Pueraria extract can treat alcohol addiction;

Business news on June 5 recently in the Journal of substance and alcohol dependence, a new experimental study shows that the extract of kudzu root can help alcohol addicts stop drinking "It doesn't stop drinking completely," said Dr David M penetar, an assistant professor of psychology at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School "People who are addicted to alcohol continue to drink, but the amount is significantly reduced." He studied puerarin, the extract of Pueraria, which is classified as a substance called isoflavones Alcoholism: we need more drugs to help people who drink too much, penetar said Drugs currently approved to treat alcohol abuse and dependence are not for everyone According to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention, one in six American adults drinks too much Experts disagree on what is excessive drinking According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), excessive drinking refers to four times or more of the normal drinking amount for women and five times or more for men Brief history of Pueraria: penetar told WebMD that in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, Pueraria is listed as a possible treatment for hangover or alcohol addiction In 600 A.D., some Pharmacopoeia already mentioned using Pueraria to stop drinking At present, Pueraria is used to treat coronary heart disease and other vascular diseases in China and other countries, penetar said The long-term clinical use shows that it is safe Pueraria is touted as a panacea for hangovers However, different studies have produced different results on the effectiveness of Pueraria extract Details of the study: the penetar group studied 10 patients of different genders, with an average age of 26 years Usually about 18 drinks a week We've built a lab that looks like an apartment, penetar said The lab renovated apartment features a lounge chair, TV, DVD player and a fridge with everyone's favorite beer There are also non-alcoholic beverages in the apartment The researchers guided the 10 patients through four steps: the first step was to familiarize them with the environment Drinking without puerarin Then they gave as like as two peas to the 10 people 1200 mg puerarin, and some took the same placebo They went back to the lab and drank as much as they could They could drink up to six beers Two weeks later, they went back to the lab and started the third step, drinking without taking herbs or placebos The last stage was when they took puerarin or placebo, which they didn't take at the beginning, and after a week of continuous administration, they returned to the lab to start drinking again The researchers tested urine to see if they took the drugs as required When their blood alcohol concentration drops, we offer them dinner, and then arrange a taxi to take them home Results of Puerarin Treatment: compared with placebo, they drank about a bottle of beer less after taking puerarin On average, they drank 3.5 beers after placebo and 2.4 beers after puerarin After taking the placebo, three people drank five bottles of beer, and one drank six bottles of beer After taking puerarin, no one drank five or six bottles of beer After Chinese medicine treatment, they need to drink more and more times to finish a bottle of beer The time between each drink is longer, and each drink is less During the week of Puerarin Treatment, the average amount of alcohol consumed in the puerarin group was 3 bottles per day, and 3.4 bottles per day in the placebo group No serious side effects were reported This may help people who need to reduce their alcohol consumption, penetar said He doesn't know how puerarin works, he said We hope puerarin can work because it can increase blood flow, so that it can reach the reward center of the brain faster to produce the exciting effect after drinking You don't need to drink so much alcohol The study was funded by the National Center for alcohol abuse and alcoholism One of the coauthors of the study was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the international natural law and Malaysia Corporation The company provided Puerarin for the study, and another co-author was an employee of the company Penetar said we hope to be able to sell puerarin extract as an over-the-counter drug Pueraria has been widely sold as a dietary supplement The total cost of Puerarin for this experiment is $6 Prospects for Chinese herbal medicine to help stop drinking: Dr David J Hanson, an emeritus professor of sociology at the State University of New York, Potsdam, who read the study for WebMD, said: 'I think it's promising, but I'm skeptical He said the experiment was well designed, but the sample was very small Hanson told WebMD that we don't know why puerarin might work, and if we knew the mechanism of puerarin, we would be more confident about the results In penetar's study, the subjects took Puerarin for a week in a row Would anyone do this in real life? Hanson says it depends on a person's motivation, if someone's doctor tells him that your health determines that you need to reduce your alcohol consumption now He may continue to use puerarin Penetar knows that the need for continuous use is an obstacle, and they are designing a new study to see if a single, higher dose of Puerarin can help alcohol addicts.