Beer and Mosquitoes, an Unfortunate Connection
By Mark Tumarkin
Over the last several years, scientific studies have reaffirmed the positive benefits we receive from our favorite beverage. Studies have been published showing beneficial affects ranging from better heart health, lower fats and cholesterol levels, and recently even a study showing the benefits to men's hearts from staring at women's breasts. Yes, a recent study reveals that the sexual stimulation from ogling breasts for as little as 10 minutes a day cuts the risks of strokes and heart attacks significantly, possibly extending your lifespan as much as five years. What's that? You say it's not strictly beer-related; well most of us will see there's a strong relationship between the two activities.
Anyhow, though most research shows strong positive benefits from consuming a moderate amount of beer on a regular basis, in the interests of fairness and scientific objectivity; it's only right to present possible downsides as well. The following was brought to our attention in a post to the HBD by Peter Ensminger.
<editor's note> The following is taken from the Homebrew Digest. </editor's note>
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 00:25:49 -0400 From: ensmingr@twcny.rr.com Subject: Beer and mosquito attraction >From PubMed/MedLine, an interesting topic for this time of year ... Cheerio! Peter A. Ensminger Syracuse, NY http://hbd.org/ensmingr - ----- J Am Mosq Control Assoc 2002 Jun;18(2):91-6 Alcohol ingestion stimulates mosquito attraction. Shirai O, Tsuda T, Kitagawa S, Naitoh K, Seki T, Kamimura K, Morohashi M. Department of Biodefence Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Sugitani, Japan. Mosquito bites should be avoided because of the risk of contracting parasitic and viral diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and several encephalitides. Although humans have been said to suffer more mosquito bites after ingesting liquor, little is known about whether that is true. Thirteen volunteers (12 men from 20 to 58 years old and a 24-year-old woman) were chosen as test hosts and a 30-year-old man was established as a control. We measured ethanol content in sweat, sweat production, and skin temperature before and after ingestion of 350 ml of beer (ethanol concentration 5.5%) by volunteers and compared them with a control subject. Our study demonstrated that percent mosquito landing on volunteers significantly increased after beer ingestion compared with before ingestion, showing clearly that drinking alcohol stimulates mosquito attraction. However, ethanol content in sweat and skin temperature did not show any correlation between alcohol ingestion and mosquito landings. This study shows that persons drinking alcohol should be careful about their increased risk to mosquito bites and therefore exposure to mosquito-borne diseases. - -----