Drug gives rats booze-guzzling superpowers

This article is well worth reading...I'm not sure what's more amazing, that this drug keeps these rats from becoming so intoxicated, or that the rats where given the equivalent of 15 to 20 beers in under two hours. That's alot of alcohol.

Rodents get less drunk, recover faster and appear less prone to alcohol addiction

www.sciencenews.org...

Rats dosed with a compound isolated from an ancient herbal remedy appear all but impervious to quantities of alcohol that put their compatriots under the table. Rodents on the drug can drink large quantities of alcohol without passing out, show fewer signs of hangover and even fail to become addicted to alcohol after weeks of drinking, researchers report in the Jan. 4 Journal of Neuroscience.

If the compound proves to have similar effects in humans, it may offer a powerful way to combat alcohol’s dizzying effects, the dreaded hangover and even alcohol dependence. “I think it’s really pretty incredible that one study opens up avenues for so many angles,” says neuroscientist A. Leslie Morrow of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill.

In the new study, Liang and her team tested one ingredient of Hovenia called dihydromyricetin, or DHM, on rats, which respond to alcohol in similar ways to humans. After rats were given the human equivalent of 15 to 20 beers in under two hours, the animals passed out in a drunken stupor and lost the reflex to flip over when placed on their backs. The rats took about an hour after this binge to begin to regain control of their bodies and flip themselves over.

But when the rats received a shot of DHM along with their alcohol, they tolerated the booze better. These rats still lost the ability to flip themselves over, but the stupor took longer to take hold and lasted only about 15 minutes.

DHM had benefits beyond the inebriated period, too. A dose of the compound helped ease rat hangover symptoms two days after an alcohol binge by curbing anxiety and susceptibility to seizures.

The standout result, says Steven Paul of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, is that DHM also curbed alcohol consumption. Rats allowed to drink alcohol gradually start consuming more of it. But rats that drank DHM-laced alcohol didn’t increase their consumption, the team found.

“When you drink alcohol with DHM, you never become addicted,” Liang says.

If this drug has the same effect on humans, you'll be seeing alot more information coming out about this.

.....I bet a few of you out there wished you had some of this stuff on New Years morning!

technology-info.com...
www.democraticunderground.com...

Yeah I think that having that on hand on "celebration" nights would be very beneficial. I wonder if there will be marketing against it claiming that it will only fuel the "alcohol lust" that some people get. Either way, it's definitely interesting.

yeah But how will the liver deal with it and a possible increased alcohol consumption?

reply to post by IanPaul

It does have potential to be seen as something that may promote "alcohol lust" as you put it,
but several other sites and organizations such as Alcoholics Anonumous are picking up on this story, so far in a positive light. This has alot of potential for fighting addiction, so hopefully everyone will look for the benifits that could be had from this discovery.

www.alcoholicsanonumous.org...
www.alcoholtreatmentonline.org...

reply to post by isyeye


Awesome, I'll let the Bavarians during Oktoberfest know!

reply to post by isyeye


I see they've moved up from mice to rats.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I guess chimps are next, then humans?

In all honesty, I don't see this drug as a good thing.

reply to post by DaRAGE


exactly what i thought when i saw thread title...liver will get hit twice as hard. Drugs + booze = dead liver and brain.

Wouldn't amphetamines have the same effect?

When big sis puts this in all the booze for our own good I will just make moonshine.

How long before they start putting this in our beers and wine?
Or have they been doing so already?



Another good reason to stay off the sauce I think.

Alcohol breaks down into acetaldehyde in the body. Which is terribly hard to break down and also near impossible (for those of you who get red in the face from booze.)

For the life of me, I always wondered where the natural compound or enzyme was (found in nature) that would help in this effect. It seemed like something that should be out there somewhere.

Originally posted by boncho
Alcohol breaks down into acetaldehyde in the body. Which is terribly hard to break down and also near impossible (for those of you who get red in the face from booze.)

For the life of me, I always wondered where the natural compound or enzyme was (found in nature) that would help in this effect. It seemed like something that should be out there somewhere.

DHM is listed here in this Chinese supplier and they quote the similar findings from the article.

Dihydromyricetin can protect the liver, accelerating the rapid decomposition of ethanol metabolite acetaldehyde into non-toxic substances, reduce damage to liver cells.

Source

This seems like one of the greatest finds in regards to negative alcohol effects as well as in treating alcoholism. Essentially, you are speeding up the bodies metabolism of alcohol, and making your liver super efficient at doing it.

I'm surprised this isn't already being marketed.

DP

Originally posted by boncho

Originally posted by boncho
Alcohol breaks down into acetaldehyde in the body. Which is terribly hard to break down and also near impossible (for those of you who get red in the face from booze.)

For the life of me, I always wondered where the natural compound or enzyme was (found in nature) that would help in this effect. It seemed like something that should be out there somewhere.

DHM is listed here in this Chinese supplier and they quote the similar findings from the article.

Dihydromyricetin can protect the liver, accelerating the rapid decomposition of ethanol metabolite acetaldehyde into non-toxic substances, reduce damage to liver cells.

Source



This seems like one of the greatest finds in regards to negative alcohol effects as well as in treating alcoholism. Essentially, you are speeding up the bodies metabolism of alcohol, and making your liver super efficient at doing it.

I'm surprised this isn't already being marketed.

Thats pretty big news imo....

send me a shipment i will tell you how it works.