People have suffered from hangovers since they discovered how to make and enjoy alcohol. Science shows a hangover happens when alcohol triggers the immune system to release proteins that can increase inflammation, causing headaches, fatigue, nausea, dehydration, low blood sugar, and stomach irritation.
Many Western medical professionals offer only tips for treating the symptoms, which include drinking water, eating bland foods to settle an upset stomach, taking an over-the-counter pain reliever, and sleeping. More help is coming from remedies that have worked in Asia for thousands of years.
With his upcoming launch of a direct-to-consumer hangover cure, Ravee Chen plans to revolutionize the consumer health market. His involvement in traditional medicine education, rooted in his family’s legacy of eight generations of doctors, adds a unique depth to his brand. Chen’s Jelly IV product helps people immediately when taken at the right time.
“When you wake up with a hangover, it’s already too late,” Ravee says. “You need to be able to start the day waking up just as refreshed as if you didn’t go out the night before. You want to be able to wake up at your best, and that’s what a real hangover product does.”
This means making a product that people take before the party even starts.
“Taking our product before you drink allows you to stay a bit more in control of your body and gives you the energy to want to go out as well,” Ravee says. “Then taking it before you sleep makes sure you wake up the next day feeling great. But if you still don’t feel that way when you wake up, you can take it in the morning, and then you start feeling good. It’s designed to be super flexible.”
Chen started as an acupuncturist with a mobile practice, seeing clients in their homes, offices, and hospitals. He also worked with traditional medicine and functional foods. Later, Ravee started a consulting firm called Mimimil, which works with clients to unlock their companies’ digital potential. He also runs colleges in Halifax and Toronto, where experts teach acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). They also teach students about functional food and other techniques long overlooked by Western medicine.
Ravee Chen explains that although Asian medicine has many tools and traditions that science has not yet confirmed, centuries of practice and anecdotes show their efficacy.
“I’m focusing on other products using my background in healthcare and science, natural medicine, and functional foods,” Chen says. “My new hangover product helps you not only have more fun but saves you from feeling terrible the next day.”
Asian countries use traditional herbs prepared in particular ways to cure hangovers, which Chen was reminded of on a trip to Korea last summer.
“At night, I went to clubs and noticed people using these. While I’d known of hangover remedies, I never thought about making them commercially accessible. It’s a grueling two-hour process. I bought the herbs, boiled them, ground them up, and so on. Then I thought, there’s obviously a simpler way to do it.”
Back in Canada, Chen realized not only did he have to balance potency with the correct delivery system, he needed to have a product that tasted good. If it tastes terrible, North Americans won’t use it.
“That’s my ‘eureka, aha’ moment. Literally the week after that, I called up people I knew in Toronto and put together a team to work on the product,” Ravee says.
“The first one was terrible because it came in pill form. And while it may have worked, I do know that people are popping too many pills already in the United States. They don’t need to be popping more. With the stigma, it’s not going to be cool. We’re not going to get the ravers, artists, or the influencers to pop pills at the club.”
The idea of making jelly in single-use packaging comes from Asian countries, where Koreans, Taiwanese, and other Asians use jellies for many health products. Chen planned to repackage this traditional Asian idea and market it to the younger generations in North America using his heritage and entrepreneurial spirit.
“I was born here, so I’m able to take the knowledge from Asia and present it here with context,” Chen explains.
