hangover prevention

Drinkade Review: Does Drinkade Really Work?

My Drinkade review comes after a blinded-study of Drinkade conducted a week ago. Our Drinkade review was done experiment-style and used a placebo (just like with our hangover winner MixFix RECOVER) to give you guys more accurate results (what I strive for)...

This is because, and I’m sure you can agree when I tell you…

A review tainted by expectations is hardly a trustworthy review at all.

The problem is most reviewers think they are above the placebo effect and expensive hype brands push.

It took me years of trying subpar products before I started to master “semi-scientific” reviewing…

And these blinded-reviews instantly impacted confidence in my findings. People really appreciate the scientific approach and come to me to review new products all the time now!

I am ALWAYS wary of hangover remedies after having tried dozens and only finding 2 that actually work really well (1. MixFix RECOVER 2. Thrive+).

So, even though I am sticking with MixFix, readers asked for a Drinkade review specifically.

In this post I will:

1. break down the ingredients
2. detail my experience
3. give an overall recommendation 

Drinkade Ingredients Review

The ingredients that Drinkade lists include some of the old mainstays in hangover prevention.

And while many of these ingredients are widely used in hangover products...

Drinkade suffers in this regard because it includes some ingredients that have not been found to help hangover symptoms (such as common Aloe Vera)...

DHM extract from oriental raisin trees has been shown to greatly reduce hangover symptoms.

DHM extract from oriental raisin trees has been shown to greatly reduce hangover symptoms.

While shunning revolutionary new ingredients that are proven effective (such as DHM and high levels of Thiamine).

In this way, it seems like Drinkade is just following what's been done by old companies rather than delve into the emerging science as only a handful of new companies have been.

Drinkade does include a few solid ingredients that are shown to reduce hangover symptoms...

These include Milk Thistle, a B Vitamin Complex (although some B vitamins are much more important than others), and Potassium as an electrolyte.

My Drinkade Experience

I take my reviews rather seriously, as you may know, so tried for a blind study.

This meant having a friend prepare 2 cups, one being a placebo he made with some sort of lime flavoring powder (I was told after the experiment), and the other being the real deal.

Since I had never tried Drinkade before, I wouldn't be able to be certain which drink was the actual product.

We ran this blind test 2 nights, 2 days apart... with myself not knowing which day I got Drinkade vs. the placebo.

Don't judge me...

Don't judge me...

Each night I drank 10 shots of vodka over 4 hours and drank a liter of water before bed (as I do any night I drink alcohol).

I took the Drinkade or the placebo as recommended each night - about 20 to 30 minutes before starting to drink.

The next morning I rated my hangover on the 3 most common hangover symptoms…

A) Nausea B) Grogginess/Fatigue C) Headache

I used a 0 - 10 scale with 0 being no symptoms and 10 being normally expected hangover symptoms for the amount drank.

Then the ratings for each were averaged for a final result.

I've used the same design with multiple subjects (although not blinded) when comparing MixFix RECOVER capsules and Thrive+ capsules in this article.

Results of my Review

After the 2 nights were over and I had rated each morning/afternoon - the results were in!

I could finally see which average rating paired with the Drinkade vs. the placebo...

And Drinkade beat the placebo by 3 points!!

The placebo I rated an 8 of 10 (meaning I reported feeling about the same as I would expect given the amount drank)...

Seeing that I didn't rate it a 10 speaks to the power the placebo effect can have at times.

Drinkade I rated a 5 of 10 (meaning I felt a heck of a lot better than expected).

While this rating shows this pre-drink remedy may not work as well as the post-drinking capsules we've reviewed here before...

It is impressive to see a preemptive strike like Drinkade have a 3 point reduction in symptoms because I was skeptical of these types of hangover remedies in the past.

Overall Recommendation

Even though Drinkade made a good dent in my hangover...

Products like Thrive+ and MixFix RECOVER (the new champion in my book) by LZR LABS provide much greater relief from what I've seen.

This is especially true if nausea is one of your main hangover symptoms!

So IMO Drinkade is pretty good but you're better off with one of the post-drinking capsules covered above to get the DHM (game-changer), and adequate Thiamin to really squash your rough mornings.

^Current hangover test winner of 2018

^Current hangover test winner of 2018

Hope that helps and as always, Cheers :)

P.S. If you're a regular reader and want me to review another hangover remedy let me know!

We'll pick one with the most requests and see if we can dethrone MixFix RECOVER :P