Kombucha. Your Best Friend For A Dry January or Hangovers

We here at Seek North wish you a happy, healthy new year

For those of you not in the know, Dry January, popular in the UK, is a campaign where participants decide to abstain from alcohol the following Monday after New Years - until the end of January. And no, it’s still not too late. Studies have shown that abstaining from alcohol, if you’re a regular drinker, for as little as two weeks can have a significant restorative effect on nearly all aspects of your bodily systems, including your brain. However, if the thought of 30 days with no alcohol makes your eyes bulge, you are certainly not alone.

But whether you’ve decided to partake in this trend or not, we think kombucha might just be your greatest ally either way.

For those of us with the fortitude to abstain, why not take those champagne flutes you’ve committed to putting away right back off the shelves, and treat yourself to kombucha nightcaps? The probiotics, electrolytes, B vitamins, amino acids, and antioxidants in your glass will kick up this month’s detox to the next level. For our fans that prefer those hefty pilsner and stout glasses, did we mention Seek North’s Pineapple Elderflower tastes incredibly like a pale ale, and looks like one too?

A dry January or not, eventually, most of us will reach for a drink, or few, again. And, eventually, a lot of us will lose count one night, only to realize what we did when we wake up in the morning. Even the most seasoned among us has not escaped a hangover at least once in their lives. It’s so prevalent, in fact, there’s a whole body of research dedicated to just this subject alone, and its supposed cures.

Well, it turns out, kombucha might be one of your best friends here too.

Let’s take a look at the symptoms of a hangover first. While each of us vary a bit, it’s usually some variation of nauseous stomach, headache, sore muscles from acid buildup and dehydration, and/or this odd combination of feeling both worn out and maybe a little anxious/on edge. Lucky for you, kombucha contains a helper for every single symptom.

The dehydration part may be obvious because kombucha is a beverage, but not only that, kombucha contains a significant amount of electrolytes (the essential salts and minerals that your body uses for all of its reactions and processes). You can actually skip the sugary recovery drinks and vitamin concoctions that just make your liver process more junk, and grab a low-sugar kombucha instead.

Your sore muscles are also due to some mischievous microscopic remnants called endotoxins, which are released when bacterial cells disintegrate. Alcohol is damaging to your gut, and its lining, so after a night of a bit too much, some of your gut bacteria can actually escape your gut lining, and release these inflammatory toxins into the bloodstream. Your muscles soak up these inflammatory toxins, and then your liver and immune system have to try and deal with them.

Kombucha comes to the rescue again by replenishing some of this gut flora, and thus, your gut barrier, plus some of that badly needed immune system too, since a large part of your immune system is actually in your gut.

Speaking of your liver, we all know the stress alcohol can put on this vital organ. Thankfully, kombucha also contains many antioxidants, including the powerhouse Vitamin C, which all may help your liver fight off some of the damage from the free radicals as byproducts of these toxins. There has also been research on tea and its protective effects on the liver, and remember, kombucha’s base contains this too

Lastly, we get to this tea, and that anxious, but worn out feeling. Both black and green tea (both in Seeks North) contain a superstar amino acid called L-Theanine, which may pull off this wonderful combination of not only a calming effect, but simultaneously, increased attention and focus – a perfect one-two punch of attentive zen we wish we had on those foggy hangover mornings.

Whether your January is dry, or whether you’re like a lot of us and couldn’t imagine such a thing, the next time you reach across a bar, you might want to make sure you have some kombucha waiting in your fridge at home.

Cheers, and Happy New Year - whatever is in your glass.