Drink up: Beer has anti-virus powers, study finds

Market under the banner : Next Generation Beer - Good Luck.

Fuchimoto said such small quantities of humulone were present in beer that someone would have to drink around 30 cans, each of 350 milliliters (12 oz), for it to have any virus-fighting effect.

So this is about 21 cans of 500ml! Just about what I drink on any given Friday and Saturday nights! No wonder I haven't caught a cold yet this year.

Now I have a better excuse to tell my wife I have to drink more! YES!

Was this article taken from VIZ ......"Start them young" .

If you drink 30 cans each time for extended time, you probably have kidney or liver failure and die before you catch a cold. My advise, drink less and get a cold.

Or, if you have common sense and care about your health, weight and quality of life, you could take hops in another form, like as a supplement.

Is this a top news story or another advertisement? A beer company cherry-picks one scientific study and this gets big news play here, but there is no news about significant reports coming out of the Climate Change conference in Doha.

Why is there nothing in the report about the down-side of drinking alcohol or any information about who funded the study?

A little objectivity, please.

Let's see now, to get my 30 cans in, I'm going to have to start before breakfast.

Here goes!

Cheers!

Always drink responsibly.

Bonenkai season = beer advertisement!

Urgh ! Happoshu is a crime against beermanity.

Any type of food/drink has a compound against a disease (broccoli - cancer, milk - calcium, ginger - yuckybah), but take too much and it will have an opposite effect. Anyway kanpai!!

We have always heard that beer helps the stomach, as much as milk...But very good to read and feel better about all the beer I drink...Kampai!!!

Self medication is big in Japan, i will try it out this evening! ;)

Wonder if Kirin, Asahi, and Malts all chipped in to support this research. Drinking that much beer will result only in lowered overall physical condition, which would leave you MORE open to colds and other viruses, not to mention enteritis, anxiety, nerve disorders, the DTs, and brain damage if you drink the 21 500 ml cans needed for the right amount of humulone. Oh, and needless to say the kilograms it'll add to your body.

Pretty irresponsible research, I'd say, but all the same I've no doubt prices will be jacked up a little before the Oshogatsu festive season, and places more sold out than they are usually.

T-Mack: "We have always heard that beer helps the stomach, as much as milk..."

Where on earth did you hear that? I don't think any carbonated beverages 'help the stomach' at all.

No need to convince me!

Well then, Ladies and Gents, TOAST TO OUR HEALTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're Sapporo Beer and we approve this message... er, commercial.... er, uh, medical study. Yeah, that's it.

Ah, Japan, the land where scientific results are brought to the populace by a company. What a place.

Old news!

How beer saved the world - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdwYjFnFoJU

Oh sure, being a drunk might be good for your health now - but I bet sometime in the next 20 years someone will come out with a new study saying that alcoholism is bad for you. You can't trust these scientists - they can never make up their mind. :-)

Wonder if Kirin, Asahi, and Malts all chipped in to support this research. Drinking that much beer will result only in lowered overall physical condition, which would leave you MORE open to colds and other viruses, not to mention enteritis, anxiety, nerve disorders, the DTs, and brain damage if you drink the 21 500 ml cans needed for the right amount of humulone. Oh, and needless to say the kilograms it'll add to your body.

Pretty irresponsible research, I'd say, but all the same I've no doubt prices will be jacked up a little before the Oshogatsu festive season, and places more sold out than they are usually.

I guess people take articles like this too literally. Consider this, the researchers found something that can potentially help, now to any person with half a brain drinking that much is not going to do much for one's overall health.

HOWEVER with the technology available today and if someone decides to pursue this further, a pill or supplement is possible without having to drink all that beer.

But hell, drinking it is half the fun....lighten up!

drink more beer, get fat, and now you have an obese problem...

What are you fussing about, guys? Moderation is always the key, as you know. Nowhere in the article does it say, the more you drink, the healthier you get, does it?

You can challenge the findings if you like, but, remember, so-called "facts" as you know them are often dependent on what research results you read or turn to. Bring your "facts", and they'll do the same. In that sense, your "facts" can be as good as theirs.

It's a party season, so why not just follow your judgement and enjoy your beer "moderately"??? Just have fun, talk about this topic for a couple of minutes and forget about it.

Or sue the researchers for lies, as you have access to better "facts"???

Yubaru: "I guess people take articles like this too literally."

This is Japan, Yubaru -- if people here are told that natto is good for you (sponsored by a natto company) it's sold out the next day. If people tell you you should eat nothing but bananas good luck trying to find any until the next report saying it's tomatoes. YES, there are some elements in more or less everything that exists on the planet, but with alcohol there is no way the good outweighs the bad, and yet not mention of moderation or negative effects is mentioned at all -- and hence it is an ad under the guise of research. In fact, the article (run by Sapporo Univesity) vaguely hints that giving beer to kids, since humulone can't be given through non-alcoholic beverages at the moment, can cure a lot that 'ails' them, so to speak. But like I said, it's Japan and many people take reports withOUT a grain of salt.

And by the way, I love to tipple with the rest of them, but there's no way you should take this seriously and certainly not increase your consumption claiming it's for health or giving it to kids in any amount.

Fuchimoto said such small quantities of humulone were present in beer that someone would have to drink around 30 cans, each of 350 milliliters (12 oz), for it to have any virus-fighting effect.

So next time my 3year old daughter has a cold she can get drunk with Daddy to feel better.

I'm joking btw before anyone tries to say anything.

“We are now studying the feasibility of applying humulone to food or non-alcoholic products,” he said. “The challenge really is that the bitter taste is going to be difficult for children.”

Either that or lower the drinking age to 6...

I just poured a glass on my computer.

Beer, it's liquid bread! Man cannot live on bread alone. Bottoms up!

Sheems to be working hic!

'salready last punchtime, I mean, past lunchtime

and I haven't caught a cold yet!

Quite a misleading title. May I suggest some that would accurately describe the results:

Beer alchoholics less like to catch RS viruses do to a chemical in their drink of choice. Compoun in beer has potential to be used to help fight RS viruses. The bitter taste of a compund in beer may be able to help children fight viruses in the future.

Just a few ideas that would be more acurate but admitedly sound less interesting...

Common sense people. You are not required to drink 30 cans of beer to have the active compound humulone running in your body. The researchers are probably finding a way to contain JUST the compound and eliminating the alcohol and other ingredients. This is a similar approach to the compound ALLICIN found in garlic . All you need is to extract it and make it stable. Kudos to this research, paid on not!

I don't really see how this medical information has relevance to beer. The prime candidates for benefit are too young to drink beer, and nobody can healthily drink 30 cans of beer.

This article is merely about hops, the mention of beer is probably just for views.

i like root beer.

Now, if we could only get some research in Japan on the health benefits of cannabis consumption.

I've been drinking beer all day.

It seems to me there was a reason.

Can't for the life of me remember what it was.

Who cares!

Open another can.

Always works for me

Just don't be operating heavy machinery while taking your "anti-virus" medication

Darn, you guys beat me to the jokes about "computers" and it being a "Windows PC". I was going to weigh in on saying "If I had a Windows PC, I'd pour beer into it" but since I have an Apple, no need. Funny story. Now if they could find anti-viruses in wine (I'm mostly a wine drinker), I'd be really happy! Interesting!

@smithinjapan

I remeber this natto thing some years ago. They mentioned something about the benefits of eating natto on TV (daytime TV, I'm sure) and the following days not a natto pack was to be found.

Then, a few days later, someone refuted the claims that natto was god's gift to humanity and all went back to normal...

Either that or lower the drinking age to 6...

Legal minimum age to drink alcohol in England is 5 (although you have to be 18 to buy it).

its beer o'clock

Lets all have one now for good luck!

This article and the 'research' that fed it is very neatly positioned. Nobody who is serious about health can complain too much because of the jokey way in which it is presented, whereas anyone who is not serious about their health can use it as an excuse to get extra rat-arsed. Nice one.

@smithinjapan,.................Acidophilus .............very helpful.........beer has similar effects......wiki it up!!!

When they came out with "micro bubbles" back in the 1960s, Sapporo started giving me headaches, just like American beer. So, I stuck with Kirin. If the material is "bitter", then put it in stuff where bitterness is expected. Kimchi seems to make colds go away faster; maybe there's a common ingredient?

Atchoo!

Doesn't work!

Oh, my head!

@Bertie

Try vodka.

Nobody can drink 30 cans of beer?? BS! Party with Norwegians! Did that back in college at UCSB, big mistake! Little Mexican like me trying to "keep up with big ass Vikings" all I can remember is Sköl?? Kind of like kanpai in Japanese??