Worried About the Morning After a Year-End Party Full of Drinking?

Every year at the end of the year, many people struggle to recover from drinking sessions and hangovers. Although they try to drink moderately to avoid affecting the next day's schedule, it is not easy to restrain oneself when meeting with people after a long time. If reducing drinking occasions is not possible, learning tips for moderation during drinking can be a good method. Together with Dong-A Pharmaceutical, we looked into secret tips for enjoying drinking occasions while waking up refreshed the next morning.

The photo is unrelated to the article content. [Photo provided by Pixabay]

First, it is advisable to decide the amount to drink in advance and avoid mixing different types of alcoholic beverages. To do this, consciously monitor how much you have consumed and control your drinking amount during the drinking session. At this time, it is best to avoid mixing various types of alcohol such as soju and beer. Bomb cocktails are often consumed in one shot, making it difficult to estimate the amount ingested. The byproducts contained besides alcohol react with each other, causing severe and prolonged hangovers.

It is also important to drink plenty of water and have side dishes while drinking. Drinking water immediately after alcohol dilutes the alcohol concentration, lowering the alcohol strength. Increased water intake leads to more frequent bathroom visits, providing more opportunities to step away from the drinking table. Avoiding side dishes due to concerns about a bloated stomach the next day is also risky. Drinking on an empty stomach causes alcohol to pass quickly through the stomach and be absorbed rapidly, causing a sharp rise in blood alcohol concentration. Good side dishes include cheese, tofu, fish that help regenerate liver cells, and vegetables and fruits rich in vitamins B and C.

You should not take just any painkiller for severe headaches after drinking. Acetaminophen-based painkillers can cause serious liver damage when combined with alcohol in the liver. If you usually experience severe hangover symptoms, drinking beverages that help alleviate hangover symptoms before and after drinking may be helpful.

More important than drinking habits at drinking occasions is daily management. Generally, for men, drinking up to five glasses of soju per day is considered a safe amount. Drinking occasions more than once a week can also harm health. Drinking beyond this amount slows liver cell regeneration and increases the risk of alcohol-related liver damage.

Health functional foods for liver health should also be chosen carefully based on their ingredients. Common liver health functional ingredients cannot be expected to recover alcohol-related liver damage. Probiotic-fermented kelp extract is one of the individually recognized ingredients approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for functionality. In human application tests, after taking probiotic-fermented kelp extract for four weeks, significant decreases in GGT, GOT, and GPT levels were observed compared to the control group. Among liver markers, GGT levels are known to rise only in chronic drinkers.

According to Dong-A Pharmaceutical, the only product on the market containing probiotic-fermented kelp extract as an ingredient is Morning Care Liver Solution. This product extracts kelp through a specialized production process to remove the characteristic odor of the raw material. Choosing a product according to frequently experienced hangover symptoms allows for more efficient management. Morning Care has three lineups based on rice bran soybean fermentation extract as a base, each containing ingredients effective for specific symptoms. For splitting headaches, it contains green tea catechins and willow bark extract powder; for bloated hangovers, cabbage complex extract; and for dry, flaky hangovers, hyaluronic acid and fish collagen are added. All three products contain vitamin B complex, which helps metabolism and relieves fatigue.

A Dong-A Pharmaceutical representative explained, "Since 2005, Morning Care has researched Korean drinking habits, drinking patterns, and health problems caused by drinking. The newly launched health functional food, which consolidates this know-how, is an essential item for high-risk drinkers, expected not only to aid recovery from alcohol-related liver damage but also to improve memory."