WHAT IS DHM

DHM is short for dihydromyricetin. It's a flavonoid -- a class of plant compound -- found in Hovenia dulcis, commonly called the Japanese raisin tree, and in Chinese vine tea (Ampelopsis grossedentata). The raisin tree has been used for centuries in Traditional Chinese Medicine as a remedy for alcohol poisoning and hangover.⁵ I came across it while trying to figure out why the existing supplement options weren't working on me.

The chemistry is not complicated once you strip out the academic language. DHM is a bioflavonoid, which means it's a polyphenol -- the same broad family as the compounds in green tea or red wine, just from a different plant source. What makes DHM distinct within that family is its documented effect on how the liver handles alcohol and its byproducts.

Researchers at the USC School of Pharmacy¹ put it plainly after a study in mice: DHM helps the body metabolize alcohol faster. Not every animal study has found that. The mechanism they identified involves a sequence of metabolic changes in the liver -- not just a single pathway, which is part of why I found it more interesting than the other ingredients I'd tested. And it wasn't just the hangover angle that caught my attention. The liver protection data was unexpected.

Where It Comes From

Hovenia dulcis grows across China, Japan, and Korea, typically at elevations below 2,100 meters in open fields and forests. Research on its chemical composition began in the late 20th century, and flavonoids constitute up to 27.61% of the main bioactive components of the plant.⁵ DHM is the most studied of these -- though it's worth knowing it isn't the only active compound in the plant.

The extract also goes by the name ampelopsin, depending on which research paper you're reading. Same compound, different naming convention from older literature. (this confused me for a solid two weeks when I was first going through the studies, honestly)

What the Research Shows

Some animal studies report that DHM affects alcohol metabolism at the enzymatic level, raising the activity of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH)², though not every animal study has found this, and no study has measured it in people. The best-known DHM study, the 2012 paper by Shen and colleagues, looked at something else: injected DHM counteracted alcohol intoxication in rats⁴. ADH and ALDH are the two enzymes the liver uses to break down alcohol and then break down the toxic byproduct that comes after it, acetaldehyde. That byproduct is a significant part of why you feel rough the next day.

A 2020 study in mice, published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, found that injected DHM enhances ethanol metabolism via increased ethanol metabolizing expression and activity, with the collective effects also increasing antioxidant enzymes and reducing inflammation.² The antioxidant piece matters because oxidative stress is part of the damage equation -- not just the aldehyde load.

The liver health angle was the part I didn't expect going in. I was focused on the morning-after effects. But a separate line of research, including a 2023 mouse study from the University of Southern California, found that DHM eased alcohol-related fat build-up and inflammation in the liver and improved liver enzymes.³ That's a different outcome than just "feel better faster" -- that's the liver itself being in better shape after alcohol exposure.

Why We Use It at 1,500mg

Three ingredients. That's it. When we formulated H180, the dose question was the most time-consuming part.

I tested several dose levels, from 300mg up. The 1,500mg dose -- which is what's in every H180 serving -- is what we built the formula around.

1,500mg is where my testing settled: my own tests, and what I saw directly in the people I tested with. No study was used to set it. The DHM dose-response page covers the testing and what the published studies can and cannot tell you.

What DHM Doesn't Do

DHM is not a license to drink more. We're not making that claim and I'd push back hard on any supplement that does. What the evidence points to, in animal studies with mixed results, is that DHM works on the metabolic side of the equation -- helping the liver process what you've already consumed more efficiently. That's a different thing from being a protective shield that changes how much alcohol affects you while you're drinking.

The GABA modulation research -- where DHM interacts with the same brain receptors that alcohol activates -- is real and documented, but that's a separate page. The short version is that DHM's effects on GABA are part of how it supports mood the next day, not a mechanism for drinking without consequences. If that distinction matters to you, read the GABA modulation page. We ran the same test sequence on this one that we ran on everything else.