Despite drinking responsibly, you may still end up dealing with a hangover. That’s true even if you follow all known steps to preventing a hangover and try to get lots of rest.
In this Liquid IV review, we’ll talk about whether it can help with your hangovers. And, if it does help, we’ll explain how it works.
What is Liquid IV?
Liquid IV is more than water and more than “just” another drink. It is a hydration multiplier with solid science behind it. Liquid IV stands out compared to other sports drinks. This is because of its Cellular Transport Technology (CTT.)
What is CTT? It’s a delivery system that helps absorb nutrients into your bloodstream faster. It does this by chasing the osmolarity of the water you’re mixing it into before drinking.
Not only does Liquid IV help, but it also tastes good. So far, all the flavors I’ve tried are great. But, their strawberry and lemon-lime flavors are among my favorites.
Pros:
- Science-Backed Ingredients
- Offers Several Flavors
- Convenient Packaging
- Non-GMO, Gluten Free, Dairy Free
- For each purchase, Liquid IV donates a serving
Cons:
- Not the most affordable option
- Contains a moderate amount of sugar per serving, but it helps with absorption
- Users are mixed about the taste
Ingredient Breakdown
Like me, you may have been digging through other Liquid IV review posts to find out exactly why it works. After all, knowledge is power. If I take something for my health, I want to know the hows and whys of its workings.
Liquid IV contains Vitamins C, B3, B5, B6, and B12. It also has mined salt and glucose in it. In addition, it is an excellent source of potassium. Potassium is an electrolyte that will help you recover from your hangover faster.
All of Liquid IV’s flavors are natural. That means they are sourced directly from fruits, vegetables, and other sources. As a result, you get the benefit of those ingredients as well.
- Vitamin C: Vitamin C is important. It helps your immune system, collagen synthesis, and antioxidation. It neutralizes free radicals that damage any cells they come into contact with. Studies done on rats revealed that it could help reduce liver inflammation. Vitamin C doesn’t directly help relieve the symptoms of a hangover. But, we should not discount its antioxidant properties. Of course, we shouldn’t forget its potential for reducing liver inflammation.
- Vitamin B3: Based on a study, Vitamin B3 can minimize hangover severity.
- Vitamin B5: Vitamin B5 can accelerate the clearance of acetaldehyde. Taking this vitamin after drinking can help reduce the severity of your hangover.
- Vitamin B6: Vitamin B6 is also known to help reduce hangover symptoms.
- Vitamin B12: Loss of this vitamin due to drinking can cause fatigue, dizziness, and memory loss. Take this vitamin before or after drinking—but before your hangover develops. You can save yourself a lot of grief by taking this preventative measure.
- Mined Salt: The alkaline in salt reduces acid from the alcohol you drank last night. Good salt contains minerals like iron and magnesium. It helps boost hydration by providing minerals your body needs.
- Glucose: You may have low blood sugar levels after a night of drinking. Glucose will help bring your sugar levels up to an average level. A healthy blood sugar level can cancel out the effects of drinking, like the build-up of acid in your blood.
Does It Work?
Does Liquid IV help with hangovers? The answer is yes! While it’s not a cure-all, the difference between drinking it and not is significant.
As anyone who has ever had a hangover knows, the mind-numbing pain and sensitivity to light and sound are no joke. In addition to weakness and nausea, hangovers ruin an otherwise lovely day.
Your go-to might be to down glasses of water to help rehydrate yourself. But, a 2015 study revealed that drinking water during a hangover wouldn’t help.
Liquid IV may have an intimidating name; most people associate IVs with needles. Thankfully, Liquid IV is drunk rather than taken intravenously.
Each bag of Liquid IV contains individual packets. The powder is pre-portioned for your convenience. You need to mix each packet with 16 ounces of water. After that, all you need to do is drink it!
Health Benefits and Side Effects
Not only does Liquid IV help with hangovers, it also provides other health benefits. This is partially because of its ingredients, which include plenty of electrolytes. When you drink alcohol, you lose electrolytes and become dehydrated. That makes Liquid IV that much more helpful.
Sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium are electrolytes. These electrolytes help keep the body healthy and functioning. When you replenish them, you help fight off dehydration. You also recover faster from hangover fatigue.
Electrolytes and pH Levels
Maintaining a healthy pH balance through electrolytes encourages good muscle function and coordination. When your electrolytes are low, you tend to have a higher presence of lactic acid. Electrolytes help neutralize lactic acid.
Electrolytes and the Nervous System
Electrolytes help maintain your nervous system by ensuring the passage of electric signals in your nerve cells. If the course of electric signals in your nerve cells grows weak, your body will feel fatigued.
Vitamin Supplements
Liquid IV is also an excellent source of many of the vitamins you need to conquer your hangover and live a healthy life. It provides extra support for neurological and heart health.
Recipes
In this video, the creators of Liquid IV can walk you through how to make 3 different smoothie recipes for different needs/times. They start off with the Afternoon Upgrade, followed by the Pineapple Pick Me Up, and finished off with Guava Lava.
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Alternative Options
The perfect product for a hangover cure has been a long time goal for many companies and it has become a product that many companies have focused on to perfect. One alternative option being DripDrop ORS Hydration. They contain a similar ingredient profile and packaging as Liquid IV, but with a completely different flavor option panel. They offer Acai, Concord Grape, Fruit Punch, Passion Fruit, and Pineapple Coconut. DripDrop ORS Hydration is also slightly more affordable than Liquid IV and can be bought in flavor bundles.
Another alternative option to Liquid IV Hydration Multiplier is Emergen-C Hydration+. You may be familiar with the brand Emergen-C because it is often referred to as a common hangover cure, just like Pedialyte. Emergen-C Hydration+ is a definite option if you are unsure of Liquid IV because it also contains a strong ingredient profile and is a more notable or reputable brand.
Hangovers and Liquid IV
Drinking alcohol and partying up late in the night/morning can be an easy recipe for a hangover, more than often. Unfortunately, like most things that are fun, there is a bad side, the morning after hangover. The major reasons for a hangover are due to dehydration and imbalances within the body, such as vitamins, electrolytes, or even blood sugar. Alcohol is a major player in all of these deficiencies/ imbalances.
Alcohol is a diuretic, which mean it makes you urinate more often that you would drinking, let’s say water. This is often why you go to the bathroom multiple times in a span of a couple of hours compared to normally during the day. This obviously leads to becoming dehydrated and vitamin imbalances within your body. Other bodily functions like the regulation of your blood sugar, can also suffer because alcohol serves as production limiter for glucose.
The ingredient profile and the science backing each ingredient make it a clear contender in becoming your long term hangover cure, but there are also external factors that could affect its performance. Factors, such as the severity of the hangover, your individual body’s reaction, or even your overall vitamin/electrolyte balance in your body.
How does Liquid IV Work?
Liquid IV is a portable hydration mix. You add one of the sticks of powder into 16 ounces of whatever beverage you would like, we usually just suggest water. The powder then uses their technology of CTT, or Cellular Transport Technology, to effectively deliver all of the vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, etc. to your body effectively as possible.
Liquid IV Hydration Multiplier is mainly targeted towards athletes, people who enjoy a few too many drinks, or anyone who just aren’t hydrating their bodies enough during their daily endeavors.
Does It Affect Blood Pressure?
Just as a word of precaution, if you are taking Liquid IV or other hydration options to help with your blood pressure, we strongly suggest you confer with your primary physician beforehand. Everybody’s body reacts differently to certain things than other people.
That being said, Liquid IV can help lower your blood pressure due to hydrating our body more. With more hydration in your body, your veins, arteries, and blood will expand and release pressure.
What Is The Optimal Time To Take Liquid IV?
When you take hydration powders, such as Liquid IV, really comes down to personal needs and preference. Some people may like to take it first thing in the morning, to hydrate your body after sleeping for many hours or some people may like to take it after workouts when they sweat a lot.
Realistically, you must listen to your body, even by tracking your water intake, noting times when you feel sluggish, or even times when your body/mouth just feels dry. By identifying these moments, you can effectively learn to whether you need to take a hydration multiplier, and if so, when you need to take it.
Obviously, for people that are taking it for more of a hangover cure, you would take it after your night of drinking. We don’t suggest taking it before you start consuming alcohol, due to you being likely to rid your body of all of the ingredients you put in. Instead, try taking it right before you go to sleep or first thing in the morning.
Can I Add to Cold Or Hot Drinks?
Whether you put Liquid IV in a cold, hot, or room temperature drink, also comes down to personal preference. You can add Liquid IV to anything from water, hot tea, iced tea, sports drinks, pre workout, or even a protein shake.
Obviously, the flavors that Liquid IV come in, stand out more than basic flavors, so we suggest trying to match flavors with another drink if you plan to mix the two.
Other Liquid IV Products
Liquid IV offers also offers an array of other products than just their hydration multiplier. They also offer an immune support drink, a powdered probiotic kombucha drink, an energy drink mix, and a supercharged drink mix, which is essentially a more powerful version of their energy drink mix.
All of the different products obviously have different purposes and some only come in certain flavors, different than the hydration multiplier. For example, the immune support drink, powdered probiotic kombucha drink, energy drink mix, and supercharged drink mix only come in tangerine, tart green apple, yuzu pineapple, and lemon ginger, respectively.
Take-Away
Liquid IV contains vitamins and minerals that help you recover or even prevent a hangover. Although it’s not a cure-all, it will undoubtedly relieve severe hangover symptoms and shorten your recovery time.
If you’re having trouble dealing with hangovers, then you might find Liquid IV to be just the help you need. Not only is it effective for hangover recovery, but it also provides essential vitamins and minerals for every day healthy living.
Hopefully, after reading this Liquid IV review, you’ll find this product as helpful as I do. And, remember, you can’t go wrong no matter which flavor you choose! Click here to check this product out.
