Most "morning-after" products on the shelf are built around one idea: put back the water and salts a long night takes out. Electrolyte powders, coconut water, sports drinks. That's a perfectly good idea, and Citoethyl isn't one of them.
Citoethyl is an Italian enzymatic shot. To understand what that means, and what it doesn't, it helps to start with enzymes themselves.
What an enzyme is
An enzyme is a biological helper that makes a chemical reaction happen faster. Your body runs on them. Digestion, energy production and the breakdown of almost everything you eat or drink all depend on enzymes doing their job. The U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute describes them simply as proteins that speed up chemical reactions in the body.
How Citoethyl is made
Citoethyl is produced in Italy by Citozeatec from non-GMO agricultural raw materials grown on agronomically healthy terrain. The manufacturer describes the process as a series of sequential enzymatic conversions. In plain terms, enzymes do part of the preparation during manufacturing, turning plant starches and other raw materials into a finished, ready-to-drink 15 ml vial that contains carbohydrates and vitamins.
Think of it like a kitchen: the enzymes are part of how the ingredients are prepared before they ever reach the vial. That process is what makes Citoethyl different from the electrolyte aisle.
The alcohol context
Your body already has its own system for processing alcohol. The usual pathway runs from alcohol to acetaldehyde, then to acetate, with two of the body's enzymes, alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), doing most of that work in the liver. The U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has a clear guide to this pathway.
That background is why the manufacturer's research has focused on alcohol metabolism. Citoethyl is formulated to encourage the body's own catabolic reactions: the physiological breakdown and elimination of alcohol and the conversion of its metabolic byproducts.
What the research looked at
In 2013, researchers associated with the Biology Department of the University of Rome Tor Vergata published a study in the International Journal of Nutrition and Food Sciences (Antonelli, Ferorelli, De Martino and Beninati, DOI 10.11648/j.ijnfs.20130204.16). Sixty healthy men drank a measured amount of alcohol and took 15 ml of Citoethyl either 40 minutes before or after; the authors reported lower breath-alcohol readings than without it.
It's worth being precise about what that study is and isn't:
- It measured breath alcohol in healthy adult men. It was not a study of hangover symptoms.
- Results varied by age and timing, and the same result cannot be guaranteed for every person.
- The authors themselves were clear that their findings do not make drinking and driving safer. Neither do we.
We share the study because we think you deserve to see the evidence behind a product, along with its limits.
How people use it
One 15 ml vial, ready to drink, sweet and pleasant to take, typically when the night is done. Citoethyl is sold by the vial with a three-vial minimum. Follow the label: above recommended amounts, temporary laxative effects or abdominal swelling have been reported, resolving on their own within hours. Antibiotics can reduce the action of the enzymes involved.
The part that never changes
Always take a breathalyzer test before driving, even after taking Citoethyl. Responsibility is always personal.
Citoethyl will not prevent intoxication or enhance sobriety.
Citoethyl is a food supplement, and food supplements are not drugs. For adults 21 and over.
Sources: NHGRI, "Enzyme" (genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Enzyme); NIAAA, "Alcohol Metabolism" (niaaa.nih.gov/publications/alcohol-metabolism); Antonelli F. et al., "Reduction of Breath Alcohol Levels in Healthy Subjects by Citoethyl," Int. J. Nutr. Food Sci. 2(4):196–199, 2013.
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. Results are linked to use in healthy individuals and vary by age, sex and body weight.