Scientists invent a machine that can help you get sober three times faster

It’s all too easy for an evening glass of wine to turn into two or three – or more. But help may be at hand for those who realize too late that they are more drunk than they would like.

Scientists have invented a machine that can help them get sober about three times faster than they usually do.

Users are encouraged to hyperventilate by breathing hard and quickly through a face mask that supplies them with carbon dioxide from a tank the size of a briefcase.

Inhale: Scientists have invented a machine that can help people get sober three times faster than normal by breathing hard and fast through a face mask that provides them with carbon dioxide (pictured: the mask on trial)

By hyperventilating, they use the lungs to exhale alcohol. The more difficult the breathing, the more alcohol is eliminated.

However, breathing deeper and faster than normal removes carbon dioxide from the blood along with alcohol.

This is the cause of symptoms such as dizziness and fainting. The machine helps prevent this.

The device, developed to help patients overcome carbon monoxide poisoning or recover from anesthetics more quickly, has been adapted to help people at serious risk of alcohol poisoning.

But the inventors say it could easily be used by drinkers who have drunk too much.

It was tested on five men in an initial small study, who were given about half a large glass of vodka.

The volunteers eliminated alcohol more than three times faster with the machine than when they weren’t using it.

The device was tested on five men in an initial small study, who were given about half a large glass of vodka. Volunteers eliminated alcohol more than three times faster with the machine than when they weren’t using it (stock image)

However, it currently costs around US $ 20,000, equivalent to around £ 15,200.

The apparatus has been described in the journal Scientific Reports.

Dr Joseph Fisher, of the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, who led the study, said: “This is a very basic, low-tech device that could be made anywhere. It’s almost inexplicable why we didn’t try this decades ago.

“Most people have had this feeling of drinking too much and regretting not having had the last drinks and being more sober.

“Obviously we wouldn’t recommend drinking too much, but generally speaking, this machine halves the amount of alcohol in someone’s system in 45 minutes, instead of the two to three hours it takes on average.