At this point in my life I’ve experienced the day-long debilitating hangovers that come with old age… and I’m only 23. Headache, nausea, and the general feeling that you hate yourself and your life choices, at least those you made last night.

So what if you could stop your hangover from happening just by drinking beer? Researchers in Australia are in the process of developing a beer that will re-hydrate you while you drink. The key: electrolytes.

Electrolytes are, for those of you who barely scraped by in science (that would be me), very important body things. They ensure that everything runs at optimal levels. That’s why athletes eat those gross gel things.

Photo courtesy of imgarcade.com

When you drink alcohol your body quickly becomes dehydrated and refuses to absorb nutrients through their regular metabolic processes. By adding electrolytes to beer it cuts down on the dehydration that occurs during a night of drinking and helps your body keep functioning normally.

This low-hangover beer should give you a third more hydration than normal beer which should in turn prevent a hangover. So instead of going berserk and attacking you the next day your body will be, relatively, hydrated and not so mad at you.

hangover

Gif courtesy of reddit.com

Professor Ben Desbrow, one of the people who worked on this beer, wanted to make beer a healthier option rather than telling people not to drink.

The only problem: the scientists had to reduce the alcohol level for best results.

So there’s a trade off. If you’re just looking to chill out and have a beer or two this electrolyte infused beer might be the best thing for you. If you want to get drunk, you’ll have to drink way more of these, but it will still ward off your hangover.

Looking for other solutions for that nasty hangover? Check out these Spoon articles: