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An herbal supplement made from an invasive species in the southern United States could help reduce excessive alcohol consumption, a new study suggests.
Taking supplements made from the root of kudzu, a vine native to East Asia, limited the number of days people with alcohol use disorder engaged in binge drinking, said researchers at the University of California, San Francisco.
These benefits were still visible three months after the end of treatment.
The findings could provide a treatment pathway for excessive alcohol consumption, researchers say. The health problem causes 178,000 deaths per year in the United States
“Binge drinking is incredibly common, but we don’t have many tools to offer people who want to reduce their alcohol consumption,” Glenn-Milo Santos, lead author of the study and a professor at the university, explained in a statement. “Our goal is to expand that toolbox.”
Although doctors often recommend behavioral therapy first, there are medications to treat alcohol use disorder, including one that causes unpleasant symptoms when drinking alcohol, another that blocks receptors that make people feel good when they drink alcohol, and another that targets the brain to reduce cravings after quitting.
These medications are typically covered by most health insurance plans, with little or no co-payment. The cost of medication is typically just over $30 without insurance, The Independents review of products sold online.
But only 10 percent of people with alcohol use disorders have ever received medication to treat them, the researchers note.
“What’s exciting about this approach is that people can use it when they know they’re at risk of drinking too much alcohol, rather than taking a medication every day,” Santos said.
The study included 120 adults with alcohol use disorder who drank excessively at least once a week. For women, binge drinking was defined as having four or more drinks on one occasion, while men had five or more drinks.
Half of the participants were given kudzu extract and the other half were given a placebo, which they took for 12 weeks, about 2.5 hours before they expected to drink heavily.
By the end of treatment – which also included brief weekly counseling sessions – the number of binge drinking days had decreased from 2.15 to 1.42 per week for those taking kudzu. In the placebo group, they practically did not change, going from 2.15 to 2.06 days.
There were similar declines in the proportion of weeks that participants reported binge drinking, dropping 30 percent in the kudzu group compared to just 7 percent in the placebo group.
These differences persisted after treatment was stopped.
“The researchers said that reducing alcohol consumption during treatment may have helped participants rethink their relationship with alcohol and increase their confidence in their ability to drink less,” according to the university.
No serious side effects have been linked to taking kudzu.
Kudzu has been linked to slow blood clotting, kidney problems, liver damage and interactions with birth control, according to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and natural medicine specialist Dr. Josh Axe. In 2020, Oregon kudzu supplements were recalled because they may be contaminated with sometimes deadly bacteria. Salmonella.
Kudzu has been used in traditional medicine for over 2,000 years and supplements today are sold online for just over $30.
Gn Health
