Zaca Recovery Patch

Last Updated on Sunday, 12 June 2011 12:42 Sunday, 12 June 2011 12:32

By: fanatic

After a night's hard drinking, it stands to reason that boosting the body with vitamins and minerals should, in theory, help to alleviate the next morning hangover. As the body battles to process the copious amounts of alcohol ingested, water, vitamins and minerals get soaked up, leaving the body deficient and raging with hangover symptoms.

The problem up to now is that most 'hangover cures' wait until the morning after to get started. Ever seen some advice to throw some fruit/vegetables/eggs/grandmother's stew into a blender and chug it down on crawling out of bed the next morning? It might alleviate the hangover, but its like donning the armour after the attack. Best put on the armour before the attack.

Zaca patches do just that. Stick them on before you head out for the night and leave on for 24 hours. They look like nicotine patches and you can stick them on the body just about anywhere. The ingredients are all organic and include:

- Prickly Pear
- Milk Thistle
- Thiamine (B1)
- Lipoic Acid
- B5
- B3
- Taurine
- Lycopene
- NAC
- Magnesium
- Vitamin C

Leaving the ingredients soak into the body while you do battle with the drink should leave you better able to withstand the onslaught of alcohol. The ingredients have been selected for their abilities to break down alcohol, protect and repair the liver, as well as replacing minerals used up during the night.

But does it work?

The Zaca Recovery Patch has not been tested by the Food and Drug Administration. But the ingredients have been recognised as 'Generally Recognized as Safe' (GRAS), a designation that a chemical or substance added to food is considered safe by experts, and so is exempted from the usual Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) food additive tolerance requirements.

I tested it twice. The first time I was not drinking but stuck it on anyway. I can't say I noticed any particular difference the next morning. I was my usual grumpy self. The second time was for a night of (moderate) drinking - normally guaranteed to give me a hangover anyway. I stuck on the patch early that day (12pm) and made sure to drink 3-4 glasses of water during the night. Okay, so my hangover wasn't completely gone the next morning, but it was a definite improvement on my Saturday hangover. Whether it had anything to do with the placebo effect, I don't know.

A box of six patches is available at ZacaLife for $19.95 plus shipping ($7.95) bringing the total to a pricey $27.90. But if it saves you a day of hangover misery, probably worth the bucks.