Breaking news from 1998: IPAs give you man boobs, kinda.
The Internet is freaking out over a study that claims IPAs cause male breasts. The study, written by “Earth poet” and advocate for a “counterweight to the influence of corporate science and technology” Stephen Harrod Buhner, is also nearly 20 years old, deeply flawed and written by a possible crackpot.
In a less-than-groundbreaking revelation, IPAs contain hops, which contain phytoestrogen, a type of estrogen occurring in female plants. But before everyone freaks out –ahem, Vice, a study by the Endocrinology Society published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolisma says that “phytoestrogen can also be detected in beer, but the levels are low and should not pose any cause for concern.”
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Bruhner, an herbalist and author, not a medical researcher, also examines the “sacred aspects of indigenous, historical psychotropic and herbal healing beers of the world.” He writes extensively on the intelligence of plants. Citing research from his book, Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers, Bruhner told Vice that “[From] long-term exposure to the estrogenic properties of hops, [men] eventually have difficulty sustaining erection.”
However, any form of severe drinking can damage the liver’s ability to convert androgens into the estrogens, resulting in man-boobs, as Dr. Robert D. Galiano, a plastic surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital tells Muscle & Fitness.
Excessive alcohol consumption has been commonly known to cause “Brewer’s Droop” in men—a decreased sex drive, erectile dysfunction, beer belly, and man-boobs.
A decreased sex drive? Moobs? So depressing, it’s enough to make you reach for a cold one.
