The Cactus Cure

If the thought of slurping a raw egg makes you gag, try easing your hangover with some prickly-pear fruit extract. Researchers in — where else?--New Orleans asked 55 volunteers, ages 21 to 35, to get drunk and endure a hangover for the sake of science. Half the tipplers were given an extract of the prickly-pear cactus plant before their binges; the other half were given a placebo. the following morning, people who took the cactus extract suffered significantly less from nausea, dry mouth and loss of appetite than those who got placebos. The latter group also had 40% higher blood levels of creactive protein, a marker for inflammation, which may contribute to hangovers. Unfortunately, the remedy had no effect on other symptoms such as dizziness and headache.