What the Trials Say
The 2005 systematic review of hangover-prevention trials found that "No compelling evidence exists to suggest that any conventional or complementary intervention is effective for preventing or treating alcohol hangover" 1. A longer ingredient list does not change that.
Why Three Was the Right Number for Us
The H180 starting candidate list during testing was 15 ingredients drawn from the published alcohol-recovery and liver-protection literature. Through structured elimination during testing, twelve of those candidates produced no measurable difference in the morning-after symptom score and were cut. The three that remained -- DHM, SAG, fulvic acid -- carry the formula. The three remaining ingredients carry the formula in our self-test data, in the n=1 protocol at least. (adding a fourth or fifth ingredient was tempting from a marketing standpoint and I had to talk myself out of it more than once.)
What Each Ingredient Brings
Acts by promoting aldehyde and alcohol metabolism of foods.†
† These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
DHM at 1,500mg per serving is the upstream ingredient. The 2012 paper by Shen and colleagues found that injected DHM counteracted alcohol intoxication in rats 2; the idea that DHM speeds up the liver's ADH and ALDH comes from later animal studies with mixed results. 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.
Helps you feel fresh.†
† These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
SAG at 75mg per serving is the downstream antioxidant restoration. The crossover study comparing oral GSH delivery formats demonstrated meaningfully different intracellular GSH outcomes by delivery format, and SAG is the form that actually crosses the gut wall intact 3.
Supports overall liver health.†
† These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Fulvic acid at 150mg (90 percent purity) is the cellular delivery agent. The chelation chemistry described in the broader fulvic acid literature is what helps DHM and SAG cross gut and cellular membranes more reliably than they would on their own 4.
The Dose Budget Argument
The strongest argument for keeping the ingredient list short is dose budget. Every milligram of an additional ingredient is a milligram you cannot spend on the ingredients that are actually doing the work. DHM at 1,500mg already takes most of a 1,725mg serving, so every additional ingredient would have diluted the dose budget for the ingredients that survived testing.
What This Page Is Not Claiming
We are not claiming three ingredients is universally the right number for every supplement. Some categories benefit from longer ingredient lists with synergistic interactions. For the alcohol-recovery use case specifically, with the dose constraints DHM imposes and the elimination data from the testing protocol, three is what landed.
For the elimination protocol that produced the cuts, see The Elimination Story. For the integrated story of how the three remaining ingredients work together, see How the Three Ingredients Work Together.