Beer may be good for your health!

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pc_trott

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A slew of recent studies have been published indicating that all that intestinal flora and fauna is good for not only our physical well-being, but our mental well-being as well, and that got me wondering if my daily drink or two (who's counting) of beer might be bad for my intestinal microbiome, . So I did what I assumed any intelligent person does (not that I'd know), and searched for info online. I hit on this fascinating paper from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, and I thought "The folks on Homebrewtalk.com will be fascinated, if they aren't too snockered to read! So here's the link. I hope that one of you with a biology/chemistry background will explain the finer details to me.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6918268/
One of the most interesting statements in the paper was this: "However, beer is the most widely consumed fermented beverage in the world and has received less attention than wine. In 2006, nearly 1,700,000,000 hL of beer were drunk in the world." I wonder if that includes home brew? Heck, each of us homebrewers probably counts for a couple hL, and I doubt most of us are reporting that to anyone (although my wife has a suspicion, I'm sure...)

Enjoy!
 
Beer is very good for my mental health at the very least. They say stress will kill you and there's nothing that calms my stress more than knowing I have a couple gallons of beer in bottles and several more in a carboy waiting to be in bottles.

On the flip side I don't want to live to be a hundred, I'm not having much fun now I can't even imagine how fun it could be with a decrepit body and a feebler mind.
 
The findings that beer can be good for your health has been known for hundreds of years. Nice student paper but it says nothing new.
 
While there likely are some benefits of beer drinking I think it would be better said that their are benefits of consuming fermented products. I of course love beer but consume it in a way that tries to minimize the negatives of it.

on the beer or two a day thought I was very much this person for many years. However I listened to a podcast by Peter Attia (The Drive) on sleep (it is actually 3 parts, roughly 8hrs in total) and in that a sleep expert describes the impact of a single drink to most peoples sleep cycle and I was shocked.It is supported by data from biometrics Peter collects with his patients. In short, elevated heart rate and body temp impact your sleep for a single drink as long as about 6-8hrs before sleeping. I testeD my own experience with this and found less waking up in the night and more restful overall sleeps without having one or two drinks around dinner. Again, each person is unique but this is was something that you don’t hear about much in terms of alcohol consumption.
 
Consigliere said:
While there likely are some benefits of beer drinking I think it would be better said that their are benefits of consuming fermented products. I of course love beer but consume it in a way that tries to minimize the negatives of it.

on the beer or two a day thought I was very much this person for many years. However I listened to a podcast by Peter Attia (The Drive) on sleep (it is actually 3 parts, roughly 8hrs in total) and in that a sleep expert describes the impact of a single drink to most peoples sleep cycle and I was shocked.It is supported by data from biometrics Peter collects with his patients. In short, elevated heart rate and body temp impact your sleep for a single drink as long as about 6-8hrs before sleeping. I testeD my own experience with this and found less waking up in the night and more restful overall sleeps without having one or two drinks around dinner. Again, each person is unique but this is was something that you don’t hear about much in terms of alcohol consumption.
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I saw the same episodes and I came to the same conclusion testing the claims myself, they are true. One drink really has a strong negative impact on sleep quality and this directly reflects on how we feel and how we percieve the following day. Ironically, the craving for a beer in the evening is strongest when I have the worst sleep, so it's kind of a self supporting cycle. Drink one or two beer in the evening, really want another one the next day at the same time.
 
gunhaus said:
MAY BE . . .? Right . . . People drank beer as their primary hydration source for thousands of years and lived WELL into their 20's and 30's with almost no ill health effects . . .
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Yeah but part of the short life span could be attributed to constant pointless wars started by tyrants.....beer helped them find purpose in their lives....
 
well i don't how good beer is...but if it wasn't for drinking so much and having health problems...i wouldn't have jumped down this rabbit hole to keep drinking!


https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/
and all the third party tools that use the db....

lost 90 pounds, and kept it off for 12 years...didn't even have to quit drinking....

edit: and my monthly groceries are only like $80
 
madscientist451 said:
Yeah but part of the short life span could be attributed to constant pointless wars started by tyrants.....beer helped them find purpose in their lives....
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Sure, it could be a political thing. But during the interwar periods their life span did not jump to 70ish! No, it was more likely the brutal nature of manual labor in the pre-industrial age, sketchy and inconsistent dietary resources, and the fact they pooped right next to their water supplies on a regular basis. I think beer was the only wholesome, nutritious, and soothing regularity in their lives, and doubtless without it they all would have high-dived from a tall thatched roof hovel by their late teens! (To escape the dark forces of tyranny of course. )
 
The potential nutritional benefits of beer have been recognised for decades. What's changed, in terms of the linked publication, is that it's been established for some time gut microflora are beneficial for us, too. Our bodies - the bodies of living things generally - are colonised by innumerable friendly microbes we've evolved to live with symbiotically. It's just part of our ecology. We can apply the same view as presented in the linked publication to more or less everything we consume, not just beer.
 
Consigliere said:
While there likely are some benefits of beer drinking I think it would be better said that their are benefits of consuming fermented products. I of course love beer but consume it in a way that tries to minimize the negatives of it.

on the beer or two a day thought I was very much this person for many years. However I listened to a podcast by Peter Attia (The Drive) on sleep (it is actually 3 parts, roughly 8hrs in total) and in that a sleep expert describes the impact of a single drink to most peoples sleep cycle and I was shocked.It is supported by data from biometrics Peter collects with his patients. In short, elevated heart rate and body temp impact your sleep for a single drink as long as about 6-8hrs before sleeping. I testeD my own experience with this and found less waking up in the night and more restful overall sleeps without having one or two drinks around dinner. Again, each person is unique but this is was something that you don’t hear about much in terms of alcohol consumption.
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I find that I sleep like a baby after several pints. I recommend you broaden your experimental design and aim to capture a complete normal distribution in your data.
 
Like a lot of stuff, there is good and bad.

They've been writing studies about beer for longer than I've been alive showing the bad and good......

Such studies have ceased to be news to me. It's just expected that someone will come out with a new way to argue the pro's and con's.
 
superiorsat said:
That is why you never drink just one! 🤣 I will admit that when you fill the tank before bed it pretty much guarantees a trip to the john about 3 am to drain the taters as grandpa used to say.
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It is not really about waking up during the night or not. It is about the different phases of sleep and how long we stay in these. There is one phase which is particularly important for the brain to "digest" all the information that came in during the day. If this phase is too short or does not happen at all, the recovering part during the sleep does not happen on the brain level. This is the case after drinking some alcohol and can be witnessed on an even extremer level when other drugs are taken like marihuana and chemicals. The guy wrote a book about this subject, I got it here but have not read it completely yet, he really goes deeply into the subject and did all the sciency stuff to validate what he is saying.

Another interesting thing seems to be that the information from the day, that gets "digested" by the brain at night, seems to be the basis for learning processes or what might be described as personal development. If this process stops, one stays on one spot, not much development. I can say with 100% certainty that this is the exact case with people who smoke weed on a daylie basys and/or drink on a daylie basys.
 
Consigliere said:
While there likely are some benefits of beer drinking I think it would be better said that their are benefits of consuming fermented products. I of course love beer but consume it in a way that tries to minimize the negatives of it.

on the beer or two a day thought I was very much this person for many years. However I listened to a podcast by Peter Attia (The Drive) on sleep (it is actually 3 parts, roughly 8hrs in total) and in that a sleep expert describes the impact of a single drink to most peoples sleep cycle and I was shocked.It is supported by data from biometrics Peter collects with his patients. In short, elevated heart rate and body temp impact your sleep for a single drink as long as about 6-8hrs before sleeping. I testeD my own experience with this and found less waking up in the night and more restful overall sleeps without having one or two drinks around dinner. Again, each person is unique but this is was something that you don’t hear about much in terms of alcohol consumption.
Click to expand...
Although I haven't listened to this podcast I came to the same conclusion myself. My sleep is much less restful if I have more than one beer or any martinis within an hour or two before bed.
 
You can put lipstick on a pig, but you're kidding yourself if you deny that ethanol is a poison and addiction to alcohol ruins thousands of lives and families.

Of course we all enjoy beer and like to indulge from time to time, but we shouldn't play down the potential harm this lifestyle induces.
 
The carcinogenic effects of alcohol outweigh the health benefits and I believe that is well-supported by reputable medical studies. I don’t kid myself about beer’s “health benefits” and simply enjoy the process of brewing, the taste and the relaxing effects of that. I use to enjoy bourbon — a bit too much and started experiencing heart palpitations. I followed my cardiologist‘s advice and quit all hard alcohol last July. The palpitations stopped. I don’t drink more than 2 beers at a time, occasionally 3 and that seems to work. As much as I enjoy it, if I had to quit beer, I could. It’s just one of many beverage options.
 
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madscientist451 said:
Yeah but part of the short life span could be attributed to constant pointless wars started by tyrants..
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Among other things like house fires that would wipe-out entire families. Back in olden times they were far more common and the response was marginal.
Or diseases that we don't get anymore due to sanitation and other benefits of modern life.
 
monkeymath said:
You can put lipstick on a pig, but you're kidding yourself if you deny that ethanol is a poison and addiction to alcohol ruins thousands of lives and families.

Of course we all enjoy beer and like to indulge from time to time, but we shouldn't play down the potential harm this lifestyle induces.
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I know several people close to me whose lives are destroyed by alcohol and a couple who are dead from it.
 
PCABrewing said:
Among other things like house fires that would wipe-out entire families. Back in olden times they were far more common and the response was marginal.
Or diseases that we don't get anymore due to sanitation and other benefits of modern life.
Click to expand...


chollera from dead carcasses in the well prompted the english sewer system didn't it? they thought it was the 'bad smell' causing it....

if only they understood, it was still perfectly fine brewing water? ;) just as long as it gets boiled.....we'd still have to deal with the bad air probably :(
 
Miraculix said:
Another interesting thing seems to be that the information from the day, that gets "digested" by the brain at night, seems to be the basis for learning processes or what might be described as personal development.
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Yeah, that's actually pretty cool. It's like a book return at a library. Throughout the day stuff gets dropped in then periodically (at night) it is filed and cataloged and longer term connections are made.
The brain is fascinating! It is a biologic computer and data store all in one.
 
PCABrewing said:
I know several people close to me whose lives are destroyed by alcohol and a couple who are dead from it.
Click to expand...


and kiddies shouldn't get scared enough to worship gansters....nor should they dismiss the responsibility...after just 5 years of heavy drinking, i've been told TMI for this before...but i think it needs to be said, i had blood spewing from ass abcess every month, when i started puking blood from the HORRIBLE heart burn i was living with, i decided beer is not a complete food.....and i need to eat, but wanted a list of what's in what, and what i need so i can price out how much i actually have to spend on groceries...


why i always discourge drinking like i do....UNLESS you're like me and have a dope dealer try to shove a line up your nose everytime you go out....
 
bracconiere said:
chollera from dead carcasses in the well prompted the english sewer system didn't it? they thought it was the 'bad smell' causing it....
Click to expand...
That and the fact that the street was the (un-)sanitary sewer and people would dump their chamber pots right in the street.
It would not be uncommon for a cobblestone street to look more like a dirt country road from all the human waste.
 
Miraculix said:
It is not really about waking up during the night or not. It is about the different phases of sleep and how long we stay in these. There is one phase which is particularly important for the brain to "digest" all the information that came in during the day. If this phase is too short or does not happen at all, the recovering part during the sleep does not happen on the brain level. This is the case after drinking some alcohol and can be witnessed on an even extremer level when other drugs are taken like marihuana and chemicals. The guy wrote a book about this subject, I got it here but have not read it completely yet, he really goes deeply into the subject and did all the sciency stuff to validate what he is saying.

Another interesting thing seems to be that the information from the day, that gets "digested" by the brain at night, seems to be the basis for learning processes or what might be described as personal development. If this process stops, one stays on one spot, not much development. I can say with 100% certainty that this is the exact case with people who smoke weed on a daylie basys and/or drink on a daylie basys.
Click to expand...

I don't think this is a complete picture though because I have drank pretty hard through my 20s and I can remember every job I've ever done. My company has a fair amount of alchies and some that practice sobriety and if anything the hard drinkers are the ones that remember the most and have collected more information. I know this is wildly anecdotal but I also think that we put way too much stock in the scientific process because by nature it usually happens in a lab. Labs are not real world environments and the fact that the experiment is being observed skews the results.
 
Sam_92 said:
I don't think this is a complete picture though because I have drank pretty hard through my 20s and I can remember every job I've ever done. My company has a fair amount of alchies and some that practice sobriety and if anything the hard drinkers are the ones that remember the most and have collected more information. I know this is wildly anecdotal but I also think that we put way too much stock in the scientific process because by nature it usually happens in a lab. Labs are not real world environments and the fact that the experiment is being observed skews the results.
Click to expand...
This processing is not about making it available as a memory. It is more about hardwiring the brain in a new way so that consequences of what one might have learned during the day are reflected in future actions. All on a subconscious level. But this is definitely not the whole picture, in this way you are correct, we don't understand much about the brain.
 
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Many things are beyond rigorous scientific method, including clinical research and nutrition. There are far too many confounding variables and it would be unethical in most cases to attempt to control them. What we have learned over the last couple decades is how big a role individuality plays and how much it scuppers most clinical studies. I'd say read any research publication with caution and express some healthy skepticism. They barely scratched the surface! We indulge because we're hard-wired to indulge. It's just who we are, as individuals and as a species. In terms of ethanol, even our distant primate cousins (therefore our common ancestor) prize sources of ethanol in nature, like fermenting fruit, which can contain pretty respectable ethanol levels. Obviously, too much of anything is bad for us. Our main problems were inevitable, once civilisation founded itself on promoting its own 'commercial' sources of ethanol 10 000 years ago. It was just as much an ethanol revolution as an agricultural revolution. How much we indulge ourselves and the potential health implications - beneficial or detrimental - are determined by who we are as individuals. Like most things in life, it's more complicated than biased Professor Fundraiser claims.
 
McMullan said:
I find that I sleep like a baby after several pints. I recommend you broaden your experimental design and aim to capture a complete normal distribution in your data.
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Agreed, never had an issue falling asleep and staying asleep. REM sleep is over by the 2:00 am pee…! Now 2:00 am to 6:00 am is a different story..
 
Screenshot_20220226-080902_DuckDuckGo.jpg
 
McMullan said:
How much we indulge ourselves and the potential health implications - beneficial or detrimental - are determined by who we are as individuals. Like most things in life, it's more complicated than biased Professor Fundraiser claims.
Click to expand...

This is true, to a point; there are always corner cases like the 95-yr-old guy who's smoked a pack a day for seventy-five years with no apparent ill effects. But no one doubts that smoking is bad for health and longevity. There are patterns that can be tracked and identified, and the effect of alcohol consumption on sleep has been well studied and patterns identified. Genetic makeup and outside factors, such as how much exercise one gets during the day, can also have an effect on how alcohol affects your sleep patterns, but if you find yourself wondering why you are so tired during the day and where your energy has gone, when, what, and how much you imbibe is worth looking into.

As the ancients said, "Observe due measure; moderation is best in all things." That's the ticket!
 
McMullan said:
Many things are beyond rigorous scientific method, including clinical research and nutrition. There are far too many confounding variables and it would be unethical in most cases to attempt to control them.
Click to expand...

This.

I had a family member covert to a fully plant-based diet not too long ago. This family member went on a crusade to convert all of the family to plant-based diets. I have an open mind but I don't do things for no reason. So, I made a deep dive into the literature. Holy moly is this area of "science" a disaster. It is littered with poorly controlled studies while the "data" itself is often interpreted in a subjective ( and possibly highly biased) way. I guess I'm on a bit of a rant now.. ..so why stop. Many of the studies, and this would include those on alcohol consumption, focus on a single outcome (e.g. cancer) while ignoring the full impact of the variable, which might otherwise be overall positive in terms of all cause mortality. In my opinion, only the ultra-large cohort studies, like EPIC and 40-and-Up, are providing some useful readout in the form of all cause mortality probabilities. I'm NOT making a comment here on whether beer is good or bad for you, but just supporting a healthy skepticism of this branch of science.
 
Just for fun, I found this: Relationship of Alcohol Consumption to All-Cause, Cardiovascular, and Cancer-Related Mortality in U.S. Adults - PubMed. It is open access so anyone should be able to read it. It is based on quite a large cohort (>300,000 participants) allowing best approximation of matching comparison groups. Here is the TL/DR from the abstract: "Conclusions: Light and moderate alcohol intake might have a protective effect on all-cause and CVD-specific mortality in U.S. adults. Heavy or binge drinking was associated with increased risk of all-cause and cancer-specific mortality."

Moderate alcohol intake was defined as <14 drinks per week (a drink being the equivalent of 12 oz of 5% beer).

For more fun, here is the graphical abstract that shows the J-shaped relationship between alcohol consumption and all-risk mortality which hits a minimum at ~7 drinks per week.

1645980526020.png
 

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