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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."
If someone gave me a kudzu leaf, I'd probably think I'd had too much to drink already.
Windows isn't the answer... it's the question. NO is the answer!
"Here eat some already! It's all over the place now. And lay off the sauce."
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.
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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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.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck