A gel made from milk proteins and gold nanoparticles may prove the ultimate hangover cure – by preventing the dreaded alcoholic aftermath from even occurring in the first place.

The gel shifts the breakdown of alcohol from the liver to the digestive tract. In contrast to when alcohol is metabolized in the liver, no harmful acetaldehyde is produced as an intermediate product.

Acetaldehyde is the culprit behind many hangover symptoms, including nausea, headaches, dry mouth, lower blood pressure, an increased heart rate, a higher skin temperature and facial flushing.

The team showed their gel could catalyze the breakdown of alcohol in the gut into the less-toxic acetic acid, rather than acetaldehyde.

Gels naturally take longer for the gut to digest, and the gold nanoparticles also extend digestion time. This gives the gel’s components time to convert harmful alcohol into less-toxic acetic acid, which our bodies can then break down further into water and carbon dioxide.

But it only works while the alcohol is still in the digestive tract. Once in the bloodstream, alcohol’s toxic effects are out of the gel’s reach.