Living More of Your Time: Enjoying and Mastering Alcohol

A person may "live" between 70 and 80 years, but only truly experience a relatively few years of life. After subtracting the time a person spends either sleeping, intoxicated, in childhood / adolescence, or in declining senescence, very few optimally productive years of time may be left.

An herbal chemical has been discovered which may well allow us to reduce our impairment from alcohol intoxication, giving us more time to appreciate, enjoy, and profit from our lives.

Led by Jing Liang from the University of California, researchers began looking at different herbs that have natural anti-alcohol properties. They found descriptions of anti-alcohol properties of the Asian tree Hovenia dulcis that dated back to 659. These descriptions listed it as a prime hangover remedy.

The main ingredient in Hovenia dulcis is known as dihydromyricetin, or DHM. The team of researchers used rats to test out the effects. Rats react similar to humans when it comes to the effects of alcohol so they are a perfect candidate.

The rats were given the human equivalent of 15-20 beers in a time frame of under two hours. As expected, the rats passed out drunk and lost the ability to flip themselves over when placed on their back. Within an hour, the effects of the alcohol started to wear off and they were able to again control their bodies.

When the rats were given the same alcohol with a shot of the DHM, they still eventually lost the ability to flip over but it took a longer time period and they were able to recover from the effects in about 15 minutes.

The effects of the DHM went beyond that though. Two days after the alcohol consumption, the rats that were given the DHM showed less signs of hangover symptoms such as anxiety and seizures.

The other noted result was the reduction in addiction. When the rats were allowed to drink freely, they would gradually start consuming more. However, those rats that had received the DHM did not increase consumption. _MedicalXpress

The promise of this herb goes far beyond a treatment for alcohol addiction. It promises to give us back a great deal of the time that we voluntarily sacrifice to alcohol -- and the aftereffects of alcoholic indulgence.

How many bad choices do people make under the influence of alcohol, which lead to further destruction of our time and our lives -- as well as the premature ending of many innocent lives?

Earlier we looked at ways that we may safely reduce our sleeping time -- thus adding years to our lives. If we can also reduce much of the time wasted by intoxicants, we may well have added significantly more profitable time to our lives.

Life extension is about more than simply "living" more years. It is also about truly living the time that you are alive.

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/1/390.abstract: Article abstract link