers studied the effect of pear juice in preventing the symptoms of hangover by seeing how it affected the severity of 14 common symptoms. The study was conducted using the Asian pear from Korea.

The researchers found the signs of a hangover were reduced significantly in the participants who had the Korean pear juice right before they consumed alcohol during the experiment. In addition, the research team found those who had pear juice could concentrate better when hungover than those who just drank alcohol. Such individuals also showed reduced sensitivity to sound, light and memory loss.

Only the effects of the Asian pear were studied. The team is now planning to conduct further research to see whether Western pear juice has the same effect.

"It appears that the factors in Korean pears act on the key enzymes involved in alcohol metabolism, alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase to speed up alcohol metabolism and elimination or inhibition of alcohol absorption," lead researcher Manny Noakes said. "In particular, reductions were seen in blood acetaldehyde levels, the toxic metabolic thought to be responsible for the hangover symptoms, with pear juice consumption."

The researchers further said a minimum of 220 milliliters of pear juice needs to be consumed to produce similar results. Eating whole pears could also produce the same effect, the researchers said.