Study: Compound Found In Beer Boosts Brain Function 119
An anonymous reader writes Researchers have found that a chemical found in hops may actually improve memory. Unfortunately, a person would need to drink 3,520 pints of beer a day to get a high enough dose of the chemical to boost their brain power. A daunting task for even the most enthusiastic Oktoberfest participant. From the article: "Researchers at Oregon State University discovered that doses of xanthohumol, a flavonoid found in hops, improved memory and thinking in a lucky group of mice. Flavonoids are a class of compounds present in plants, known to have numerous health benefits. Last year, researchers discovered that a flavonoid found in celery and artichokes could potentially fight pancreatic cancer. The researchers treated the mice with dietary supplements of xanthohumol over the course of eight weeks. Their goal was to determine if xanthohumol could affect palmitoylation, a naturally occurring process in animals (including humans) that's associated with memory degradation. The mice then went through a series of tests—including the popular Morris water maze—to gauge whether or not the treatments had improved their spatial memory and cognitive flexibility. For the younger mice in the group, it worked. But on the older mice, unfortunately, the xanthohumol didn't seem to have any effect."
First "Flowers for Algernon" Post (Score:4, Funny)
So now we know why Charlie Gordon didn't stay smart - he was too old.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: frosty pilsner (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
X found in Y correlates to Z (Score:2)
And here's something else you forgot (Score:2)
And here's something else you forgot to factor in - we're not that drunk.
Did you hear that everybody? They said they're not that drunk! Cheeky bastards!
They're not that drunk! They're not that drunk! They're not that drunk!
Obliagtory (Score:1)
http://xkcd.com/323/
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.penny-arcade.com/co... [penny-arcade.com]
Re: (Score:2)
This.
So much this.
Re: (Score:2)
Tell us how you really feel.
Re: (Score:2)
Compound Found In Beer Impairs Brain Function (Score:5, Insightful)
No matter how many beneficial ingredients/components that beer and other alcoholic beverages may have, the dominant, overriding player will always be the alcohol, which is just fucking terrible for you.
Re:Compound Found In Beer Impairs Brain Function (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/wa... [cbsnews.com]
might want to check the facts on this.
Re: Compound Found In Beer Impairs Brain Function (Score:5, Funny)
3250 beers/day : makes Amy Winehouse look sober.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
You might find this article which claims otherwise, interesting:
"No Amount of Alcohol Is Safe"
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/824237 [medscape.com]
Re:Compound Found In Beer Impairs Brain Function (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
You might find this article which claims otherwise, interesting:
"No Amount of Alcohol Is Safe" http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/824237 [medscape.com]
I would like to check it out, but it wants me to login. Can I see the article some other way?
Re: (Score:2)
Ahaa, I now found a way. Put "No Amount of Alcohol Is Safe" (in quotation marks) in Google and open the cached copy of that page.
In general the article talks about any amount of alcohol increasing cancer risk.
Re: (Score:3)
That's it? Fuck me, breathing increases cancer risk these days.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but it's much more difficult to cut down on than alcohol.
Keep breathing and carry on.
Re:Compound Found In Beer Impairs Brain Function (Score:4, Funny)
Shall I pour you another, my good friend?
Re:Compound Found In Beer Impairs Brain Function (Score:4, Funny)
Studies notebook, checks over a few calculations, and turns to colleague: You're not going to believe this. I really am a PIG FUCKER and I really SHOULD DIE. Oh no, forgot to carry the two. I'm good. Yes. I'll have another.
Re: (Score:2)
I just read that article (Score:1)
And it does not say that alcohol is good for you.
It said that one attribute held in common by a lot of people who lived into their 90s is that they drank two glasses of alcohol a day.
This does not in any way imply that alcohol is good for you. The alcohol consumption could very easily have been correlated with other habits also associated with longevity, such as frequent socializing. It is just as likely that the emotional and mental benefits of socializing is what kept them alive, with the alcohol having
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Actually if you read the various articles on the data used for this study (Leisure World / Laguna Woods data) or watch the 60 minutes show they clearly articulate people who abstained from alcohol lived shorter lives.
So if you want to live a long time moderate (1-2 units/day) may actually be needed.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, sexconker, you and your stories - "the study is wrong", "beer kills brain cells".... Now let's go back to that ... building ... thingie ... where our beds and TV ... is.
Re: (Score:2)
Most studies would probably conclude that a case a day is "just fucking terrible".
Additionally, most studies would probably conclude that any kind of binge drinking is "just fucking terrible".
Re: (Score:1)
Abstainers do no better than heavy drinkers, it seems. Of course this should be taken with a shaker of statistical salt. Correlation is not causation and all that jazz.
Alcohol, like any drug, is bad in toxic doses, which happens to be the doses it's often consumed. Nontoxic doses can provide therapeutic benefit against stress and anxiety. It binds to GABA receptors, making them more sensitive. This in return causes an increase in GABA activity and thus a decrease in overall brain activity. It's a mech
Re: (Score:2)
What about non-alcoholic beer?
Re: (Score:2)
A lucky group of mice? (Score:3)
How did we confirm the luckification of these mice? Are the mice in my lab as lucky as the ones in this experiment?
Re: (Score:2)
The other mice from that batch were routed over to a lab conducting an experiment entitled "Will it Blend?"
wrong (Score:2)
Unfortunately, a person would need to drink 3,520 pints of beer a day to get a high enough dose of the chemical to boost their brain power.
Or 2 pints of Hopalicious [beeradvocate.com]
Re: (Score:1)
Drink IPA (Score:5, Interesting)
I drink Pliny the Elder every Thursday @ 11 am at a bar locally here that taps just ONE KEG and this keg lasts about 1 Hour. 30-50 pitchers of beer.
Micro-bubbles in the brew.
Pliny is nice. Its balanced, lots of hops, IPA classic, only good fresh, and its smooth
Hops are really awesome. They are brain food. Also brewers yeast is able to even control blood pressure.
I love beer.
Re: (Score:1)
He was also an obese asthmatic and died from the strain of trying to run away from a volcano.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Really, this was modded up and mine was modded down? Have you never actually read anything about the history of the eruption? Everyone who was with him at the time was fine, he was the only one who was having trouble, because of his lousy health. Pliny the Younger blamed it on his "weak innards".
Re: (Score:1)
I'd like to hate you but I can't - I'll admit it's pure jealousy.
- drinking at 11am on a Thursday
- beautiful (from your description) microbrew
- IPA
*sigh*
Raise one for me if you'd be kind enough sir
Re: (Score:2)
Pliny is nice. Its balanced, lots of hops, IPA classic, only good fresh, and its smooth
9 out of 10 times I drink it at the brewery, I am left wondering where the lovely floral character has gone. Well, it went to Hopfather. Pliny is now their mass market beer.
Re: (Score:2)
Name 10 pubs with Pliny on tap. List them. here. list them now.
Choke on me. Choke. Now. Choke on me now.
You just claim to like beer with 200 IBU or Dogfish overkill, and people want something a bit more subtle.
Hopfather has less IBUs than Pliny, ignoranus. You're only pretending to know anything about beer.
Re: (Score:2)
Pliny is ~92, Hopfather is > 100.
Pliny is more bitter than hopfather, it says so right on their website, and it also says so in my mouth. And the younger is even moreso, and I can't figure out why anyone would give a shit about the elder any more because it has clearly. gone. down. hill. Last time I actually made it in for the younger (which I only do by accident, because life is too short to make plans around when a keg of beer is opened) it wasn't that good, either. It was missing something important from the hop character. Since they go
Re: (Score:1)
Pliny is the nectar of the Gods.
Re: (Score:1)
"Lots of hops" contradicts "balanced" and "smooth." I hate the way hops has become the CA wine oak of the micro-brew world. Taste should be king, and more != better.
Re: (Score:1)
"Lots of hops" contradicts "balanced" and "smooth." I hate the way hops has become the CA wine oak of the micro-brew world. Taste should be king, and more != better.
Can't agree with you more. Hops was supposed to be the ingredient. Now it's turned into a condiment where IPA monsters live and breathe waiting to take a bitter shit in your mouth.
People will soon be sucking back hops shooters like wheatgrass shots.
There's more to beer than trying to create an IPA that will murder anyone else's IPA with a hop shotgun.
Re: (Score:1)
Obligatory XKCD reference (Score:4, Funny)
The Balmer peek [xkcd.com]
Re:Obligatory XKCD reference (Score:5, Funny)
I think you want the Balmer Peak. Nobody wants to peek at Balmer.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Watch out, Balmer will want to squirt back at you with his shit brown Zune.
Might I vary on this meme... (Score:4, Funny)
Compound found in brain improves beer function.
Finally (Score:2)
...we'll be able to extract the brain boosting compounds and do away with beer altogether!
Bring it on! (Score:1)
So chug a pint (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Challenge accepted (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
8-bit (Score:1)
Thank you Captain Obvious! (Score:4, Funny)
It is said that we only make real use of about a tenth of our brain. And it has long been well known that alcohol kills brain cells.
Darwinian natural selection takes care of the rest. The weak brain cells die off, and in due time are flushed from the body. As more and more beer is consumed, more and more weak brain cells die, until the subject is left with a relatively small number of powerful, high-functioning brain cells operating in a cruft-free environment.
And thus, genius is born.
Re: (Score:2)
There are those who believe that the best use for alcohol as a coolant is external. These people are idiots.
Buffalo Theory is True!! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Comound found in beer? (Score:2)
Then apparently it's a chemical in hops with such low dosage that thousands of beers need to be drunk for the dosage to be meaningful...
What about the other compounds found in beer that would kill a person drinking such quantities?
Talk about baiting headlines...
Something seems not right, (Score:1)
Coincidentally.... (Score:2)
I'll do my best, but usually 5 Maß is my limit.
3520 bottles of beer on the wall (Score:2)
Challenge...accepted (Score:1)
"But lest beer enthusiasts get too excited, it would require drinking 2,000 liters of beer a day (or 5,636 bottles of beer) to ingest the amount of xanthohumol used in the study."
Finally some objective science!!! (Score:3)
I couldn't read TFA because I spilled a beer on my keyboard, but I agree in principle.
New strain of hops (Score:2)
Just need to breed hops to enhance the level of this flavonoid to high enough levels to be useful, and then brew a "smart beer" from it.
As long as it tastes better than Bud Light, it should sell like crazy.
In other words, the story title is complete BS... (Score:2)
Really, this starts to be more and more like the yellow press.
How much of Double IPAs would you need (Score:1)