The Oktoberfest party went late, and your brain now feels as fragile as antique pottery on a bumpy flight. So you reach for an “anti-hangover” supplement and hope that it holds up to its promise to cure you.
But that promise is false advertising, a court in Frankfurt ruled. The court declared that a hangover is an illness, and it is illegal in Germany to claim that foods or supplements can cure human ailments or disease.
The case involved the maker of a powder marketed as an “anti-hangover shot,” which claimed its product contained “plant extracts with antioxidants, electrolytes and vitamins” that could combat the nausea, headaches and drowsiness that often come after a long night of alcohol consumption.
The decision of the Frankfurt upper court can be appealed, but beyond the ruling, much about the case is shrouded in mystery: Neither the company that made the purported hangover-fighting product nor the consumer watchdog that brought the case has been publicly identified.
An illness is defined as “any, even minor or transient, disturbance of the normal nature or normal activity of the body,” the court found. This includes even “an insignificant or temporary disturbance of the normal condition that it can be eliminated or mitigated and which heals.”
In other words, a hangover.
A February study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, led by scientists in Germany, defined an alcohol-induced hangover as a complex of “unpleasant physical and mental symptoms” that take place when blood alcohol concentrations drop from a relatively high level to zero.
There were no known effective medical treatments for those symptoms, the study said, adding that folky aphorisms about hangover prevention such as “beer before wine and you’ll feel fine” were scientifically unproven.
Hangovers serve a valuable purpose, the study found. That throbbing headache and other forms of discomfort are a protective warning sign that has compelled humans to modify future behavior, the study concluded, and in that way “pass on this evolutionary advantage to next generations.”
While the German court decided that it was in the interest of public health to expand the definition of “illness” as broadly as possible, the ruling will do little to comfort drinkers worldwide, including those who have descended on the southern German city of Munich for the 186th annual Oktoberfest.
The festival began on Saturday by opening 38 tents that serve beer, roast chicken and giant pretzels. There are also costume parades of the traditional Alpine peasant garb that is increasingly trendy among Bavarian Millennials, concerts and an amusement park with games and rides.
Every year, there is also an ecumenical church service offering “prayer instead of beer,” but without any suggestion that it will help ease a hangover.
Story by The New York Times
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