For their final issues of December, the weeklies — their covers trimmed in gold color (except for the Sunday Mainichi, which came out in yellow-orange) — typically publish two-week bumper issues with extra pages. This gives many of them leeway to write about lots of timely topics. For instance, journalist Akiko Takata contributes a piece on prevention and remedies for hangovers in the Sunday Mainichi (Jan. 5-12).
Word on the street in Shinjuku is that a heavy bout of drinking should be preceded by taking three tablets of Miraglen (an over-the-counter liver supplement) and a "garlic injection" containing B vitamins and glycogen (a multibranched polysaccharide of glucose).
"The symptoms typical of hangovers — headaches, nausea, palpitations and so on — occur while the liver breaks down acetaldehyde, a harmful substance present in ingested alcohol," says Dr. Toshio Akitsu, author of "A doctor who loves to drink tells about how to drink so that the liquor becomes like a medicine," who doesn't think the above will be effective. Instead, he suggests consumption of protein-rich foods such as edamame or cheese.