A New Cure For Hangovers

Forget black coffee or fried breakfasts. Salvation for hung-over drinkers may have arrived in an unlikely new form -- volcanic rock.

A British firm is about to market a new cure for hangovers based on lava-formed stone imported from Turkey and Australia.

"We were researching this for cancer patients to help with the side effects of treatment, but we have found out it works really well for hangovers," Dr Kenneth Maule, of the English firm Global Health Products, told Reuters.

The volcanic dust, or zeolite, acts as a natural detoxifying agent and has already been used internationally for purifying water, treating animal feed and attending victims in Bulgaria of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

"It resides in the gut and will attach itself like a piece of velcro to all the toxins and poisons you don't want in your body," Maule said. "You just urinate the problem away."

Maule, who has developed the zeolite into a product called Zetox, said he was forming a new company, Good Morning, to sell the capsules in Britain exclusively for drinkers.

Six pills before going out drinking should be enough to ward off hangovers for the average person on a normal night of, say, four or five pints of beer, he said.

"But if it is going to be a deadly night, add two capsules for every extra four pints," Maule said. "And if you're heavy, take a few extra to start with."

Zetox is already for sale on the Internet at 19.95 pounds ($31.22) for 120 pills, and could be offered in pubs, clubs and shops around Britain within weeks if Good Morning is a success.