Can Activated Charcoal Ease Your Hangover and Help Power You Through Your Workout?
The only thing worse than waking up with a hangover is waking up with a hangover and trying to go for a ride. So if you plan to have a drink (or three) tonight and have a workout planned for the morning, could taking activated charcoal help you feel less awful?
Activated charcoal—the trendy black powder that wellness enthusiasts claim can help you detox—is charcoal made from materials such as coconut husks, peat, or bone char. It’s processed at super hot temperatures (much higher than the temps used to make the charcoal for your grill), which makes it highly porous.
And indeed, the stuff has long been used in emergency rooms as a treatment for poisoning. “Activated charcoal works by binding to drugs and toxic substances located in the gastrointestinal tract, thereby preventing their entry across the gastrointestinal tract into the bloodstream,” explains Glenn Hardesty, D.O., an emergency room physician at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano. The toxin-filled charcoal makes its way through your GI tract, and a day or two later—presto!—you poop the gunk right out.
So, could popping a few activated charcoal pills also help nix the unpleasant effects of alcohol, and maybe even help you avoid a hangover altogether? Here’s what the experts say.
Can activated charcoal help a hangover?
Alcohol is a toxin, and activated charcoal absorbs toxins in the body. So it might seem like taking the stuff could help sop up any excess booze that’s circulating in your system and help you avoid the morning-after head throbbing, fatigue, and stomach ache. Except, it doesn’t.
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Experts have actually studied this, to see whether activated charcoal could be used to treat alcohol overdoses in the E.R. One study found that subjects who took activated charcoal just 30 minutes after drinking had the same amount of alcohol in their bloodstream compared to drinkers who didn’t take the charcoal. That’s because activated charcoal absorbs toxins that are still in the stomach, not ones that have already made their way into the blood, Hardesty explains. And anyway, “a hangover happens many hours after you’ve been drinking. So even if activated charcoal did prevent alcohol absorption, it wouldn’t help with a hangover because a hangover comes on after the alcohol has been absorbed [by your body],” explains Scott Swartzwelder, Ph.D., who studies alcohol’s effects on the brain at Duke University.
Alright, so forget about taking charcoal the next morning. What if you took it before you drink instead? Sorry, but research shows that that won’t work either. “Activated charcoal does not bind to all drugs, toxins, or chemicals,” Hardesty says. And alcohol, unfortunately, is one of the substances on the no-bind list.
Okay, but can I maybe try it anyway?
Maybe your friend swore that activated charcoal helped them get through a ride after a rough night. That doesn’t mean that the charcoal actually works (hello, placebo effect!), and it definitely doesn’t mean you should follow suit. A hangover already predisposes you to nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. “Add the stress of charcoal being processed through the GI tract, and I’d expect those symptoms to increase,” says sports nutrition expert Kelly Jones, M.S., a registered dietitian and licensed nutritionist.
Another thing: Even though activated charcoal won’t absorb alcohol, it might sop up stuff in your stomach that you don’t want to get rid of. “It can block mineral absorption from the digestive tract to the bloodstream,” Jones says. In particular? Iron, which many athletes—especially women—have a hard time getting enough of in the first place.
There’s also the potential for serious health risks. Since the combo of alcohol and activated charcoal could make you more likely to puke, it’s possible to experience a pulmonary aspiration—where some vomit ends up in your lungs instead of in your mouth or throat, which is rare but as bad as it sounds. “It can cause injury to the lungs, impair the transfer of oxygen, and ultimately lead to aspiration pneumonia,” Hardesty says.
The Bottom Line:
Taking activated charcoal to ease your hangover symptoms won’t work, and it could actually make you feel even crappier. In short, “it’s one of the worst things you can do,” Hardesty says.
If working out with a hangover sounds like something you’d rather avoid, you’re better off drinking a lot of water and pushing your gym time to later in the day, when your symptoms are likely to be less intense. “With hangovers, the only really good treatments are fluid and time,” says Swartzwelder. It might be smarter to just grab your favorite electrolyte drink and go to sleep. Another option? Just skip the workout altogether and take a day off to recoup, suggests Jones.
And next time, consider capping your drinks a little sooner. “The easier thing would be to just not drink as much,” Swartzwelder says.
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