Demand for anti-dehydration powder spikes due to TikTok trend

Students and young people are reaching for the oral rehydration solution (ORS) in large amounts this year –– but not for its marketed use as way to rehydrate after acute diarrhea. Spurred by advice on TikTok and other social media, they are instead using the anti-dehydration powder as a hangover cure, the AD reports.

"We see that there is a lot of demand for ORS this year," said Jos Jongstra, director of the Central Bureau of Drugstore Companies (CBD). Drugstores are noticing they are selling more of the dehydration treatment than usual, and it even sold out completely in several drugstores in the student city of Groningen.

However, there is still plenty of ORS in stock, the CBD said. The powder can be found in physical drugstores and online stores.

Pharmacist Marloes Dankers of the Institute for Responsible Medicine Use told the AD that ORS mainly works as a dehydration cure, and that its use for hangovers isn't proven. The main effect probably comes from the water consumption, since the powder is dissolved in water. “Water is always the best solution for a hangover," she told the AD.