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Are you sure it's the Cysteine? According to this paper[1] where test rats received an LD50 dose of acetaldehyde, those that received cysteine had an 80% survival rate; while those that received both cysteine and thiamine had a 100% survival rate. Thiamine and Methylthiazolidine contain sulfur (thio-/thia- is greek for sulfur) where Cysteine does not. It follows that it would be responsible for some foul air.

It's likely that what you are taking may contain both, is this the case?

For all the bio-hackers looking to experiment tonight, it seems to make sense to:

1) take dry yeast to help the alcohol dehydrogenase break the alcohol down into acetaldehyde to stop you from feeling drunk

2) take both thiamine (optional) and cysteine to help the acetaldehyde dehydrogenase break acetaldehyde down into acetic acid to stop you from feeling hungover.

Assuming you just take a bunch of dry yeast, and that it has any effect at all you'll probably still have a bad hangover. Then again, chaining all these things together without a solid understanding about what's going on probably isn't too smart either.

[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4842541




Good points. It is worth mentioning that cysteine (non -acetyl varieties) isn't as stable/bioavailable as n-acetyl-cysteine; some people sell plain cysteine but it's not worth it- just stick with NAC if you're looking for a supplement.

I would note NAC does have a sulfhydryl group (as indicated by the -SH in the molecular diagram), so it does contain sulfur at some level.

And if hangover reduction is your goal, there are a number of other things that contribute to hangover symptoms that you also need to manage in order to reduce their effects:

- dehydration (drink a bunch of fluids before bed)

- depletion of electrolytes (generally speaking, make sure to eat/drink something salty)

- depletion of B vitamins (thiamine/B1 in particular tends to be depleted among alcoholics - supplement with a B complex high in thiamine; some studies show reduction of hangover symptoms with very high B6 intake(very high levels-1200mg) source: Khan MA, Jensen K, Krogh HJ. Alcohol-induced hangover. A double-blind comparison of pyritinol and placebo in preventing hangover symptoms)




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