Hops helps dementia

Dr. Adrian Gombart, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at Oregon State University is researching the benefits that hops and a derivative in hops called xanthohumol, can help fight metabolic syndrome affecting an estimated 35% of U.S. adults.

Metabolic syndrome results in some form of cognitive dysfunction in these animals being treated withxanthohumol or these derivatives.

They showed improvement in several cognitive tests that we can put the mice through. And these are generally Water maze type tests. And clearly those animals that were being treated, there was a nice improvement in their ability to remember where platforms were and so forth. And obesity has been linked with cognitive impairment. And it's not really my area, but I don't think it's well understood how this is happening, what the connection is there. But of course, obesity also leads to increased inflammation. Inflammation is a major driver of a number of diseases that we suffer. And we also are interested in whether there could be connections with the microbiota, whether there are compounds they produce or their metabolites are producing, whether it's as xanthohumol type or something else that can make its way to the brain. And there's this idea of the gut, brain, liver access. There are examples of where the microbiome can produce compounds that affect the nervous system or the brain. So we're interested in that. And we don't know what's responsible for this. We don't think it's just simply some reduction in weight gain, though. There's something else going on.