Beer Forum

I have a few untouched theories on the health benefits of drinking.

First: If you are sick with something link the flu, can you make yourself an inhospitaple environment via alcohol?

My experience: Granted, it was a long time ago that I had the flu, but I had nursed myself back to ~60% health and had ran out of options. I needed to be better within a day (battling it for a week). Nothing was working, so I drank a bunch of juice and went on an epic binge (anything bad for the body I did). The next moring, I felt 110% with no further symptoms. .... was it the alcohol or just coincidence?

Second: If you have a soar throat, can hoppy beers serve as a cure?

My experience: After the family had been sick for the last two weeks, I finally started to get a pretty intense sore throat and began losing my voice. As treatment, I gargled regularly with listerine which usually works, but wasn't enought this time. I started to think I was destined to get as sick as them. Then I remembered about the "anti-microbial" qualities of hops, so I devoted my medication to a 7.5% homebrewed IPA with a calculated 85 IBUs. Result, the sickness never progressed past the sore throat and was gone within 1.5 days.

Just curious if others have similar stories/experiences.

I can only relate that my proctolgist was impressed when I told him I was a homebrewer when I went in for a coloscopy earlier this year. He was interested in the healthy properties of ingesting yeast in unfiltered bears and ales. Everything came out clean as a whistle, 'cept for a couple of things that he took out (before they became a problem).
Homebrew is good for you!
(no shit)