HANGOVER HELP?
We tried this new elixir
Like many of us, Sisun Lee considered hangovers a given after a night of heavy drinking — until he went to South Korea and discovered an entire genre of supplement products designed to counteract the effects of alcohol. He tried them and found it was almost like hitting CTRL-Z on a night out, undoing many of the effects of overimbibing.
“I woke up without headaches,” says the Torontonian who made it to Silicon Valley working for the likes of Tesla, Facebook and Uber. “I still felt tired, but the lack of headaches definitely helped me do things the next morning that I normally couldn’t.”
Inspired, Lee quit his job at Tesla to create his own formula of “hangover-defying” compounds — plus a heavy dose of vitamins and electrolytes. He named it Morning Recovery and launched a wildly successful Indiegogo campaign.
According to Morning Recovery’s directions, users have to drink an entire 100-mL supplement right before going to bed after a night of drinking for the beverage to work.
But is there really a magical elixir to prevent hangovers?
Hangovers have been around since we first started brewing beers and guzzling wine, and yet, they remain poorly understood and are often treated with home remedies such as soda crackers, litres of water and, on occasion, hair of the dog. Acadia University kinesiology professor Darren Kruisselbrink, an expert in hangovers and the body’s response to alcohol, says we only know a small portion of factors that contribute to that terrible morning-after feeling.
“What is known, generally, is that alcohol triggers a generalized inflammatory response which puts the body into ‘protection mode.’ This type of response has been linked to impaired functioning in the central nervous system like the ability to consolidate memories,” says Kruisselbrink. “Alcohol has also been linked to hormonal changes, dehydration and electrolyte imbalances, changes in neurotransmitter concentrations, and disruption of sleep cycles, all of which can contribute to the headache, gurgly stomach, thirst, fatigue and other common hangover symptoms.”
Kruisselbrink notes that even if we understood the exact biological recipe that determines hangover symptoms, variables such as smoking, ingredients in the drinks
consumed and family history can contribute to how you feel after a few too many. While some small studies show that certain natural ingredients like acanthopanax senticosus (an adaptogenic herb that may help the body better manage stress), red ginseng, Korean pear juice and dandelion juice may offer relief for hangover symptoms, there is definitely no “cure,” says Kruisselbrink.
In fact, Lee says the idea that Morning Recovery can prevent a hangover entirely is a misconception. Instead, the product, he says, is simply meant to “boost the body’s response to alcohol.” It’s not a pharmaceutical drug, nor is it a cure-all.
Morning Recovery is produced by an entirely Canadian team based in California. While they do ship to Canada, the drink is not available here because the product hasn’t been approved by Health Canada. Pending approval, Lee expects he will begin distributing Morning Recovery in Canadian retail stores this year.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
Three FLARE staffers tested Morning Recovery to see if it lived up to the hype and, as Kruisselbrink had noted, each person had a different experience with the supplement based on what and how much they drank.
Erinn Stewart, our assistant editor of fashion and beauty, saved the drink for her 25th birthday celebration in New York City and was pleasantly surprised by the results — even though she wasn’t a fan of Morning Recovery’s faux peach flavouring.
“I woke up early with no headache at all,” says Stewart, whose hangovers typically consist of a headache she treats with Advil and a healthy dose of Saje’s Peppermint Halo. “Instead of sleeping in until 10 a.m., which I typically do on a Sunday, I was legit up and at
’em at 7:30 a.m. #worthit.”
While Stewart was ready to sign up for a subscription box of the preventive liquid, our staff writer Sarah Trumbley was not so enthused.
“Maybe the amount I drank was too much to handle for one little bottle of Morning Recovery, but I woke up the next morning feeling like I had been on a two-week bender,” says Trumbley. “I haven’t been that hungover since university. Headache, nausea, the inability to do life—you name the hang over symptom and I had it .”
I was somewhere in between. I took Morning Recovery with me to an out-of-town wedding. After a night of festivities, and far too many trips to the bar, I chugged it before crashing into bed. I woke up the next day with a surprisingly clear head, but a stomach that had not quite forgiven me for the previous night.