This 'magic wand' will prevent wine hangovers

BySteve Campion and Pooja Lodhia KTRK logo
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Magic wand prevents wine hangovers
A new product promises to prevent wine hangovers by removing sulfates and histamines.

DALLAS, TX (KTRK) -- Attention wine lovers, this story could change your life.

A good portion of adults we spoke with say that, when it comes to their favorite glass of vino, the biggest thing they wish they could avoid is the following morning's wicked headache and wine hangover.

But a Dallas inventor is looking to change all that with his latest creation.

"Necessity is the mother of invention. That's truly the story with this," Meadows explained.

He had to give up wine all together 10 years ago because of allergic side effects.

"Either I'd lose my voice or I'd get a bad headache," Meadows said.

He says it's not the alcohol that causes headaches, but the preservatives that trigger allergic reactions.

According to Meadows' online research, after a glass or two, roughly 69% of wine drinkers develop headaches. Moreover, 43% experienced a hangover of some kind and 29% of them experienced rosacea or some type of skin discoloring.

Meadows and his son got to thinking. Could they solve that 9,000-year-old problem of unpleasant reactions to wine consumption? Using his background in biomedical engineering, they developed "The Wand."

"We call it a Brita filter for wine," Meadows explained. "You swirl it around for just 2 to 3 minutes and, through that process of constantly absorbing out the histamines and the sulfites out of your wine, and you're ready to go."

By removing those preservatives, Meadows says wine lovers no longer need to worry about the side effects.

"Savor the wine, skip the side effects," Meadows said.

Just leave the wand in your glass for 3 minutes. For those with more severe wine allergies, leave the wand in the glass a bit longer. By removing the sulfites and histamines, the wand improves the taste of the wine, Meadows says. Those components are bitter to begin with, so it leaves behind a glass that's more bold and full bodied.

Restaurants like The Ranch at Los Colinas have been selling the wand for 3 bucks each.

"You get them started in the restaurant and they want to take it home. They're drinking wine at home, they're telling their friends," Judd Fuiua told us.

We put it to the test with a few local wine lovers. The following day, they said things were different!

"The normal redness that I get on my skin and it's usually hot, I didn't have any of that," Allie Demers told us.

"No headache and I felt great afterwards," Cristina Barbaric said.

As for Meadows, he's back to drinking wine without experiencing a single headache.

Right now, the wand is available online.