In what seems like a research experiment out of UC Santa Barbara (sorry to stereotype), there is a research team from Tokushima University that has discovered a substance found in hops can actually prevent the deterioration of muscle tissue.

That’s right, a substance found in hops, a prenylated flavonoid known as 8-prenylnarigenin (8-PN), seems to help in the prevention of muscle tissue deterioration in rats. The only bad news? It’d take a deathly, almost unimaginable amount of beer to actually reach the desired effects.

The experiments were carried out on incapacitated rats, particularly ones with paralyzed legs. The tests show that the mice that ate the prenylated flavonoids had higher amounts of the protective substance stored in their cells — up to 10 times more than unprenylated ones.

To put the numbers into perspective, you’d need to drink anywhere from 22 to 5,000 gallons of beer per day to achieve the needed dosage of 8-PN noted in the experiment. Of course, that amount of beer (or any liquid for that matter) would essentially drown you, if your liver doesn’t burst at the seams first.

The results of the experiment definitely opens up conversation and pipelines to further research on the subject, and finding new ways to ingest the prenylated flavonoid without killing us.

Prof. Junji Terao, the lead on the research team, noted “we can expect the development of drugs and health drinks enriched with prenylated flavonoids in the near future.”

According to Japanese news site RocketNews24, Terao’s team is currently working on a health drink themselves — which they hope can facilitate space travel by preventing muscular atrophy during zero gravity. Health drinks are cool — but how awesome would it be if they could just up the quantity of the prenylated flavonoid in the beers we drink?

I wouldn’t mind another positive reason to keep my beer intake up. Would you?

[Via RocketNews24/PLOS One]

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Geoffrey Kutnick leads content direction and business development for Foodbeast. He splits his time between the quaint neighborhoods of Orange County and the lively streets of Long Beach.