A reader asked me about this product and the company behind it was kind enough to send a sample. The idea is nothing like anything else I’ve experienced to date: Multivitamins designed for drinkers.
Makes sense: Hangover remedies are almost always stuffed with various vitamins, so why not just incorporate those into your daily vitamin routine and skip hangover meds altogether?
I tried Drinkwel for several weeks and here’s what I have to report.
The ingredients of Drinkwel are lengthy and resemble your typical multivitamin, including Vitamins C, E, B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, folic acid, biotin, pantothenic acid, magnesium, zinc, selenium, copper, manganese, and chromium. On top of this are over a dozen amino acids and herbs, including N-acetyl Cysteine, Taurine, L-Theanine, kudzu, milk thistle, rhodiola, artichoke leaf, green tea extract, acerola, bupleurum root (no idea), schisandra extract (ditto), acai, gogi berry, and betaine HCl. Whew!
You are supposed to take three of these capsules daily, plus another three if you drink. The sheer quantity of stuff you are supposed to consume is the main problem here. No one likes taking vitamins and I sure as hell don’t like taking six funky-smelling capsules every day. Besides, with 90 in a bottle, if you’re taking six a day, you’ll be out of stock in just 15 days. That’s a sizeable investment (though hopefully you aren’t drinking that much and can stick with the three-a-day regimen most of the time).
As for the results, I can’t report much. I switched from a regular B-centric multivitamin to Drinkwel for the test and didn’t really feel any different whether I was drinking that night or not. While I didn’t drink to excess and stuck with the three-a-day regimen, I didn’t really feel any better or worse at any point in the day than I did with my normal vitamin.
At about day 12, however, I found I began to get headaches in the afternoon. I stopped taking Drinkwel at that point and the headaches continued for a few more days, then they went away. I can’t blame Drinkwel for this based on such minimal evidence, of course, but it’s possible that I had an allergic reaction to one of the many unusual ingredients in the capsules. I am wondering, though, if anyone else has experienced anything similar.
Bottom line: If you’re not taking a multivitamin, Drinkwel probably isn’t a bad way to get into the habit, but I’m not sure your mileage will vary much vs. a typical OTC multi. Let me know if it does!
$40 for 90 capsules (15-30 days) / drinkwel.com
Subtitled “99 Ways to Feel 100 Times Better,” this slim tome (just 99 pages long including the index) is a straightforward list of recipes and advice for correcting the worst part of drinking: the hangover.
