Raise A Toast To Kudzu Root & Your Telomeres

By Al Sears MD


Dear Health Conscious Reader,

I'm not one of those doctors who makes people feel guilty about enjoying a cocktail. In fact, I find alcohol has many health benefits for my patients.

Studies show moderate alcohol consumption maintains telomere length. As you probably know by now, those are the end caps on your chromosomes. They get shorter each time your cells divide. Longer telomeres are linked to longer, healthier lives.

In addition, moderate drinking has been linked to lower cancer rates, less heart disease, fewer strokes, and a lower overall risk of death from all causes.

But that only applies to "moderate" drinking. By moderate I mean no more than two drinks per day for men and one per day for women.

And I find that as people get older they have a lower tolerance for alcohol. They can't metabolize it as well. They become dehydrated faster. They feel the effects of alcohol more quickly.

This puts older adults at higher risks for falls, car crashes and other injuries. And it's why about 2.5 million older adults have problems with drinking. It explains why just as many older people end up in the hospital for alcohol problems as for heart attacks.¹

Now, I'm not talking about alcoholism here. I'm just talking about how your body reacts to alcohol as you get older. And I find that many of my patients are with me on this. They would like to cut back a little on their drinking but sometimes find it difficult.

I help my patients cut back naturally on their desire for that extra beer or glass of wine at night. And I do it with an ancient Chinese herb.

In this country, we call this herb an invasive weed. If you live in the South, you probably know this plant very well. It can grow as much as a foot per day. And it chokes off everything in its path. That's how it got its nickname… "the weed that ate Dixie."

For decades, the government has been on a mission to wipe this vine out for good. They have zero interest in understanding its health benefits.   

But the Chinese treasure this plant. For thousands of years, Chinese healers have used it to cut down on alcohol cravings and even treat hangovers.²

I'm talking about kudzu root.

In a new study from Harvard, researchers proved what the Chinese already know. They found that kudzu helped cut down on the amount of alcohol people drink.³

The team studied a small group of people who typically had about 18 alcoholic drinks a week. They set up a lab that looked like an apartment with a reclining chair, TV, DVD player and a refrigerator stocked with each person's favorite beer.

For one week, half the subjects took kudzu supplements. The pills contained 1,200 mg of puerarin, an isoflavone contained in kudzu. The other half took a placebo. Then they came to the lab for a drinking session.

What they found was pretty amazing. On average, people drank 3.5 beers after taking the placebo. But they only drank 2.4 beers after taking the puerarin. People taking the kudzu supplement also drank more slowly and took smaller sips.

In another similar study, people taking the kudzu cut their average drinking by 42%.⁴

It's not clear how kudzu works. It may increase blood flow so it delivers alcohol to the brain's reward center faster. So you feel the effects sooner and stop drinking.

Big Pharma is looking to develop a patented drug from kudzu. Its main alcoholism drug right now is Antabuse (disulfiram). But Antabuse makes patients violently ill. And mixed with alcohol it can be fatal.

Kudzu has none of those effects. It's proven safe. In China it’s even approved for intravenous injections to treat coronary heart disease, heart attack and angina.

How to use kudzu

You can find dried kudzu root in your local health food store. It's sometimes sold under the name of "kuzu starch." You can use it as a thickening agent in any recipe that calls for corn starch. It helps thicken sauces and gravies.

You can also find kudzu teas online or in your health food store.

But to reduce drinking, I recommend taking a kudzu root supplement. Just make sure it contains enough of the active ingredient to be effective.

Look for a product standardized to 40% isoflavones. Or some products say 5:1 concentration. That means one gram of the final product has been extracted from 5 grams of the original herb. Take up to 1,200 mg per day.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD, CNS

1. Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Substance Abuse Among Older Adults. Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US); 1998. (Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series, No. 26.) Chapter 2 - Alcohol.
2. Lu L, Liu Y, Zhu W, Shi J, Ling W, Kosten TR. "Traditional medicine in the treatment of drug addiction." Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2009;35:1–11.
3. Penetar DM, Toto LH, Farmer SL, et al. "The Isoflavone Puerarin Reduces Alcohol Intake in Heavy Drinkers: A Pilot Study." Drug and alcohol dependence. 2012;126(1-2):251-256.
4. Lukas SE, Penetar D, Berko J, et al. "An extract of the Chinese herbal root kudzu reduces alcohol drinking by heavy drinkers in a naturalistic setting." Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2005;29(5):756-62.