Smoking and drinking are two banes of the society that have caused fatal illness to many people. In spite of their disadvantages, people have been addicted to both these habits for years. The worst thing about smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol is that they are addictive in nature, and it becomes extremely difficult to quit this habit once you are a regular smoker or drinker.
There are several medications and therapies available which help us in cutting down the tobacco or alcohol intake. In most cases, however, these lead to bigger issues in the form of withdrawal symptoms. Increasing anxiety, lower stamina and the urge to get back to the addiction are some of the issues that most people face while trying to control drinking. Similarly, people who cut off smoking completely face issues like obesity and sleeping disorders.
However, with the amount of progress that we have made in the field of science and medicine, a solution to this persistent problem has been found in natural substances. Dihydromyricetin or simply DHM is a natural compound that can be extracted from the oriental raisin tree, which grows in the eastern parts of China and Japan. There have been extremely encouraging results in the study of DHM as a possible cure for alcoholism. The leaves of this tree have been used for years to prepare herbal tea, and are known to reduce hangover effects. Initial tests on rats have been successful, wherein rats that were made drunk took only 5 minutes to regain substantial composure, whereas the rats without any medication took more than 70 minutes for the same set of activities. On further research it was found that dihydromyricetin is hepatoprotective, which is why there was minimal liver damage for the rats which were medicated.
Although human trails have not been extensively done, some private tests have shown encouraging results. People who took doses of DHM felt a lot sobered up and experienced no headaches or other hangover symptoms the next day. Dihydromyricetin works instantly on your system and gives you a feeling that you could keep drinking more. However, the usage of DHM does not decrease the alcohol content in the body, which is why one should not attempt driving after being medicated with DHM, as it is still against the law.
On the other hand, as a toxic alkaloid that can be found in several plants of the Fabaceae family, cytisine is a medically approved drug used for the purpose of smoking cessation. Several controlled trials have been conducted over the last few years, and it has been observed that it has been quite effective in helping people stay away from tobacco for an extended period. The best thing about cytisine drugs is that it is extremely cheap and equally effective as other synthetic drugs available for the same purpose. In fact, several governments are mass producing cytisine drugs for public health service. However, excessive dosage of the drug could lead to breathing problems, which has the potential of turning fatal as well.
