A few weeks ago I get an email from a guy named Mark and he introduces me to this thing called the Zaca Organic Hangover Patch. The claim was that it is an adhesive patch you put on your body and wear much like those nicotine patches that help you stop smoking. Instead of preventing you from lighting up this Zaca Hangover Patch prevents you from having a hangover after a long day/night of consuming alcohol. You place the patch on your body when you take your first drink and leave it on for 24 hours. By simply doing that, it is supposed to prevent or or greatly reduce the effects of a traditional hangover symptoms.
I’ll admit it. I was skeptical. I even emailed Mark back telling him that if this patch is Medicine Show Snake Oil and does not prevent hangovers I will not hesitate to reveal that to my readers. He was pretty confident in his product’s claim and still offered to send me a sample. They arrived in the mail a few days later and now I was faced with having to get drunk on purpose to test these hangover patches out. (Tough job, I know.)
If you are pressed for time and do not have time to read the entire testing process I undertook with the Zaca Hangover Patch, I’ll cut to the chase: It worked. The first patch worked so well I decided to test it again, this time with more drinks than the original test. Same result. Little to no hangover at all.
My first test I decided to undergo was with vodka and watermelon. I had seen that my How To Spike a Watermelon post from back in July of last year was receiving quite a bit of traffic lately. (I guess with summer coming up people are looking to get loaded on fruit.) The power of suggestion is a powerful tool so I decided to cut up some watermelon, pour about 12 oz of vodka over the chunks and let it sit for an hour or two. I then ate the watermelon periodically throughout the night while working on this website. (Who said drinking and blogging don’t mix?) Once done with the watermelon chunks there was a fair amount of juice and vodka left over. I continued to drink the juice/vodka mixture periodically until it was all gone. By the way, if you were following me on Twitter you would have been able to catch some of my inane comments as I got more and more intoxicated. After consuming it all, I went to bed as one would normally do after a night of partying.
I got about five hours of sleep that night. (I have two small kids in the house and they get up between 6 am and 7 am every morning no matter what day of the week.) I felt a little groggy when I woke up but that was probably more from the lack of sleep than from the alcohol. I did not have any dry mouth symptoms nor did I have a headache. I figured after 12 shots of vodka I would have a bit of a hangover but apparently the Zaca Hangover Patch prevented those symptoms. Score = Zaca – 1; Hangover – 0.
After a few days I was still a little skeptical. One of the major causes of hangovers is the severe dehydration that comes with the excessive consumption of alcohol. I figured that since watermelon is full of water that the extra liquid prevented the severe dehydration that is a major contributor to hangovers. So instead of consuming alcohol in a nontraditional way, my second test would be of a more mainstream fashion. This next time I was going to do more than 12 shots of liquor and in a normal way one would drink at a bar or a tailgate party. Gin and tonics to the rescue.
I set out to really put the Zaca Hangover Patch to the test. Heading into the second test the only goals I had was to drink at least 13 or more gin and tonics (a 1 oz shot of gin and 8 oz of tonic consisted of one drink) and to not drink any additional water before going to bed. I ended up drinking around 16 to 18 gin and tonics and was definitely feeling the effects of drinking that much. Now 16-18 shots of gin for a normal person might sound like way too much. Keep in mind, I am 6’5″ and close to 300 pounds. Still that amount of alcohol had me rather drunk to the point where I did brush into walls on my way for a refill. I was definitely intoxicated enough that I was confident I would have a hangover the next day. I was updating my progress on Twitter and it is probably the best testimonial I can provide here. Here are the first two Twitter posts I did upon waking up after the gin and tonic night.
Just woke up 15 mins ago. Very little hangover.(See tweets from last night.) should have a huge hangover for what I drank last night.
Pounded a big cup of water & two bowls of cereal with a banana and I am feeling 100%. Color me impressed.
After two tests, the latest one I really pushed the limits, I found the Zaca Hangover Patch to deliver on all of its promises. I am not sure how it works or if it was a placebo effect or not, but I was expecting to be way more hungover than I was. Keep in mind that the Zaca Hangover Patch is not designed to prevent intoxication. They are designed to prevent the classic symptoms of hangovers. Do not be fooled into thinking you have super-human drinking powers because you have this patch on.
For those tailgaters that tend to over-consume while tailgating you’ll need to two things. A designated driver and a Zaca Hangover Patch. Zaca Hangover Patches come in a pack of six and cost $19.99 (normally $23.99). To get your own, visit www.zacalife.com. Also, check out the Zaca Life Blog for more interesting tips and facts about drinking and hangovers.
