Fight the Common Cold and Drink a Beer! (Henry Weinhards)

If you're looking for a new method for fighting that cold that comes along with the change in season, a new study has one for you—drink a lot of beer. The study, which was cited by Tokyo-based Sapporo Breweries, claims that a key ingredient found in beer can help fight cold symptoms, as well as sicknesses found in children. Researchers at Sapporo Medical University say that the compound humulone is effective in fighting against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which can cause cold-like symptoms in adults and pneumonia and bronchitis in infants and children. Humulone can be found in hops, which is used to give beer its bitter taste. Here's the thing: you'd have to get hammered for it to have an impact. There's so little humulone in beer that a person would have to drink 30 12-ounce cans of beer each for anything substantial to happen.