Paul Loggerstead
Product founder
Filtering fermentation byproducts from drinks
About the expert
Focus: Filtering histamines and sulfites from drinks
Founder of a company selling a sachet that filters substances from alcoholic drinks. Came to the subject through his own severe reactions, linked to neurological Lyme disease and Alpha-gal syndrome. His background is described as mechanical rather than medical, and he sells the product he describes.
Why this matters
Not a clinician or researcher, and does not claim to be: a diesel mechanic and then a safety-industry sales representative, who describes approaching his own alcohol intolerance "just like a truck that was broken". He invented, patented and sells ALKAA, an in-glass sachet claimed to absorb histamines, sulfites, tannins and acetaldehyde from a drink. Strongest as an observer of his own reactions, where an 18-month self-experiment identified something real: wine specifically floored him within minutes in a way other drinks did not, and that pattern fits recognised histamine sensitivity. Weakest at the step after, where a personal pattern becomes a general mechanism. His central claim, that fermentation byproducts rather than ethanol are the real problem, runs against mainstream toxicology, and the acetaldehyde he lists among the filtered compounds is made by the liver after swallowing rather than sitting in the glass. Credit where it is due: asked directly, he says the product has never been studied and that a trial is something he might afford one day, which is a more honest answer than the category usually gives.