Beer is ‘Healthier’ than Wine


Binge drinkers, beware! Guzzling beer is better for the brain while quaffing wine is a worry, a new study has claimed.

Researchers at the University of Gottingen in Germany have found that drinking wine damages the brain more than beer or spirits. Wine shrinks the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory and also one of the first area to be affected by Alzheimer’s.

“This is the first study investigating the impact of the type of preferred beverage on brain-volume shrinkage in patients with alcohol dependence,” British newspaper ‘Daily Mail´quoted the researchers as saying.

They came to the conclusion after analysing the brain scans of alcoholics with those of healthy adults. They found that the hippocampus, which is located deep within the brain’s temporal lobes, was 10% smaller in wine drinkers. According to the researchers, a shrunken hippocampus can affect the brain’s navigation and spatial awareness, and, as a result, may cause disorientation.

However, the researchers also found that beer drinkers had the lowest levels of a compound in the blood called homocysteine, which is often linked to heart diseases and strokes. The results of the study have been published in the medical journal ‘Alcohol and Alcoholism’.