We’ve found a cure! We know, the drunken nights may not be as fun for you as they are for your colleagues with the splitting headaches that come after.
Or maybe you’re too embarrassed to admit that the reason why you keep passing on that workplace poker night invitation is because you don’t want to spend the rest of the next day throwing up.
This time, we’ve found a vial of juice that could begin to justify the amount of money spent on a night of woozy fun. No more hangovers!
And no, I don’t refer to the kinds that are sold at 7-11 for $5 a pop with no visible after-effects.
The sciences of this remedy: the turmeric-infused ‘1B4’ drink actually make sense, bringing the best of nature’s liver foods to light.
If spending additional money on alcohol-habits isn’t your cup of tea, you can still utilize the ingredients in your kitchen to achieve similar effects. Either way, if there’s one hangover drink that’s worth a shot, it’s most probably this one.
Konichiwa, 1B4
In Japan, politeness is taken extremely seriously. The culture of drinking is one that’s ingrained into the perception of social etiquette in over there. In fact, you could wave sayonara to your next raise if you miss out on some workplace relaxation and bonding nights.
Don’t beat yourself up though, connoisseurs never become such naturals without a coping mechanism or two.
Singaporean creators of the 1B4 drink, Joe Lin and Damien Loh, noticed that the Japanese made it a habit to purchase an anti-hangover drink before their drinking sessions.
Whatever they were made of, they seemed to do the trick for Joe and Damien, who wanted to share their enlightenment with Singapore.
While the idea of having to purchase a drink to catch your fall may seem somewhat gimmicky to you (as it does to me), the drink comes in 80ml bottles and claims to have ingredients that help your liver recover from the alcohol.
It also boasts the lack of caffeine, so the perk-up won’t be from any stimulants. It’s recommended by Damien and Joe that you drink a bottle of 1B4 before, and after drinking.
What Makes A Hangover?
Attempts at explaining hangovers often come with a world of contradiction. The post-drink body and moods come from a combination of different supposed reasons. The first debated one being the fact that alcohol is diuretic.
The number of whiz trips you take increase when you’re drinking because your body’s starting to lose water, fast. The dehydration happens because alcohol stumps the production of anti-diuretic hormones in your body.
Not to mention, anything that comes out of your mouth in the form of vomit also misplaces a lot of the water in your body. The dehydration is part of what accounts for the headaches, dizziness, hurling stomach and thirst that you experience when drunk, or hungover.
Your liver also experiences inflammation, causing your body to act out with swelling and pain. A consensus that most sources and scientists seem to agree on is that hangovers are caused by the liver’s inability to flush out the excess ethanol that you’ve consumed.
A hangover is a mere reaction to this excess – your body’s way of telling you it’s working really hard at flushing out the damage.
The most commonly practised working cures and prevention tactics for hangovers have included consuming food before and after drinking, drinking milk, prickly pear cactus extracts and just waiting for the storm to pass with pain-killers.
Does The Science Add Up?
1B4 claims to have ingredients that help naturally stimulate the growth and healing of your body.
These include Vitamins C, B2, B6, B9 and B12, curcumin, and prickly pear flavouring. Apart from the flavouring, these are likely names you’ve heard of as beneficial to your body.
Turmeric is a superfood that’s used and advocated for globally by doctors, primarily because of its effects in putting a rev-up on liver regeneration. The main, active ingredient in turmeric that causes this is curcumin, which is packed with anti-oxidants and is also anti-inflammatory.
To put it simply, turmeric is key to helping your liver detox and get rid of the nasty stuff.
While there haven’t yet been sufficient studies to determine how quickly the effects of turmeric can materialize, turmeric has been proven to relieve one of the most tragic parts of a hangover – nausea.
You’ve probably been nagged at to “take your vitamins!” enough to remember that they’re somewhat good for you.
Vitamin C does a great deal for your immunity and cardiovascular functions. It also speeds up the metabolism of your liver, allowing the ethanol to get passed out of your body faster.
Vitamin Bs are dept with detoxifying your body and triggering the breakdown of harmful chemicals in your body. Vitamin B12 is especially ubiquitous, known to aide with alertness and brain functions.
Alcohol strips your body of many essential nutrients in its attempts to recover, so taking your vitamins to help with a hangover is works in that they replenish whatever’s been washed out.
Is This My Best Bet?
1B4 boasts a pretty good selection of ingredients that work in tandem. Theoretically, they should effectively help you to deal with a hangover, although this could depend entirely on the concentration of individual ingredients in the drink.
One man’s meat is another man’s poison – while 1B4 serves as no poison, it’s possible that the drink may work for a friend better than it might for you.
Much like how your hangovers could comprise of just headaches whereas someone else’s could involve nausea, your body works in unique ways and may need one type of ingredient more than the other.
After a bunch of location scouting trips to convenience stores around Clarke Quay and Chinatown, it’s safe to say that 1B4 is not entirely easy to access from brick and mortar stores. However, you can have a 12-bottle-pack delivered to you from their website, making the drink a perfect choice for house parties and the festivities.
For all you know, these might just be a hit at your parties. At $3.50 a bottle, they’re arguably more affordable than most body-stimulating drinks at convenience stores, which easily cost $5. If anything, the odds of this drink being beneficial are guaranteed.
If that’s above your budget, or if you’d rather experiment with these ingredients by yourself, you can try your hand at some home brews.
Boiling a glass of water with some ginger (for your throat and stomach) and a few spoons of turmeric powder could do the trick. Top the mixture off with some honey to reap the benefits of Vitamin B6, pleasant taste and a soothed throat. If you have vitamins too, don’t stinge on them!
I’m all for home remedies, but I have to admit that these come without the elemental taste benefits of the prickly pear favouring that 1B4 has.
With the ingredients that it uses and the convenience that it offers, 1B4 is most definitely worth a shot (glass)…or two. Now, let’s drink to that!