A new capsule looks to help mitigate some of the negative impact to one’s body by consuming alcohol, not just by masking them but actually preventing them. Nick grabs a bottle of cheap wine and tests out the claim

I like a drink, in moderation of course. Even with my light consumption of wine though I still wake up the next day feeling a long way from fighting fit. And as I get older that seems to happen more and more often and I don’t return to normal until late in the afternoon.

This isn’t just unpleasant, it affects work. Staring at the screen feeling vaguely nauseous and unable to think straight is not productive. Nor is my bad temper toward colleagues.

But here is Survivor  (cue Eye of The Tiger) to get us through the morning that comes after the night before.Some of the scientific reasons for a hangover are dehydration, fatigue, glucose imbalances, and gastrointestinal acidity. The main villain though is the alcohol itself and its by-product acetaldehyde, an inflammatory toxin. Survivor tackles this with two main ingredients – Dihydromyricetin and Puerariae lobatae Flos.

These are traditional treatments for hangovers that have been used in medicine for thousands of years and they accelerate the breakdown of the acetaldehyde.

Formulated by an ex-Vice President of the Red Cross and made in the UK, Survivor has isolated the active components and increased the purity. The result is then made into tablet form.

So, corkscrew in hand, screw top wine not being available in my personal cellar, I sat down in front of Money Heist the Netflix boxset (very good btw) and commenced the experiment.

The idea is that you take two capsules per four alcoholic drinks consumed and then two before bed. I suppose this has been worked out via units of alcohol and assumes you aren’t counting a bottle of wine as one’drink’. Some people do, you know.

The first issue was remembering to not top up the glass, as that would have confused the four drink rule. I almost forgot a couple of times.Second was remembering to take the tablets.

I got a bit caught up in the TV show and was just starting the fifth glass when I remembered. I don’t think it invalidated my results.

These were not massive glasses of wine,  I guess I drank about half a bottle, as I do most nights, and went to bed in a benign haze at around 11pm.

I usually wake up mildly groggy, with a slightly thick head and a little bit of dyspepsia. It takes two cups of tea and at least one digestive to get me out of bed.

Genuinely I did not feel that way after Survivor. I slept better (I think) and I woke with less of a deathly drawn-out groan than usual. I didn’t exactly bound out of bed, to be honest I never have, but I was up sooner than usual and strangely determined to have a boiled egg for breakfast.

Normally all I can manage to poke down is a slice of toast. I felt sprightly and connected and fairly eager to start work. As much as anyone ever is.

Of course, ideally this experiment would have been conducted via a blind test; one person taking the real capsules, one taking fakes, neither of us knowing which was which, and comparing notes the next day. Sadly, this was beyond the home laboratory.

All the same I reckon Survivor does indeed actually work, I do think that I felt better and that I wasn’t kidding myself just because I wanted to believe there was a cure.

So why not try for yourself? It’s available as one-off packs and as a monthly subscription via the website survivorlife.com

Please remember always to drink responsibly.

Survivor is not a licence to get totally sloshed on a regular basis, and it won’t prevent damage from alcohol abuse or stop you waking up in a dumpster.