Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Life is good

An ingredient in beer has been recently found to help prevent prostate cancer. Xanthohumol, a compound in hops, the flower responsible for beer's bouquet, inhibits a protein in the cells of the prostate gland from turning on a switch that turns a cell cancerous. However, xanthohumol occurs in hops in such small quantities that at present, you have to drink about 17 beers a day to get any benefit. And you know what that does to your liver.

But not to worry, a separate study has found that coffee can protect your liver against cirrhosis. "People drinking one cup of coffee per day were, on average, 20% less likely to develop alcoholic cirrhosis. For people drinking two or three cups the reduction was 40%, and for those drinking four or more cups of coffee a day the reduction in risk was 80%."

I ask you, does life get any better than that? I predict that the next scientific breakthrough will involve nicotine and world peace.

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