Hordénine : why drinking beer makes you happy

NatashaFedorova/epictura

Published the 28.09.2017 at 12h19

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alcooldopamine

The fans know this, but here is their intuition confirmed by science : yes, the beer, it makes you happy. A media specialist in the health should not say it… but the facts are there. A study published in the journal Scientific Report focused on the foods that stimulate in the brain, the system of reward and provide a sense of satisfaction. Some 13 000 food components have been reviewed.

Among them, include hordenine, you return in malted barley and beer. This component is part of these foods that elicit a ” hunger hedonic treadmill “, to know that you can eat without end (or almost), even when it comes to satiety. This type of food leads to eating for pleasure and not to fill in a simple biological need.

Receptor dopaminergic

This feeling of satisfaction is related to the activation of the neurotransmitter dopamine. As well, these foods actually stimulate the center of reward in the brain, where the dopamine receptor D2.

To find out, among the 13 000 molecules present in food, which have the characteristic to activate this neurotransmitter, the researchers have used a method of screening virtual, which is commonly used in pharmacology.

However, according to their observations, the result that the best evidence was obtained with include hordenine. “It surprised us that a substance present in the beer to activate the dopamine receptor D2, especially as we weren’t looking for specifically foods stimulants “, explain the authors.

In the same way as dopamine, include hordenine activates the D2 receptor, but using a different signaling pathway, generating a potentially more sustainable.
Next step for the researchers : to determine if the rate of hordénine present in the beer is sufficient to activate the stimulator of the reward. In any case, according to them, these results suggest that include hordenine could largely contribute to the feeling of joy induced by the consumption of beer… in moderation !