This week, my Hop Press column has the terribly hyperbolic headline “Beer Cures Cancer!” In the article, I take a look at the recently uncovered cancer-fighting properties of beer, along with some of the various health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption found over the years.
Britain’s second-largest paper, the UK Daily Mail, reported this week on the cancer-fighting properties of xanthohumol – a substance found in hops. While scientists have known for years that xanthohumol helps to block the production of excess estrogen, this new study by the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg was the first to show that the substance can inhibit the “excessive action of testosterone.” Since excessive hormones can stimulate undue cell growth (and thus, can lead to cancer), a substance that inhibits this growth has potential as a cancer-fighting drug. Xanthohumol also prevents “the release of a protein called PSA which encourages the spread of prostate cancer.”
Check out the full post on RateBeer’s Hop Press.
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