Saturday, March 28, 2009

Pepcid AC stops the Asian Flush? Time to put it to the test...

As a follow up to Morris's post about the Asian flush, I wanted to mention a remedy that my sister swears by. It's to take a Pepcid AC before drinking.

Usually before I believe these things, I need: 1. Some sort of scientific rationale and 2. Empirical evidence (i.e. it works on me, or some sort of data).

A fellow Asian friend provided me with #1... she said Pepcid AC has enzymes in it as an active to neutralize stomach acid, and the same enzymes help neutralize something (maybe it's acetaldehyde, if I apply what I learned from that article). OK, sounds rational.

As for empirical evidence, I figured what they hey, I'll try it myself. So one night I took a Pepcid and went out for a couple of beers.

So what happened? Well I must say I didn't feel as flushed, nor the increased heart rate that I typically get. However, as I had my beers, I started to feel the other effects... i.e. a headache. That night, in addition to the headache, I felt overall a little crappy. I wonder if this is what a hangover feels like? I've never had one, because I couldn't drink enough before I got sick.

So I wonder if Pepcid AC does take away some of the symptoms of the Asian flush, but leaves all the other underlying issues of not being able to metabolize alcohol right? Maybe I should do a little more research...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've heard many anecdotal evidences of the effectiveness of Pepcid AC.

I've never taken Pepcid AC, but did you read the label? "Pepcid AC may cause dizziness. This effect may be worse if you take it with alcohol or certain medicines."
http://www.drugs.com/cdi/pepcid-ac.html

That sounds like a really bad combination.

Katharine said...

If our benchmark for Americanness is apple pie, ask yourself, how often do you eat apple pie? Now how often do you eat Chinese food? - taken from http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/

what actually reminded me of this blog was once you go to the link there is a comment leading to another link about jews and their chinese food...

Linda said...

I can't go out without good ol' Pepcid. BUT, it doesn't mean you can drink more, in fact...really drink less. But you just won't get AS sick or red.

Pepcid said...

Don't take too much and don't smoke cigarettes while using, both will make you sick.

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