Meera Pal, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – It was one painful morning after a particularly amazing night out that New Yorker Brenna Haysom started thinking about cures for the most common of ailments — the dreaded hangover.
“I started doing some research into hangovers, just trying to figure out what was behind them and what was the best thing to help them, and tried everything there is on the market,” Haysom says.
After she realized there is no one single product on the market that treats the headache, nausea, fatigue and other symptoms that can occur following a night of heavy drinking, she decided to create her own.
“I started putting together my own concoction,” says the 34-year-old Haysom.
After beta testing the product, Haysom left her job in finance in early 2010 and founded Rally Labs LLC, where she serves as president. Rally Labs began selling Blowfish.
Early next year, Blowfish will be sold across the country. Until then, it’s available on their website or on Amazon.
The pill is made up of 500 mg of aspirin (a pain reliever) and 60 mg of caffeine (for alertness). The pill also includes an antacid, which provides its effervescent quality.
Haysom says simply taking aspirin and drinking a cup of coffee will not have the same effect.
“Those ingredients kind of are a silver bullet for hangovers,” Haysom says.
“It doesn’t have anything that’s so special or new or unusual. But it’s the only product that I know of that is FDA-registered and actually really works.”
Blowfish is registered with the FDA, which recognizes it as a safe and effective hangover treatment.
So, instead of sipping on pickle juice, soda and bitters or even a little hair of the dog, hangover sufferers can dissolve two Blowfish tablets in water the morning after.
“I usually feel better in eight to 10 minutes,” Haysom says.
On the Blowfish Facebook page, several happy customers have posted about their experiences with the pill.
“It is great! Almost instantly cures a hangover, and if you take it before bed you never get one! Love love love this stuff!,” wrote Erica Weiner from Sykesville, Md.
Haysom does caution against using Blowfish as a license to get hammered the night before.
“There’s a point when a hangover is so bad that nothing is going to help you,” she says.
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(Copyright 2011 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
