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One 'diet drink' a day could increase risk of dementia and strokes - seven-year study

Authors of the study are advising that more research be conducted into the effects of sugary and artificially sweetened drinks.

shutterstock_456390295 Shutterstock / Nuttadol Kanperm Shutterstock / Nuttadol Kanperm / Nuttadol Kanperm

DRINKING AT LEAST one ‘diet’ or artificially sweetened drink a day has been linked with almost three times the risk of developing stroke or dementia compared to those who drank artificially-sweetened drinks less than once a week, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke.

The authors caution that the long-term observational study was not designed or able to prove cause and effect, and only shows a trend among one group of people.

“Our study shows a need to put more research into this area given how often people drink artificially-sweetened beverages,” said Matthew Pase, PhD, a senior fellow in the department of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine and the Framingham Heart Study.

Although we did not find an association between stroke or dementia and the consumption of sugary drinks, this certainly does not mean they are a healthy option.

“We recommend that people drink water on a regular basis instead of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages.”

About the research

Fresh attack on sugar tax plans PA Wire / PA Images PA Wire / PA Images / PA Images

The researchers analyzed the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort of 2,888 people, primarily Caucasian, over the age of 45 for the stroke study and 1,484 people over the age of 60 for the dementia part of the study.

Over a period of seven years, the researchers reviewed what people were drinking at three different points in time.

Participants reported their eating and drinking habits by responding to food frequency questionnaires.

The researchers then followed up with the study subjects for the next 10 years to determine who developed stroke or dementia, then compared the dietary information to the risk of developing stroke and dementia over the course of the study.

The data collected did not distinguish between the types of artificial sweeteners used in the beverages.

shutterstock_460861249

At the end of the 10-year follow-up period, the researchers noted 97 cases (3%) of stroke, and 81 (5%) cases of dementia, 63 of which were diagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers used statistical models, adjusted for various risk factors such as age, sex, caloric intake, education, diabetes mellitus and the presence of a variant of the Alzheimer’s risk gene apolipoprotein E, to determine potential links between artificially-sweetened drink consumption and the risk of stroke or dementia.

They found that people who drank at least one artificially-sweetened beverage a day were three times as likely to develop ischemic stroke and 2.9 times as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease dementia.

Study blindspots

Although the prospective nature of the study design increases the reliability of its findings, there are limitations.

shutterstock_547118689 (1) Shutterstock / Photography JB Shutterstock / Photography JB / Photography JB

The participants were overwhelmingly white, and it is possible that ethnic preferences may influence how often people select sugary or artificially sweetened drinks.

People did not drink sugary sodas as often as diet sodas, which Pase said could be one reason the researchers did not see an association with regular soft drinks, since the participants may have been health conscious and just not consuming them as frequently.

The main limitation, Pase said, is that an observational study like this cannot prove that drinking artificially-sweetened drinks is linked to strokes or dementia, but it does identify an intriguing trend that will need to be explored in other studies.

“Even if someone is three times as likely to develop stroke or dementia, it is by no means a certain fate,” Pase said.

In our study, 3% of the people had a new stroke and 5% developed dementia, so we’re still talking about a small number of people developing either stroke or dementia.

According to an accompanying editorial, the current body of scientific research is inconclusive but it does suggest that it may not be advisable to substitute or promote artificially sweetened drinks as healthier alternatives to sugar-sweetened drinks.

“Both sugar and artificially sweetened soft drinks may be hard on the brain,” said senior editorial author Ralph Sacco, a former president of the American Heart Association.

We know that limiting added sugars is an important strategy to support good nutrition and healthy body weights, and until we know more, people should use artificially sweetened drinks cautiously.

“They may have a role for people with diabetes and in weight loss, but we encourage people to drink water, low-fat milk or other beverages without added sweeteners,” said Rachel K. Johnson, PhD, past chair of the American Heart Association’s Nutrition Committee and professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont.

Read: Soft drinks are reducing in sugar to avoid the upcoming sugar tax

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63 Comments
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    Mute DN
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    Jul 30th 2014, 7:27 PM

    I lived in Rotterdam for 11 months abd the Baja beach club used RFID chips for patrons and members. Keeps the trouble makers away. Only a matter of time before we’re implanted with these for everyday use like banking, social welfare etc.. George Orwell saw it coming a mile off :)

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Jul 30th 2014, 7:35 PM

    George Orwell saw no such thing. He saw a mass surveillance state, not RFID chips.

    Do you really think people will agree to having stuff plugged into their body when they can get the same thing with a plastic card in their wallet? come off the f__g stage with that tin foil hat bulls!t

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    Mute DN
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    Jul 30th 2014, 8:02 PM

    B–lshit? Well people did and still do have these chip planted into their wrists. You ignorant fool! Look it up! My Orwell comment was aimed at the orwellian state which will happen someday hopefully not my lifetime. Tin foil is good for wrapping my samdwhiches. Not so good for hat making. C U Next Tuesday.

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    Mute Joseph Siddall
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    Jul 31st 2014, 2:43 AM

    Thousands of pets are already microchipped to allow cross-border travel. Very simple procedure. Unlikely to get to the human population anytime soon, but it is surely a government’s wet dream to be able to track its citizens. The old “nothing to hide – nothing to fear” malarkey. Some day, perhaps.

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    Mute Glen
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    Jul 30th 2014, 6:34 PM

    How long before humans are chipped ?

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    Mute IrishGravyTrain
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    Jul 30th 2014, 6:46 PM

    Put tinfoil on your head and around your balls and you’ll be sorted.

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    Mute Glen
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    Jul 30th 2014, 6:53 PM

    Oh stop with the tin foil BS
    It’s been extremely well documented that the powers that be want to use chips in people for ID, banking, buying and selling, medical history ect. Two company’s in California have been working on the technology for years they already use it in animals
    It’s only a matter of time before it’s used in humans.

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    Mute Ablitive
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    Jul 30th 2014, 6:54 PM

    As soon as Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama gives the go ahead…

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Jul 30th 2014, 7:09 PM

    It being on the Alex Jones show is not the same as ”being documented”, it’s been discussed as a conceptual thing not a serious proposal, and it would never fly as a mandatory thing anyway.
    We have Micheal Myers loose in the house slashing at us with his knife, and you are worried about the boogey man in your dreams.

    The EU is not coming for you, the Bilderbergers are not coming for you, it was not a cruize missile that hit the pentagon…the only big brother threat that’s real is the NSA and the 5 eyes system.
    Calm down.

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    Mute Glen
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    Jul 30th 2014, 7:17 PM

    There are dozens of ” Alex jones types” who have written and lectured about this …. Google is your friend check out the company’s that manufacture them before making an ill-informed comments.

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Jul 30th 2014, 7:33 PM

    Glen Google is not research, Generation Y seems to fatally confuse the two.

    Research is finding facts and evidence, google will get you anything but. A google search can find you ‘evidence’ to confirm any crack pot theory you like. There are 1000s of internet pages explaining in painstaking deatail what explosives were put into the towers and how, why a cruize missile hit the pentagon, that JFK was killed because he signed an executive order about gold.

    You’re getting worried about a phantom threat that does not exist.

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    Mute Niall H
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    Jul 30th 2014, 7:35 PM

    It was not a airplane that hit the pentagon either

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Jul 30th 2014, 7:39 PM

    Oh dear…..

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Jul 30th 2014, 8:05 PM

    The plane was seen by 100s of people with the naked eye as it clipped lights on it’s way across to hit the building.

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    Mute Niall H
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    Jul 30th 2014, 8:32 PM

    I agree with most things you say on this site Ryan as you speak a lot of sense but I honestly think you need to open your eyes on this one.

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Jul 30th 2014, 8:39 PM

    Niall…people…saw…the plane…crashing …into …the building….I have a relative who personally saw the damn thing heading towards the building from their office.

    Just because it did not punch a cartoonish airplane shape into a reenforced concrete building resistant to attack (the physics of it folds the wings back into the fuselage and the fuselage is more liquid than solid when it’s crashing.

    It’s not about opening my eyes, I’m quite open, go on the appliances story, where the very same people up-ticking your conspiracy theory are down-ticking something that is factually indisputable, and you will see how open minded I am. But I’m a scientist, I believe in evidence forming a hypothesis and then further evidence leading to a logical conclusion.
    There is not a shred of evidence that anything other than a plane hit the Pentagon.
    All the red thumbs in the universe won’t change that.

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    Mute Niall H
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    Jul 31st 2014, 12:18 AM

    Well….then….maybe……I’ll……use….all….the…..full….stops….in….the….universe…

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    Mute Mark Oman
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    Jul 30th 2014, 7:19 PM

    I like chips

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    Mute Paul Roche
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    Jul 30th 2014, 10:33 PM

    It would appear that those who comment using “tinfoil hat” as a derogatory term for those who despair of the Big Brother effect on privacy really have no clue about how technology has made it easier for government to track citizens.

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    Mute Paul Carey
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    Jul 30th 2014, 6:29 PM

    Nice to know they’re ‘ensureing’.

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    Mute Niall Ó Cionnaith
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    Jul 30th 2014, 6:25 PM

    Very snazzy.

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    Mute Gerald Santucci
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    Jul 30th 2014, 6:55 PM

    These 2 EN will inform and protect the European citizens while at the same time building trust in the technology, hence supporting market take-off (which is less significant in Europe compared to other world regions). A process of 8 years that involved ALL stakehoders.

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