14 DAY TRIAL // Beer consumption lowers heart disease risks, evidence collected and analyzed by a team of Greek researchers suggests.
The specialists explain that, as long as it is drunk in moderation, this alcoholic beverage increases the flexibility of arteries. By doing so, it improves blood flow.
Oddly enough, non-alcoholic beer appears to be far less beneficial to the human body than regular beer is.
Daily Mail reports that, in order to investigate the health benefits of beer consumption, scientists at Harokopio University in Athens asked 17 volunteers to drink a little more than two-thirds of a pint of beer.
The volunteers were all men, and none of them was a smoker. The group's average age was 30, the same source informs us.
Some time after the men had drunk the beer, they had their cardiovascular health assessed by the researchers. It was concluded that the beverage had significantly reduced the stiffness of their arteries.
The same effect was also observed when the volunteers were offered alcohol-free beer and a sip of vodka. However, neither of these drinks proved as efficient as beer in terms of improving blood flow.
“Endothelial function was significantly improved only after beer consumption,” the specialists write in their paper in the journal Nutrition.
Presently, a proper scientific explanation for how and why beer benefits an individual's cardiovascular system is lacking.
The Greek scientists suspect that the presence of both alcohol and antioxidants in this beverage is what brings about said health benefits, but their theory is yet to be proven.
Provided that the specialists suspicions are true, this would mean that darker beer like stouts and ales are better for the heart than lager.
Several other studies have shown that, when consumed in moderation, alcoholic drinks have virtually no harmful effect on one's overall well-being. On the contrary, they lower the risk of developing various conditions.