Alcohol consumption is quite common, whether there is an occasion to celebrate or not, because the weather is too hot or cold, whether you are in a good mood or a bad mood, et al. However, we all know that alcohol consumption is not the best for your health, and excessive alcohol consumption can take a toll on your body, especially your liver. Alcohol also impairs the ability to concentrate and to react.
To combat the impact of alcohol on our bodies, researchers at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, have developed a protein gel that breaks down alcohol in the gastrointestinal tract. In the future, people who take the gel could reduce the harmful and intoxicating effects of alcohol on their bodies. The findings of the study were published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
This gel converts alcohol quickly, efficiently and directly into harmless acetic acid before it enters the bloodstream. "The gel shifts the breakdown of alcohol from the liver to the digestive tract. In contrast to when alcohol is metabolised in the liver, no harmful acetaldehyde is produced as an intermediate product," explains Professor Raffaele Mezzenga from the Laboratory of Food & Soft Materials at ETH Zurich.
Acetaldehyde is toxic and is responsible for many health problems caused by excessive alcohol consumption. The researchers used ordinary whey proteins to produce the gel. They boiled them for several hours to form long, thin fibrils.
Adding salt and water as a solvent causes the fibrils to cross-link and.
