A new research that was conducted by the Pennsylvania State University revealed that drinking a pint of Guinness on a daily basis could aid in preventing deafness. Guinness is one of the most successful beer brands, which is brewed in almost 50 countries. A feature of the product is the burnt flavour that is derived from roasted unmalted barley.
According to researchers, Guinness is found to be iron-rich and scientists believe that it can keep hearing loss at bay. Meanwhile, another study suggested that green leafy veggies, meat and brown rice are also likely to aid in keeping deafness away.
Experts believe that 30 per cent of the world's population is believed to be anemic, which makes them prone to lose their hearing abilities. In the study, the scientists analysed about 30,000 people leading to the establishment of a link between hearing ability and iron deficiency anemia (IDA), which is found to be very common in women.
Iron deficiency was found to cause sensorinerual hearing loss due to damage caused in the nerve pathways or cochlea. It was also found that the deficiency of this mineral could also cause conductive hearing loss, which means there is some problem with the bones present in the middle of the ear.
The researchers found that the IDA rate with the help of data from the electronic medical records.
The research revealed that around 1.6 per cent of the participants were found to be suffering from either sensorinerual or conductive hearing loss and deafness and 0.7 per cent of the partakers were likely to be having IDA.
A remarkable link was found between sensorineural hearing loss and IDA, which was found in 1.1 of the participants. Out of the lot, 3.4 per cent of the people had conductive hearing loss. Further research confirmed more chances of having both types of the hearing loss among patients with IDA.
"An association exists between IDA in adults and hearing loss," the study's author, Kathleen Schieffer, told the Daily Mail. "The next steps are to better understand this correlation and whether promptly diagnosing and treating IDA may positively affect the overall health status of adults with hearing loss," he added.
The report added that the patients in England used to be served Guinness before being operated and the reason behind it used to be its high iron content. But, Guinness doesn't claim to provide any such benefits.
On the other hand, nutritionists state that compared to the iron intake we need per day, three percent lesser iron is present in the pint. The drink also has some other health benefits. It is likely to have antioxidant compounds just like the ones we find in fruits and veggies. They lower the process of cholesterol deposition on the artery walls.
