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Kudzu Helps Curb Binge Drinking

jeepliberty writes "CNN has a story that the invasive ground cover vegetation Kudzu is being tested to curb binge alcohol drinking. In the health story posted Monday, researchers at the Harvard-affiliated McClean Hospital in Boston stated that volunteers who were given kudzu drank about 50% less beer in a 90-minute period than the group that was given a plecebo. The kudzu group got just an intoxicated."

98 comments

  1. Well duh... by kniLnamiJ-neB · · Score: 4, Funny

    If someone gave me a kudzu leaf, I'd probably think I'd had too much to drink already.

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    1. Re:Well duh... by uniqueUser · · Score: 0

      Is 3.5 beers is considered binge drinking?

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    2. Re:Well duh... by kniLnamiJ-neB · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Depends... how long did it take you to consume them? 3 years, probably not. 3 minutes, probably so.

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    3. Re:Well duh... by uniqueUser · · Score: 0

      How about an hour and a half?

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    4. Re:Well duh... by kniLnamiJ-neB · · Score: 1

      Not according to the "definition" of binge drinking... 5 or more consecutive standard-size drinks for guys, 4 for gals. Consecutive meaning drinking them within a short time span, less than a few hours. So it's pretty close, but not quite. Still, if it reduces non-binge drinkers 50%, it should have *some* effect...

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      Windows isn't the answer... it's the question. NO is the answer!
    5. Re:Well duh... by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      Looks to me from the story that what the kudzu really does is increase the body's ability to absorb alcohol from the stomach into the blood stream- like they said, both groups got equally intoxicated even though one group drank half as much.

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    6. Re:Well duh... by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      If I have 5 drinks a night, 5 nights a week, and 7 on weekends, is Wednesday's bar night really a "binge"?

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    7. Re:Well duh... by kniLnamiJ-neB · · Score: 1

      If you have minimum 5 drinks every night, you're beyond "binge drinking"... you're probably alcoholic.

      --
      Windows isn't the answer... it's the question. NO is the answer!
    8. Re:Well duh... by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      No - I want 7 drinks every night, but I manage restraint beyond the will of an alcoholic ;).

      --

      --
      make install -not war

  2. This just in... by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Here's a quote from the Internet Health Library:

    ...both the roots and flowers of kudzu, Radix and Flos puerariae, respectively, have been used to treat alcohol abuse safely and effectively in China for more than a millennium.


    Next on CNN, researchers have determined that the sun rises in the east.
    --
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    1. Re:This just in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Note the difference between "the sun rises in the east" and "the sun rises in the east at 5:45 am today, as a result of the rotation of the earth and its orbit around the sun".

    2. Re:This just in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A masterful reply lost on a karma whore.

    3. Re:This just in... by Lars+T. · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, ground horn of rhinoceros and dried tiger penis has been used to treat impotence and other ailments "safely and effectively" in China for for more than a millennium. Guess that has to work too.

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    4. Re:This just in... by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 2, Funny


      Well, ground horn of rhinoceros and dried tiger penis has been used to treat impotence and other ailments "safely and effectively" in China for for more than a millennium. Guess that has to work too.

      Please cite your references.

      --
      ____

      ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

    5. Re:This just in... by Blkdeath · · Score: 2, Funny
      Please cite your references.

      What is this, a post for the sake of posting something? References? How about thousands of years of documented literature, lore, endangered species cries (you know, kill tiger, take penis, leave remains to rot. Ditto rhino and horn), black market crackdowns, illegal imports into North America, Europe et al?

      You demanded references, I ask that you wait until you have something constructive to contribute before wailing on the Reply link.

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      Shameless plug. Like you weren't expecting it.

    6. Re:This just in... by dhakbar · · Score: 1

      Excellent reply, my good man.

    7. Re:This just in... by drinkypoo · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Dunno about the OP, but I have something constructive to contribute: a sense of humor. please go away until you have one, too. kthx.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    8. Re:This just in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      You can start with the 1976 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species rhino ban agreement. I know that happened probably a good 15 years before you were born, which is like, o-my-god, soooo long ago...

    9. Re:This just in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      Excellent ass-kissing, my good suck-up.

  3. it is great to have a first had account by rev_sanchez · · Score: 1

    "The kudzu group got just an intoxicated."

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    If you didn't come to party don't bother knocking on my door. Prince '1999'
  4. So that explains it! by solafide · · Score: 1

    Goats love kudzu, but after they eat it they are sort of wobbly... now we know why.

  5. Find a wall to hang-over by mathmatt · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Kudzu grows as fast as one foot per day.

    If only beer grew this fast in the wild!

    1. Re:Find a wall to hang-over by reboot246 · · Score: 1

      It grows so fast here in Alabama that it's dangerous to sleep with your windows open.

  6. So... by GypC · · Score: 4, Funny
    Kudzu's incredible rate of growth and expansion of territory is just God's way of telling us we drink too damn much.

    "Here eat some already! It's all over the place now. And lay off the sauce."

  7. Not so sure by jtshaw · · Score: 3, Funny

    So it makes you feel drunker quicker eh? So instead of having 2 beers in 2 hours and driving safely home I could have 2 beers in 2 hours and get a DUI?

    1. Re:Not so sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So it makes you feel drunker quicker eh? So instead of having 2 beers in 2 hours and driving safely home I could have 2 beers in 2 hours and get a DUI?

      This is not an intractible problem. Either take a cab or have you and your friends decide on a designated driver (you do have friends, or at least "drinking buddies" right?).

    2. Re:Not so sure by swillden · · Score: 2, Interesting

      So instead of having 2 beers in 2 hours and driving safely home I could have 2 beers in 2 hours and get a DUI?

      Since it enhances the effects, you could have one beer in two hours and feel and act the same as if you'd had two. So a breathalyzer or blood test would show a lower level of alcohol relative to the amount of impairment. If kudzu use becomes widespread we may have to adjust the legal BAC limits, or test for the kudzu-derived compound.

      On the other hand, since you've consumed less alcohol, and presumably the kudzu doesn't change the rate at which you metabolize the alcohol, your level of impairment should decline much faster. So as long as you can wait long enough to metabolize most of a beer before driving, you should be even less impaired than if you'd had two beers and no kudzu.

      Looking at it that way, it sounds like kudzu+alcohol is to alcohol as crack is to cocaine... it intensifies the effects of the underlying drug, thereby reducing the amount needed and shortening the "high". I have to wonder if that's really a good thing! Luckily, alcohol is much less addictive than cocaine.

      Disclaimer: this comment is from a non-drinker who has no firsthand knowledge of the effects of alcohol.

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    3. Re:Not so sure by beorach · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Based on the article it looks like BAC level is still elevated similarly as the control. This is an important point of the article... It would follow that the kudzu is making the alcohol travel through the stomach lining and into the bloodstream faster. But, on the flip-side, your liver metabolizes alcohol at a basically fixed rate. Try this experiment with real alocoholics (or hardened binge drinkers) that don't naturally moderate their own consumption based on thier perceived level of enebriation, and they could possibly drink themselves into a coma.

    4. Re:Not so sure by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 1
      Luckily, alcohol is much less addictive than cocaine.

      Not really. Alcohol withdrawal can kill you, cocaine withdrawal can't. (In fact, some say there are no physical withdrawal symptoms and that cocaine should not be considered addictive, at least not in the same sense as opiates or alcohol.)

      It's difficult to judge which is more likely to addict a user, since alcohol is available in a variety of strengths in our culture while cocaine is available only in purified extract form; but I'll note that native cultures in South America who chew coca leaf seem to have few problems with addiction.

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    5. Re:Not so sure by swillden · · Score: 1

      Based on the article it looks like BAC level is still elevated similarly as the control.

      Ahh, I missed that. It makes sense, though.

      Try this experiment with real alocoholics (or hardened binge drinkers) that don't naturally moderate their own consumption based on thier perceived level of enebriation, and they could possibly drink themselves into a coma.

      Yeah, I thought the same thing. I guess that's one way to reduce alcoholism...

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    6. Re:Not so sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      addictiveness has nothing to do with the physical effects of withdrawl.

    7. Re:Not so sure by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 1
      addictiveness has nothing to do with the physical effects of withdrawl.

      Classically, addiction is defined by withdrawl, tolerance, continued use in the face of health problems, and repeated failed attempted to quit.

      When the drug warriors noticed that the usage of some of the drugs they wanted to demonize (especially cannabis) didn't fit this pattern, they invented "psychological addiction", which means nothing more than "I like doing this so much it's hard to stop".

      So that we now have the ridiculous situation of people using the same word to describe having trouble turning off the TV as to describe a (potentially fatal, in some cases) neurological dependancy that can result from the long-term use of certain drugs.

      People might get into unhealthy relationships with TV, or with non-physicially-addicting drugs, or with sex, or gambling, or whatever. Using the term "addiction" to describe all these relationships is not just non-informative but actively misleading, and has more to do with politics than anything else.

      --
      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
    8. Re:Not so sure by hawk · · Score: 1

      > Luckily, alcohol is much less addictive than cocaine.

      However, crack is staggeringly more addictive than cocaine (thus the amazingly higher penalties).

      Just to play with your analogy, might kudzulcohol be far more addictive than alcohol?

      hawk

  8. 90 minutes of FREEDOM by yotto · · Score: 1

    After the 90 minutes, did the test group do an Awakenings and just start drinking like fish?

  9. oh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And for a second I thought they were refering to the Red Hat hardware auto-configuration tool... That has saved me from binge drinking many times.

  10. Increased BAC levels by quintiusc · · Score: 2, Informative

    The article states that the BAC levels in the kudzu group were still raised. This is the most dangerous part of binge drinking which leaves me wondering if using it is really safer. It may help break the habit but doesn't seem like it's safe method of trying to be able to drive home sooner.

    1. Re:Increased BAC levels by uniqueUser · · Score: 0

      The article does not say anything about the average mass of the individuals who where drinking. If the BAC levels were similar and one group drank less, I wonder if the kudzu group were on average smaller than the control group?

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  11. Re:English please? by Deltaspectre · · Score: 0

    Laidman terms? Nah, no one here has been laid Try another place

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  12. Mmm.. salad by Thyamine · · Score: 1

    Hey, if I had to eat a salad first, before I could start drinking, I'd probably drink a lot less too.

    "Mmmm... please pass more viney leafy things."

    --
    I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
  13. Prediction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    College kids will use this new knowledge to get even drunker.

  14. Scientists aren't naive, they just need proof. by xplenumx · · Score: 4, Informative
    From the academic paper:

    The use of herbal plants to treat alcohol-related diseases dates back to 600 AD. One such Chinese herbal medicine XJL (NPI-028), has long been used to reduce the inebriation that results from alcohol consumption. NPI-028 contains the extracts of several plants including Pueraria lobata (kudzu) and Citrus reticulata, which were recorded in an ancient Chinese materia medica entitled Ben Cho Gang Mu (li, 1590-1696 AD) and have long been used to lessen alcohol intoxication (antidrunkenness) (Sun, circa 600 AD). However, it is difficult to assess the real efficacy of kudzu based on these writings because they are primarily anecdotal in nature.

    The scientists were very well aware of the ancient literature. However, the article continues to site sources showing that Kadzu has been extensively tested and no antidrunkenness effect was found. What makes this study new is that they isolated and concentrated the active ingredient that causes the effect (isoflavones). The study used an isoflavones concentration of 25% - in contrast the highest concentration that you can buy on the market is 1-2%, with the ranges varying widely within samples from the same manufacturer.

    This study doesn't state that the sun rises in the east; it suggests that perhaps the earth revolves around the sun.

    1. Re:Scientists aren't naive, they just need proof. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Citrus reticulata = mandarin "orange", satsuma, or even tangerine......

  15. Re:English please? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Kudzu [a plant] helps to curb [slows down] "binge drinking" [an problem people have with alcohol].

  16. The cure may be worse than the disease. by hey! · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I recently read a book about nutrition by Dr. Willet of the Harvard School of Public Health in which he discusses the effects of alcohol consumption on overall mortality rate.

    Alcohol has a prophylactic effect against heart disease (and stroke? I'm not sure if I remember this correctly). If you plot mortality rates against drinks per day, people who have one to two drinks a day have a lower mortality rate than people who drink either less or more.

    It gets really interesting when you disaggregate the data by type of mortality. As people drink more, their chance of dying from things like heart disease continue to drop. The marginal effect is still pretty dramatic at three or even four drinks. However, above one drink per day deaths from accidents starts to rise extremely rapidly.

    So -- we may have a medicine here that is worse than the disease.

    You get just as impaired after one to two drinks as you do after three or four, so you have the same chance of doing something boneheaded and killing yourself. However, you don't get the cardiovascular benefits.

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    1. Re:The cure may be worse than the disease. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Alcohol puts a condom on your heart?

    2. Re:The cure may be worse than the disease. by hey! · · Score: 1

      Alcohol puts a condom on your heart?

      Sounds like a hook to a country and western song.

      Ironically, Slashcode sems to think I'm a cowboy...

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      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    3. Re:The cure may be worse than the disease. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do they know exactly what it is about the alcohol?

      I would guess it is due to its depressive nature. I wonder if using opiates (heroin, morphine, etc) would have a similar effect on heart disease.

      I wonder what the rates of kidney and/or liver disease look like in those that drink more or less. What about cancer? There are so many things to consider.

    4. Re:The cure may be worse than the disease. by Shazow · · Score: 1
      "So -- we may have a medicine here that is worse than the disease."


      Is there any real evidence that drinking does have "cardiovascular benefits"?

      From the sound of it, the only evidence there is in your post is this: "As people drink more, their chance of dying from things like heart disease continue to drop."

      But... all that tells us is people who drink more tend to die from other causes before they'd die from (or develop) heart disease. As you stated: "However, above one drink per day deaths from accidents starts to rise extremely rapidly."

      Statistics are a dangerous thing. I still don't buy it that alcohol (or even red wine, or what have you) is directly proportional to lower chance of heart disease.

      Have there been any controlled studies?

      - shazow
    5. Re:The cure may be worse than the disease. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      As people drink more, their chance of dying from things like heart disease continue to drop


      In other news, researchers have proven that performing trapeze acts without a net dramatically reduces that chances that a person will die of heart disease. Astonishingly, persons with less skill in acrobatics show the greatest overall reduction in heart disease deaths!

    6. Re:The cure may be worse than the disease. by hey! · · Score: 2, Informative

      But... all that tells us is people who drink more tend to die from other causes before they'd die from (or develop) heart disease. As you stated: "However, above one drink per day deaths from accidents starts to rise extremely rapidly.

      I think you might have more of a point if the effect started at four or five drinks, but most of the benefit comes from the first drink. Also, if your theory was correct, then as mortality from accident rises dramatically at three to four drinks, the mortality from heart attacks would fall even more rapidly. Howver it does not; the marginal benefit drops dramatically from one to two to three drinks.

      To my mind this argues that both factors are independent.

      In any case, the overall mortality rate is low enough at the levels we are talking (zero to four drinks), that population effects aren't significant. However, among people who drink ten or fifteen drinks a day, it is likely that those people kill themselves at a sufficient rate to alter other mortality rates.

      If I recall directly, these results come from longitudinal studies such as the Framingham study and the Nurses Health study; which makes them about as solid as any epidemiological data is. To do a controlled study, you'd, er, have to assign people to the five or six drink a day group. There might be some ethical considerations...

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    7. Re:The cure may be worse than the disease. by hey! · · Score: 3, Insightful

      In other news, researchers have proven that performing trapeze acts without a net dramatically reduces that chances that a person will die of heart disease. Astonishingly, persons with less skill in acrobatics show the greatest overall reduction in heart disease deaths!

      Maybe not so astonishing. What is astonishing is that the people who only do one net-less trapeze act a day have a lower mortality rate than the people sitting int the audience....

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    8. Re:The cure may be worse than the disease. by Shazow · · Score: 1

      To do a controlled study, you'd, er, have to assign people to the five or six drink a day group. There might be some ethical considerations...

      lol, I don't know, I can see many volunteers for such a study. I mean... they conducted a study of fellatio (and sperm) on the effect of speech. There were fliers all over campus looking for vulunteers to get blow jobs. Somehow, giving someone a few drinks, I think, is not any less ethical. :P

      - shazow

    9. Re:The cure may be worse than the disease. by hubie · · Score: 2, Informative
      Have there been any controlled studies?
      Apparently so. Here is a post I made yesterday which just scratches the surface. That post was based on my memory and some quick Googling. Here is another place to start.
    10. Re:The cure may be worse than the disease. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks for the reply dumbass.

      If you want to argue then reply otherwise you're just spouting BS.

    11. Re:The cure may be worse than the disease. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      well, I was trying to have conversation.. thanks for replying dumbass

  17. Over-the-Counter Kadzu didn't work. by xplenumx · · Score: 2, Informative

    Before you all run out and start munching on Kudzu, you should note that the study had the participants take 1000mg of concentrated Kudzu extract containing 25% isoflavones twice per day over a period of one week. In contrast, the article reports that when they tested over-the-counter preparations of kudzu, "none of the preparations contained more than 2% isoflavones, and most contained less that 1%". In order achieve the same dose used by the researchers, one would have to consume a minimum of 12.5 grams of over-the-counter preparations twice per day. Researchers tried using over-the-counter Kadzu in the past but didn't see any effect until the isoflavones were concentrated.

  18. just an intoxicated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    The kudzu group got just an intoxicated.

    Clearly Timothy can not even be bothered to read all the way to the end of the submission before clicking "Accept."

  19. Why is this newsworthy? by MarkusQ · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I mean, come on! Anyone who's ever dealt with it knows that kudzu stops everything.

    Why not say "kudzu stops house panting" or "kudzu stops lawn mowing" or "kudzu stops grocery shopping" or "kudzu stops carjackings" or...well, the point is, unless you fight back with a nuke-it-from-orbit mentality, kudzu stops everything.

    What? They ate it? Eeew.

    --MarkusQ

    1. Re:Why is this newsworthy? by Jippy+T+Flounder · · Score: 1

      wow! it stops house panting? does it work in pets AND sweaty, undersexed humans? i have a dog and a teenage brother, and i'm looking for solutions...

      --
      ---- I was woken up this morning by a face full of fur. Damn cat thought my head made a good pillow.
    2. Re:Why is this newsworthy? by lilmouse · · Score: 1

      Yes, they ate it! Kudzu is apparently fairly nutrisious. There are Kudzu recipes floating around somewhere...

      --LWM

    3. Re:Why is this newsworthy? by hawkfish · · Score: 1

      Believe it or not, it was originally imported for its nutritional value. The root has been used as a starch for millennia in the orient.

      --
      You will not drink with us, but you would taste our steel? - Walter Matthau, The Pirates
    4. Re:Why is this newsworthy? by hawk · · Score: 1
      >Why not say "kudzu stops house panting"

      When it climbs the wall, it sure makes it difficult.

      >or "kudzu stops lawn mowing"

      [*nods*]
      Yep, jams the mower up but good.

      >or "kudzu stops grocery shopping" or "kudzu stops carjackings" or

      Only if you trip, or if it made the alcohol to strong to find the car . . .

      :)

      hawk

  20. New market - the 20oz!! by Drunken_Jackass · · Score: 2, Informative

    How long before 40oz manufactures start adding kudzu to their malt liquor, bottling it in 20oz bottles and charging twice as much?

    Or hell, add it to a regular 40oz, and call it an (80)oz.

    BTW - i call dibbs on these ideas! You all are my witnesses.

    --
    There are 01 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and me.
  21. I drank lots of alcohol but by PaddyM · · Score: 2, Funny

    when I tried kudzu, it said that my brain appeared to have been removed. Would I want to:
    Remove Configuration, Keep Configuration, or Do Nothing

  22. rahh, you're missing the point here ... by da5idnetlimit.com · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Lukas was not certain why but speculated that kudzu increases blood alcohol levels and speeds up its effects. More simply put, the subjects needed fewer beers to feel drunk."

    I REPEAT :" THE SUBJECTS NEEDED FEWER BEERS TO FEEL DRUNK"

    Now that I brought the important point to your attention, please consider the difference.

    On one side a process to cure drunkeness
    On the other side the same process to get me high faster on less money...

    as MY beer sure ain't free, this mean that grazing a few kudzu leaves as an appetizer will find me dancing half naked after two shots...

    Next thing we hear, kudzu will become a rarity as all night clubs in the world are collecting as much as they can so their parties can be more fun 8)

    --
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    1. Re:rahh, you're missing the point here ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      GHB would probably be even more effective for you.

    2. Re:rahh, you're missing the point here ... by bcattwoo · · Score: 2, Funny

      Too bad this new didn't come out sooner. With all the end of year frat parties that have probably been going on we could have nipped this kudzu problem in bud.

    3. Re:rahh, you're missing the point here ... by bluGill · · Score: 1

      Night clubs make their money selling the beer. They will do everything they can to ban this because it is cheaper than beer and causes their customers to buy less beer.

      Or did you mean night clubs will collect this the way that DeBeers collects diamonds? That I'd believe.

    4. Re:rahh, you're missing the point here ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, we all know how powerful the night club lobby is. They're right up there with the Astronomer Lobby.

  23. New hardware? by youknowmewell · · Score: 3, Funny

    I was wondering what Kudzu had to do with decreasing drinking? I'd think that if Kudzu didn't find your new hardware it would actually have the opposite effect.

  24. Vegetal medicines... by paulwalker · · Score: 1

    I suppose there is an important placebo effect as well...Gingko Biloba and such things...all quack medicine... In something as psychological as hangover with a depletion of neurotransmitters in the brain, a placebo effect is huge. I think the best population to benefit from this is a student at university...lol

    1. Re:Vegetal medicines... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, we all know that herbs are quack medicine and the Chinese used them for thousands of years for no reason.

    2. Re:Vegetal medicines... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Sadly, most are quack medicine. When most are put to careful study (instead of the appeal to authority, as you seem to prefer), most show no effect, or show to be dangerous to the health.

      So, I presume you still must attach leeches for most of your ailments?

    3. Re:Vegetal medicines... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sorry, I meant appeal to tradition, not authority.

    4. Re:Vegetal medicines... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      This reminds me of a funny Futurama scene when Bender was feeling sick:

      Amy: You should try homeopathic medicine, Bender. Try some zinc.
      Bender: I am forty percent zinc.
      Amy: Then take some echinacea, or St. John's Wort.
      Professor Farnsworth: Or a bit fat placebo. It's all the same crap.

    5. Re:Vegetal medicines... by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 2, Informative
      I suppose there is an important placebo effect as well...

      RTFA. They gave a placebo for a control group.

      Gingko Biloba and such things...all quack medicine...

      "Quack medicine" better decribes what managed care dishes out than it describes the clinical use of traditional medicinal herbs.

      If you're interested in the scientific and reductionist research into herbal preparations rather than spouting FUD, I suggest you search PubMed.

      --
      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
    6. Re:Vegetal medicines... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      and the Chinese used them for thousands of years for no reason.

      It's not unfathomable, ya know. Take astrology, for instance. Been around forever, and yet is completely retarded.

    7. Re:Vegetal medicines... by eastpole · · Score: 1
      OK, 2 things. 1) Mr. Slippery is correct, they compared the kudzu extract to both a) no treatment and b) a placebo treatment indistinguishable from the kudzu.

      Furthermore, each volunteer hard drinker served as their own control -- one week they took the kudzu, next week they took nothing and drank anyway, week after that they took placebo, week after that they took nothing again and drank. Order of placebo first or kudzu first was randomized.

      If you read the article, it's a rather elegant experimental design. I guess you'd rather just blissfully that scientific researchers are all so dumb you can outthink their dayjob in a 3-minute posting? :)

      2) In something as psychological as hangover
      Ummm, what about hangover? Did someone mention hangover? I didn't mention hangover, myself.

      Virginia Smith did a great write-up for the Philadelphia Inquirer, in which the researcher, Scott Lukas, offers a speculation about how it all works. He thinks it's not making you more drunk -- just making you aware of how drunk you are earlier. I suspect mechanistic research on this is forthcoming.

      eastpole (disclosing he works for Harvard and covered the story for a local publication)

      --
      Save yourself while you can! This is only a wende.
  25. Hardware Detection Stops Drinking? by Trinn · · Score: 1

    Am I the only geek reading this who thought that?

    It seems everyone else already knew about the vine that ate the south, yet here I am thinking this has something to do with hardware autodetection.

    1. Re:Hardware Detection Stops Drinking? by ianXmorris · · Score: 1

      If I had to configure everthing in linux manually I would be an alcaholic too!

  26. Group Size by 36+6_42 · · Score: 1

    These results should be taken with a grain of salt. 14 people is not enough to reach a solid conclusion. This experiment is little more than an half an episode of Mythbusters and until further study is done we cannot assume that Kudzu is really as effective as we have been led to believe by CNN.

  27. Addiction and 'Holding your liquor' by P3NIS_CLEAVER · · Score: 0

    It is well know that people who rapidly become immune to the effect of a drug or alchol are most likely to become addicted. Maybe this will help people who have a high tolerance for alchol.

    --
    Please sign petition to restore sanity to our banking system!!!

    http://financialpetition.org/
  28. I have a pretty good alternative to Kudzu by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 1

    I found that if I drink as many pints of beer as I can before I go out drinking I tend to drink less when I'm out. This might not work for everyone but it works for me. It has the advantage that it doesn't require you to find some obscure leaf and the kind of intoxication it causes is remarkably similar to that caused by drinking lots of beer while you're out.

    --
    Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
    1. Re:I have a pretty good alternative to Kudzu by CaptainCarrot · · Score: 1
      Kudzu is an "obscure leaf?"

      Well, yeah, in the same way that a single oak tree in an oak forest is an obscure tree. I suppose if you were in Georgia and trying to locate a single particular kudzu leaf you'd have a hard time finding it among the literally kazillions of other kudzu leaves clogging up the drains.

      But otherwise, it's a painfully obvious leaf. If it could be made into oil, the southeast of the US would be a surplus energy producer.

      This isn't to say I disapprove of your proposed method, of course.

      --
      And the brethren went away edified.
    2. Re:I have a pretty good alternative to Kudzu by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 1

      Georgia? Not only is it an obscure leaf, I have to travel to an obscure place to get it :-)

      --
      Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
    3. Re:I have a pretty good alternative to Kudzu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Take your pick - it grows abundantly in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisana, Texas, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennesee, etc., etc., .........

      We can't help it if you live in a fucking desert.

  29. How long before they ban kudzu? by Freshly+Exhumed · · Score: 2, Insightful

    With major beer producers now adulterating their products with such odd additives as guarana and caffeine, they would have to be worried that if a couple of herbal pills meant that Joe Nineteenyrold would only need a beer or two before he's blitzed, their profits would be hurt. How long before the big brewers and distillers lobby for a ban?

    --
    I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
  30. Intoxicating News by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

    In other news, kudzu gets you drunk! Quick, somebody ban this ubiquitous, intractably ineradicable weed! For the children!

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  31. Re:English please? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Kudzu [a plant] helps to curb [slows down] "binge drinking" [an problem people have with alcohol].

    Thanks... I read it as:

    Kudzu [a guy] helps to curb [add more CO2 to] binge [beer] drinking [while drinking].

    Now, that would be something interesting to read about, would it not?

  32. This is not news by Muhammar · · Score: 1

    There are so many things that makes your drinking unpleasurable: wild mushrooms (of the wrong kind), dithiuram (rubber chemical additive now used to treat alcoholics) but the problem is that all these agents do nothing about alcohol craving. People who are supposed to use them learn soon to avoid them so that they can continue drinking without feeling miserable from it.

    Also, giving a mega dose of flavone plant extract to alcoholics seems like trench warfare waged on patient's liver.

    Real news would be if a hangover cure was found.

    --
    I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
    1. Re:This is not news by hawk · · Score: 1

      At Communion several years ago in college, I did a double-take at a cup that appeared to be full of grape juice rather than wine.

      The priest explained afterwards.

      It was indeed "wine," but unfermented. His treatment program alternated their favorite poison with warm salt water.

      They *did* get conditioned to avoid their former favorite, and even to have a very unpleasant association with it.

      Unfermented wine has been approved for use by priests with alcohol problems. He commented that the Church didn't want priests, uhm, getting ill all over the alter, which would be his natural (well, conditioned) reaction to smelling the wine.

      hawk

  33. Kudzu Kicker by Alsee · · Score: 1

    Does anyone know where we can order this 25% Kudzu isoflavone extract? I have an idea for my next party:

    Kudzu Kicker:
    1 gram 25% Kudzu isoflavone extract
    2 shots green Creme de Menthe
    2 shots 151 proof rum
    4 ounces ice
    Place in blender on liquify.
    Garnish with a sprig mint.

    -

    --
    - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  34. Re:Hangover cure... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Real news would be if a hangover cure was found.

    Ever try that chaser crap or read anything on it? Just wondering what it is and if anyone has ever used it...

  35. Awesome. by lux55 · · Score: 1

    The kudzu group got just an intoxicated.

    Awesome. This means we can get just as drunk for half the price, or twice as drunk for the same amount it costs us now!

  36. Whatever! by catdevnull · · Score: 1

    I found that f**king Kudzu utility on my Red Hat box made me want to drink more heavily! I hate that piece of crap. ...wait...oh, nevermind.

    --

    I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
  37. gurgling sounds? by hawk · · Score: 1
    I would expect it to largely cause speech to be unintelligible due to excessive gurgling sounds . . .

    :)

    hawk

  38. Exactly by hawk · · Score: 1
    That was my reaction, too.

    Just what an alcoholic needs: more effective booze . . .

    However, it might be useful for alcoholics on a diet :)



    hawk