Posted on 05/19/2008 9:10:55 PM PDT by blam
Why Richard Hammond acquired a taste for celery after his crash
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 1:32AM BST 20/05/2008
The television presenter Richard Hammond, who professed to have developed a taste for celery after crashing a jet-powered car, may have good reason to like the vegetable.
Richard Hammond, pictured with his wife Amanda
The 36-year-old, who appears on the BBC show Top Gear, suffered a brain injury when he came off a runway in the vehicle at 280mph in 2006.
Assuring viewers that he had not suffered long-term brain damage, Hammond said: "The only difference between me now, and before the crash, is I like celery now."
An American team reports that brain inflammation of the kind he suffered is reduced by luteolin - a compound found in celery, green pepper, parsley and chamomile.
It belongs to a family of anti-inflammatory molecules called flavonoids, which have been shown to help counter the dementia caused by brain inflammation.
Rodney Johnson, of the University of Illinois, decided to study its effects in the brains of mice.
His findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that luteolin may, in proper doses, help not just brain inflammation, but also patients suffering from brain illnesses such as Alzheimer's or Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.
However, the team also notes that, despite the experience of Hammond, the effect of luteolin on humans is still not fully understood.
I had a Prof in Bible college(a lot of my stories start this way dont they?) that said he couldn’t eat celery or even be around others eating celery after hearing his comrades crushed under Japanese tanks in WWII...
I guess that isn’t really related, except the word celery... Okay I’ll shut up now.
With wife like that I bet he likes raw oysters, too.
Celery (or celery seed extract) is also a potent diuretic and works every bit as well as prescription forms to treat hypertension.
I guess that isn’t really related, except the word celery... Okay I’ll shut up now
The tank on my little car only holds 12 or 13 gallons, the most I have ever put in it was a little over 10 gallons. If it were bigger, I wouldn't have to "gas up" nearly as often.
(Just joshin' with you, it's late and I've nothing better to do.)
Well at least this professor's hangups seem more reasonable than the previous professor you wrote about.
I love Top Gear....fun show
Hamsters are supposed to eat celery, aren’t they?
As much as I begrudgingly respect him, it is Jeremy Clarkson that seems brain damaged some times...
I can’t figure out which vegetable this story is about.
Oh my Lord. I can hardly imagine it. No, don't shut up. Far too many people forget the sacrifices of our finest.
Does the eating celery come before or after drinking the Bloody Mary?
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