What "Drink" Actually Means
A standard drink is technically defined as 14 grams of pure ethanol, which corresponds to roughly 12 ounces of beer at 5 percent ABV, 5 ounces of wine at 12 percent ABV, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits at 40 percent ABV. The Alcohol Hangover Research Group consensus statement is explicit about using ethanol-equivalent units rather than beverage counts, because beverage size and strength vary considerably across products 1. The H180 self-tests used the standard-drink convention throughout.
What Got Logged Per Test Night
For every self-test night, the log included beverage type, ABV, exact volume consumed, time of first drink, time of last drink, total ethanol grams, food intake (composition and timing), pre-drink water intake, sleep window (start and end), and any deviations from the planned protocol. The test article (whatever combination I was evaluating) was logged with dose, time taken, and any subjective notes during ingestion.
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.
The Alcohol Hangover Severity Scale informed the early morning-after inventory 2: 12 symptom items each scored 0 to 10, and a separate single-item overall rating, which more recent measurement work suggests is better than the multi-item composite for total hangover severity 3. I replaced it early with a blended score built for formulating decisions, because the data were never going to be study-grade.
Why The Variables Mattered
Each variable I logged was a potential confounder for the test article effect. Beverage type matters because dark spirits contain more congeners than clear spirits and produce worse hangovers at matched ethanol dose. Food intake matters because food slows ethanol absorption and lowers peak blood alcohol concentration. Sleep window matters because most morning-after symptoms have a sleep-quality component layered on top of the alcohol-clearance component.
Helps maintain balanced moderation.†
† 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.
The drinking level was kept the same from test to test. Food, sleep and tiredness were not: they varied the way they do on real nights out, and I logged them so that a night that ran differently could be read in that light. That is closer to how people actually drink than a lab is, and it is also why the data are not study-grade.
What I Held Constant
For most of the testing window, I drank at a fixed level set from my own baseline: enough that I would normally expect a hangover. Food, sleep and tiredness varied the way they do on real nights out; I logged them rather than controlling them. In the early tests the capsule timing varied, including after the last drink. Before the first drink worked best, and it became the standard early on. These constraints were not pleasant to keep, but they were the price of results that mean something on a real night.
Supports balanced consumption of alcohol (from all sources of food and drink).†
† 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.
What This Page Is Not Claiming
This protocol is not a clinical trial. The drinking level was kept the same and everything else was logged, which by design is looser than what a published RCT would require. Without disciplined logging, you wind up with stories instead of data and no way to tell which one was which. The protocol generated useful directional signal for me. It did not generate clinical-trial-grade evidence about anyone else.
For what the limits of this approach actually are, see Honest Limitations.