Beer Ingredient Shown to Improve Memory

This may be the most glorious piece of information beer lovers will read today.

Oh, can it be!? The delicious, ice cold frothiness can make you smarter?

Well, not so fast... there is a catch.

According to CBSLocal.com, Oregon State University researchers say that it's a specific compound in hops that has been shown to improve memory in young mice.

As all beer lovers know, hops is one of the main ingredients in brewing beer.

The experiment was conducted by feeding both young and old mice the flavonoid xanthohumol that is in hops for eight weeks.

Afterwards, the scientist noted that the young mice demonstrated improvements in spatial memory and cognitive flexibility but not so much for the older ones.

Well, this doesn't mean that under 21-year-old drinkers should be hitting the bottle. (Hello, that's illegal!) It also doesn't mean that drinking will make you smarter or improve your memory.

Researchers did say though that humans would have to drink as many as 2,000 liters of beer to get the equivalent dosage of this crazy flavonoid stuff the mice got.

Maybe this will mean that they will discover a way to make 'beer pills' that people can take to improve their memory.

I've been drinking beer for a long time, but I'd have to say I haven't improved my memory at all. Actually, I would assume quite the opposite.