Dark Beer may help fight Cancer....

Today's post: Friday, 3-21-2008

Last week on Tuesday a very interesting story was in the NewsMax Health Alerts email I get that reports research suggesting dark beer may help prevent & treat cancer.

(To be more precise, an ingredient in the hops that are in dark beers is thought to do so.)

Dark beer has been shown to be heart protective -- similar to the findings for red wine.

Plus, many people like dark beer as much as I do.

But I’ve read that once you have some cancers, drinking alcohol tends to speed it up.

So I was quite pleased to read the NewsMax story.

It looks like the following are true according to the research they reported.:

Drinking dark beer may help you prevent cancer. It may not speed cancer up if you once get it as other alcoholic beverages do – or it may do so much less. And, taking hops supplements may both help prevent cancer & help treat it if you get it.

Here’s my paraphrase of their article.:

Hops, one of the more important flavoring agents in beer, contains a cancer-fighting compound called xanthohumol.

Xanthohumol is toxic to several kinds of human cancer, including prostate, ovarian, breast, and colon cancers. It inhibits enzymes that help start cancers & helps detoxify carcinogens. So it apparently slows down cancer in its early stages.

Scientists are working to produce hops that contain even more xanthohumol, and the Germans are working on making "health" beers.

Beers that have the most hops are ale, stout, & porter. Usually, the darker the beers have the most hops.

For people who don't drink beer or who want more of the active ingredient, there are apparently supplements made from hops which have the highest concentration of xanthohumol & the other potentially beneficial ingredients in hops.

X* X* X* X*

One of the best beers for this may be Guiness. It’s certainly dark enough. And, it tastes almost like medicine. Maybe in this one respect it is.

The good news is that if you don’t like Guiness, there are many different dark beers with a lot of hops. There’s likely to be a few you like. Someone who knows beers can help you identify candidates. And, in some cities there are beer bars that not only have staff who can do this for you, they can serve you the beers to taste.

My local supplement expert says that indeed his store does carry hops supplements.

But, until now he says they have been sold as inflammation reducers. Reducing chronic inflammation & lowering CRP levels by doing so may well help prevent heart disease. So hops may be an ingredient of dark beer that help it be heart protective also.

NewsMax did not identify their source for their story. But if major German brewing companies know of and are acting on the information as NewsMax reports, the research is probably legit & may well be accurate.