Preflight — Before You Drink
Preflight is the stack you take before your first drink. Its job is to build capacity in advance, so that when acetaldehyde production begins, every clearance pathway is already running and every backup system is fully stocked.
What this stack does
The Preflight stack primes every clearance pathway before acetaldehyde production begins. Sulforaphane for gene induction (needs a 2-hour lead), liposomal DHM, L-cysteine preload, NAC, silymarin, ubiquinol, and cofactor support.
Ingredients in this stage
Core stack
Non-negotiable. Take all of these.
- L-Cysteine Tier 1 · Core High impact RCT 500 mg Preload the chemical trap
- NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine) Tier 1 · Core High impact RCT 600 mg Bank glutathione before stress
- DHM (Dihydromyricetin) Tier 1 · Core High impact RCT 600 mg Preload enzymatic acceleration
- Sulforaphane Tier 1 · Core High impact RCT 50 mg Gene-induction window (needs 2h lead)
Extended stack
Strong support. Add when you can.
- Silymarin (Milk Thistle) Tier 2 · Strong Medium impact Obs 250 mg Suppress CYP2E1 before ethanol arrives
- Ubiquinol (CoQ10) Tier 2 · Strong Medium impact Mech 100 mg Protect mitochondrial ALDH2
- Benfotiamine Tier 2 · Strong Medium impact Mech 150 mg Restore TPP cofactor pool
Tier 3 · Situational Optional enhancements Situational. Helpful for specific symptoms. 2 ingredients
- Magnesium Glycinate Tier 3 · Situational Medium impact Obs 200 mg Cofactor buffer, sleep support later
- Ge Gen (Kudzu Root) Tier 3 · Situational Medium impact RCT 300 mg Adjunct ALDH2 support (puerarin)
Tier 4 · Experimental Experimental layer Mechanistic or traditional support. Optional. 1 ingredient
- Shi Hu Tier 4 · Experimental Low impact Mech tea Traditional fluid support kept for full coverage
Quick start
Mechanisms
Why this stage exists
The lead time is the point
Most hangover products work after the fact. Preflight works ahead of the fact. The reason it exists as a separate stage is that one ingredient — sulforaphane — needs roughly 2 hours of lead time to finish its job. Sulforaphane activates the Nrf2 transcription factor, which turns on genes for ALDH2 and glutathione-synthesizing enzymes. By the time you take your first drink, the new proteins are being translated.
Skip the Preflight window and that mechanism is lost for the night. Everything else you can still recover. Sulforaphane is one-shot.
Deep science · Why gene induction needs a 2-hour lead
Why the whole stack, not just sulforaphane
The sulforaphane lead time is the reason Preflight exists, but once you're dosing anyway, you might as well preload the non-gene-induction layers too. L-cysteine and DHM preloads start working within the first drink. NAC banks the glutathione reserve. Silymarin suppresses CYP2E1 before ethanol arrives. The cofactor layer is in place before anything demands it.
Who needs Preflight
Anyone who is thinking about tomorrow and has 1–2 hours before the first drink. If you don't have that time, Afterburner is the recovery stage — but note that nothing else in the protocol replaces the gene-induction mechanism. Preflight is the only place it happens.
Sulforaphane binds to cysteine residues on Keap1, releasing Nrf2 from cytoplasmic sequestration. Nrf2 translocates to the nucleus and binds antioxidant response elements (AREs) in target promoters, initiating transcription of ALDH2, glutathione-synthesizing enzymes, and phase II detoxification enzymes. Transcription and translation take time. Peak plasma sulforaphane is ~1 hour post-dose; measurable upregulation of Nrf2 target genes follows 1–3 hours after that. By the time ethanol arrives, newly-synthesized ALDH2 is contributing to clearance capacity.
This is a one-shot mechanism per drinking session. Taking sulforaphane during Afterburner or Nightcap would provide benefit too late — after the peak acetaldehyde exposure is over. Preflight is the only dose window where the mechanism is on-time.