| My friends won't stop raving about ZBiotics. They say that the San Francisco-based startup's first product, called Pre-Alcohol, is a miracle cure for hangovers. And it's not just them. The company has sold millions of bottles of Pre-Alcohol and has a growing fanbase of professional athletes, influencers and happy hour enthusiasts — like my friends — willing to vouch for it. Obviously, I had some questions. Earlier this year, I met up with ZBiotics' cofounder Zack Abbott at a WeWork in downtown San Francisco. Abbott, a health enthusiast who says he eats at least 30 varieties of plants a day, previously worked as an HIV scientist and got his PhD in microbiology at the University of Michigan. During his training, he became obsessed with the ways scientists can tweak or genetically alter bacteria to make them better at performing certain functions. That's why Abbott started ZBiotics almost a decade ago. He didn't set out to design a hangover cure, but of the dozens of ideas he had, that was the one that friends, family and potential investors were most excited about. "The initial idea around helping you feel better the day after drinking, I initially pitched as, like, a joke," Abbott told me. "I was a scientist. I was initially pitching a product to help your gut recover better from exposure to radiation. But I pitched that and people's eyes would just glaze over." As common as hangovers are, the science behind them is actually a bit murky. Acetaldehyde, a toxic byproduct of alcohol, is thought to play a major role, but other chemical compounds, genetic factors and dehydration also contribute to some degree, studies suggest. When we drink, most of the alcohol we consume is absorbed into the bloodstream. It's then broken down into acetaldehyde, which forms in the liver and the gut. The liver produces an enzyme that gets rid of it quickly, but the gut is less efficient. Pre-Alcohol works like a probiotic, providing the gut with a boost of bacteria that's engineered to digest acetaldehyde. After meeting with Abbott, I bought a six-pack of Pre-Alcohol to try myself. It's meant to be consumed any time before your first drink (hence the name) and is packaged in a small vial of tasteless, clear liquid teeming with genetically modified bacteria. Sounds appetizing, right? I downed a bottle hours before my first round, as directed, and handed one to my friend as well. We both woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and shockingly hangover free after a night of drinking. But when I tried it again earlier this month, I forgot to take it until I was halfway done with my drink. I was definitely hungover the next day. Abbott is careful not to call Pre-Alcohol a cure, but he's also quick to say that other hangover-prevention products don't work because they focus on boosting hydration, which isn't the main cause of a hangover. "There's this pervasive myth that alcohol causes dehydration and that's why you feel bad the next day," Abbott told me. "If it was dehydration, nobody would be hungover, right?" Of course, the best way to avoid a hangover is by simply not drinking — or by trying increasingly popular alcohol-free alternatives. Cheers! — Madison Muller | 
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