Americans turn to childrens' diarrhoea medicine Pedialyte as an unusual hangover cure

Pedialyte has seen its sales soar after adults have started using it as a hangover cure

Children's diarrhea medicine Pedialyte is increasingly being used by adults as a hangover cure ((Photo Illustration by Scott Olson/Getty Images))

Sales of a childrens' diarrhoea medicine are up in the USA, after it has been touted as a surprisingly effective hangover cure.

The medicine, Pedialyte, has seen fairly steady sales over the years. However, according to marketing research company Nielsen, adult use of the medicine has gone up by 57 per cent since 2012.

Pedialyte is made for children, and is designed to replenish vital minerals and fluids lost after a bout of diarrhea.

Bur recently, savvy adults have seen the potential of an easy method to take in plenty of fluids and nutrients in a short time, and are using it the morning after drinking to perk themselves up.

Pedialyte has responded to its unlikely new area of popularity with an advertising campaign.

One image encourages festival-goers to make sure they've got a stock of Pedialyte with them to ease the pain of late night parties.

Another tells hungover socialites that it'll help them get to brunch on time the next morning.

It's grown in popularity since hard-partying celebrities started endorsing it.

In the past few years, famous names like Pharrell and Miley Cyrus have sworn by Pedialyte as a hangover cure.

Pharrell even requested that it be provided by concert venues that he appeared at as part of his rider.

Pharrell loves Pedialyte so much that he put it on his concert rider (Pharrell/Instagram)

However, according to some scientists, Pedialyte isn't all its cracked up to be.

Speaking to Slate, Professor Stanley Goldfarb at the Perelman School of Medicine in Pennsylvania, said that hangovers are caused by alcohol byproducts in the body.

These byproducts have to be metabolised by the liver, which takes time. He said that there's no evidence that any 'cure' is better than simply waiting.

However, the placebo effect is a powerful one, and there's plenty of anecdotal evidence from happy users to suggest that it works, at least psychologically.

Rushing out to buy children's medicine to aid you in your drinking habit may seem unusual, but there's no end of unusual hangover cures that desperate drunkards resort to in order to cure a sore head.

In the Philliipines, hungover drinkers eat balut, a fertilised duck embryo still in the shell, which is lightly poached, and then sucked out. It may seem stomach churning, but balut is apparently rich in cysteine, which can help break down hangover-causing chemicals in the liver.

If you can't stomach embryos, just head to your local corner shop. Scottish people swear on Irn Bru as a cast-iron hangover cure (in the traditional glass bottle, of course), and Chinese scientists found in 2013 that Sprite actually helped break down harmful alcohol by-products in the body, reducing the length of your hangover.

Pedialyte is an American brand, but for any curious Brits who want to give it a go, Dioralyte is the British equivalent.

But children's diarrhoea remedies aside, the best cure for a hangover is not to drink so much the night before.