[DPA-INTERNATIONAL] Know that warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you've got a beer in your hand after a long day's work? It might not just be the alcohol that's making you feel that way.According to new research by the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany, there's an ingredient in beer that activates the brain's reward centre in a similar way to dopamine.
Hordenine, which is found in beer malt, among other things, has a similar effect to the so-called "happy hormone." Researchers have found that hordenine and dopamine both stimulate the so-called dopamine receptor D2 in the brain.
Scientists are yet to establish whether the amount of hordenine contained in beer can produce a noticeable effect on the reward centre. However,
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results so far indicate that hordenine could indeed contribute to boosting the drinker's mood, the researchers said in a statement.
The combination of hordenine and alcohol is most likely to blame for the fact that beer makes people feel good, according to researcher Monika Pischetsrieder. Salsolinol, which is found in chocolate, has the same effect as hordenine, she adds.
Several studies are currently attempting to establish how much hordenine beer contains, and how much of it actually reaches the brain.
So far, Pischetsrieder says, no single ingredient has been found in food or drink that can make us feel happy. Scientists say it is mostly combinations of substances that create a feeling of well-being. With crisps, for example, it is carbohydrates and fat.
The study on hordenine, which was published in the specialist magazine Scientific Reports, started with a computer-based probe involving 13,000 food ingredients.
Researchers assessed whether those ingredients could make it to the dopamine receptor D2. To do that, they set up a digital molecule database, from which 17 substances were selected for laboratory tests.
"It is already surprising that, without us specifically looking at the luxury foodstuffs group, a beer ingredient leads to the activation of the dopamine receptor D2," Pischetsrieder says.