Oct 31 (Reuters) – Women who imbibe sugary soft drinks
almost every day are 83 percent more likely to have a certain
type of stroke than women who rarely drink sodas and other
sweetened beverages, according to a Japanese study.
The results, which appeared in The American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition, agree with a host of other studies tying
sugary drinks to numerous untoward health effects, including
heart attacks, obesity and diabetes, and prompting government
moves, such as New York’s ban on super-sized sodas.
Given the increased availability of soft drinks in Japan
over the past several decades, researchers led by Hiroyasu Iso
at Osaka University wanted to see if soda drinkers there had
higher risks of heart disease and stroke.
“Soft drink intake is associated with higher risk of
ischemic stroke for women,” wrote Ito and his team, referring to
a kind of stroke with plaque buildup in the arteries.
Nearly 40,000 people answered a dietary, health and
lifestyle questionnaire, first in 1990 and then again in 1995
and 2000. They were split into four groups – those who rarely
drank soft drinks, those who had one to two cups a week, those
who had three to four cups a week and those who had a soft drink
nearly every day.
Soft drinks were considered sugar-sweetened sodas and
juices, and not diet sodas or 100 percent fruit juices.
The researchers then tracked how many people developed heart
disease or had a stroke from the beginning of the study period
until 2008.
Out of 11,800 women who rarely had a soft drink, 205 – or
1.7 percent – went on to have an ischemic stroke. Of the 921
women who had a soft drink a day, 28, or 3 percent, had such a
stroke.
The research team saw no link in men between soft drink
consumption and stroke risk, possibly because men with early
signs of cardiovascular disease might have cut down on their
soda drinking.
Ito and his colleagues wrote that the increased risk among
female soda drinkers might be explained by the beverages’
effects on metabolism. High soft drink intake is tied to an
increase in weight gain, blood sugar and fats, and hypertension,
which in turn is linked to an increased risk of ischemic stroke.
“It makes sense, if (sugar sweetened beverages) increase the
risk for obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, inflammation,
then it should, in fact, raise the risk for cardiovascular
disease, and that’s what we’re seeing,” said Adam Bernstein, a
researcher at the Cleveland Clinic, who was not involved with
the study.
The study did not find that soft drinkers had an increased
risk of heart disease caused by clogged arteries, perhaps
because the underlying metabolic problems tied to soft drinks
are more of a risk factor for stroke than for heart disease in
this group of people, the authors wrote.
The American Beverage Association, which represents soda and
soft drink makers, said the study had little new information.
“This study does nothing to educate people about the real
causes of heart disease or heart health issues,” the association
said in a statement. “There is nothing unique about soft drinks
when it comes to heart disease, stroke or any other adverse
health outcomes.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/TXPWkZ
(Reporting from New York by Kerry Grens at Reuters Health;
editing by Elaine Lies)
