The Results Are Just A Hypothesis
In a video explaining the study, Matthew Pase, PhD, a Boston University School of Medicine neurologist and the study’s lead author, emphasized that the research did not show causation, only a correlation. “The important point 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,” Pase said in an accompanying commentary from the American Heart Association , per The Washington Post.
Pase also noted that it was a small study: Only 3 percent of the people had a new stroke and 5 percent developed dementia. But his takeaway, although just a hypothesis, was still that diet drinks are not the healthy alternative they have been chalked up to be.
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The Artificial Sweeteners In Diet Sodas May Lower Metabolism
For anyone who thinks diet sodas help with weight loss, the reality is that artificial sweeteners can lead to weight gain. Studies of rats fed artificially sweetened foods have found they have slower metabolisms and greater weight gain than those given sugar-sweetened foodsdespite the fact that the rats that ate sugary foods consumed more calories than those that ate artificially sweetened foods. Both diabetes and obesity are considered independent risk factors for memory problems and several forms of dementia.
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Diet Soda Can Increase Risk Of Dementia And Stroke Study Finds
The quest to trim waistlines using artificial sweeteners could be backfiring, as researchers found artificially sweetened drinks like diet soda can increase a person’s likelihood of stroke and dementia.
A study published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke found a daily diet soda puts a person at three times the risk of dementia and stroke compared to someone who drinks less than one a week.
It’s another blow to diet soda, which has been the subject of recent unflattering studies. Purdue University found in 2013 it doesn’t actually help us lose weight. Another 2007 study discovered those who drink diet soda are no less at risk of heart disease than those who drink regular soda.
In fact, the Stroke study found drinking sugary drinks such as soda and fruit juice, doesnt increase a person’s risk of stroke and dementia. Researchers caution that’s not a call to go buy sugary drinks, which Harvard has linked to type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
“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,” explained Dr. Matthew Pase, study author and a senior fellow at the Boston University School of Medicine. “We recommend that people drink water on a regular basis instead of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages.”
Pase added the overall risk for dementia and stroke isn’t staggering.
Follow Sean Rossman on Twitter: @SeanRossman
Diet Soda Is Also Linked To A Higher Risk Of Stroke
The study did not only look at dementia, but also at the stroke risk that comes with regularly drinking diet soda, and found similar results. For this, researchers kept track of 2,888 people age 45 and over for the same 10-year period. They found that those who drank at least one diet soda a day were also about three times more likely “to have an ischemic stroke, caused by blood vessel blockage.”
RELATED: For more health advice delivered straight to your inbox, .
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Can Diet Soda Cause Cancer
Some pretty serious claims have been made about the harmful side-effects of diet soda, linking it to high blood pressure, diabetes, dementia and even cancer. However, current studies simply aren’t conclusive, and these claims remain unverified. One important reason for this uncertainty is that no clinical trial has been conducted long enough to sufficiently shed light on the matter.
What we do know is that the most common artificial sweetener used in diet soda, aspartame, has been deemed safe for most people by the FDA and there’s no evidence that it causes serious harm. Two other common artificial sweeteners, stevia and sucralose, have also been judged safe for consumption.
If you’re concerned about the chemicals in diet soda and their impact on your health, consider cutting back on the amount you drink each day and, instead, opt for regular water or sparkling water.
Both Sugary And Diet Drinks Correlated With Accelerated Brain Aging
Americans love sugar. Together we consumed nearly 11 million metric tons of it in 2016, according to the US Department of Agriculture, much of it in the form of sugar-sweetened beverages like sports drinks and soda.
Now, new research suggests that excess sugarespecially the fructose in sugary drinksmight damage your brain. Researchers using data from the Framingham Heart Study found that people who drink sugary beverages frequently are more likely to have poorer memory, smaller overall brain volume, and a significantly smaller hippocampusan area of the brain important for learning and memory.
But before you chuck your sweet tea and reach for a diet soda, theres more: a follow-up study found that people who drank diet soda daily were almost three times as likely to develop stroke and dementia when compared to those who did not.
Researchers are quick to point out that these findings, which appear separately in the journals Alzheimers & Dementia and Stroke, demonstrate correlation but not cause-and-effect. While researchers caution against over-consuming either diet soda or sugary drinks, more research is needed to determine howor ifthese drinks actually damage the brain, and how much damage may be caused by underlying vascular disease or diabetes.
Maybe good old-fashioned water is something we need to get used to, she adds.
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Drinking This Makes You 3 Times More Likely To Get Dementia Study Says
We all do, or at least try to do, little daily things that are good for our body and mindespecially at the start of a new year. Whether that means taking the stairs instead of the escalator, swapping white bread for whole wheat, or drawing ourselves a long evening bath to soak in, it feels good to make healthy choices throughout the day. But it turns out one thing you may have been doing might not be so good for you after allin fact, it could lead to dementia down the line.
Dementia, defined by the World Health Organization as a “syndrome in which there is deterioration in cognitive function beyond what might be expected from the usual consequences of biological aging,” affects more than 5.8 million people in the United States. One in three seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or another dementia, reports the Alzheimer’s Association . This may sound dire, but there are things you can do to diminish your dementia riskincluding cutting back on this supposedly healthy beverage. Read on to find out what you should not be drinking often if you’re concerned about your cognitive health.
RELATED: If You Notice This While Walking, It Could Be an Early Sign of Dementia.
Drinking Diet Soda Daily May Lead To Dementia
Many studies have shown that consuming sugar-sweetened beverages like soda and juice can cause weight gain and even contribute to other health issues such as high blood pressure and diabetes. These facts have been the catalyst for droves of people over the years to switch from regular to diet soda, the seemingly healthier alternative. But we may want to skip soda altogether, whether it’s made with sugar or artificial sweetener.
A 2017 study published in the journal Stroke found that diet sodas lead to a higher risk of dementia. The study kept track of 1,484 people over the age of 60 for a 10-year period and found that those who drank diet soda every day were three times more likely to develop the disease.
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Alternatives To Soda: Waterwater Water
So, what is worse forhealth, drinking regular sodas or dietalternatives? The simple solution is to simply cut out bothsugary soda drinks and diet soda altogether, and just drink water or otherlow-sugar alternatives. While this may seem easier said than done, thecountless benefits of drinking water regularly are quite motivating. Drinking water helps you lose weight, keeps youenergized, fights stress, regulates body temperature, boosts skin health, andsupports healthy digestion. The list of waters benefits go on and on.
If you are trying to reduce your intake of sugary drinks, here are a few heart-healthy recommendations to make water a little more exciting. Your heart and your body will thank you!
- Try sparkling water withzero sugar or additives, like La Croix, which gives you that zingy soda feelingwithout the negative side effects.
- Infuse water with freshfruits to give it a naturally sweetened flavor.
- Drink unsweetened iced teasand add lemon or mint for an extra kick.
To learn more about cardiovascular health and maintaining a heart-healthy diet, visit our team of experts at CVG today.
CATEGORIES
Sweetened Beverage Consumption And The Risk Of Stroke
Greater recent consumption of artificially-sweetened soft drink was associated with an increased risk of stroke, with the strongest associations observed for ischemic stroke . Higher cumulative intake of artificially-sweetened soft drink was also associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke . Neither intake of total sugary beverages nor sugar-sweetened soft drink were associated with the risks of stroke.
Cumulative consumption of artificially-sweetened soft drinks and event-free survival of incident all stroke and all-cause dementia. Green, red and blue lines denote intake of < 1/week, 1â6/week, and â¥1/day, respectively. Incidence curves are adjusted for age, sex, and total caloric intake .
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Studies Linking Artificial Sweeteners To Negative Health Outcomes
Recent studies are investigating the effects of frequent consumption of artificially sweetened diet beverages with negative health outcomes like stroke, dementia and even type II diabetes. While diet sodas arent loaded with the same amounts of unhealthy sugars and corn syrup that are in regular pop, their artificial chemicals have a known effect on brain function and heart health. Multiple studies have been conducted to investigate the association between the consumption of artificially sweetened diet drinks like Diet Coke, and the results suggest staying away from regular sodas and diet sodas altogether.
A published paper from the Boston UniversitySchool of Medicine suggests that people who consume a large quantity ofartificially sweetened soft drinks may be up to three times more likely tosuffer from a stroke or dementia.
As part of the population-based Womens Health Initiative, a recent study examined the causes of illness and death in postmenopausal womenfor 12 years. The women were ages 50-79 years old with no history of diabetes or heart disease, who drank two or more artificially sweetened, 12-ounce beverages per day. The study found that those women had increased their risk of clot-based stroke and heart attack by as much as 31% compared to women who drank less than one artificially sweetened beverage per week.
The Recent Study In The Journal Stroke Has Some Major Caveats
By Seema Yasmin
4:43 PM on Apr 26, 2017 CDT
My family members are panicking about recent headlines claiming that diet sodas cause Alzheimer’s disease. While I would love for them to drink fewer sodas, I have to be honest: The headlines were misleading, and the new study they refer to has major caveats.
The study did not prove that artificial sweeteners cause stroke, Alzheimers disease or any type of dementia. In fact, this kind of study design cannot prove causation. To be fair, the authors were careful to say that the study was not able to prove cause and effect and only shows a trend among one group of people.
Many news articles didn’t reflect this.
The researchers studied nearly 2,000 men and women ages 45 and older for stroke and about 1,500 people over age 60 for dementia. They tracked how much and what kinds of soda the subjects were drinking and monitored their health for a decade.
The study determined that drinking sugary beverages was not associated with stroke or dementia. But it found that for people who drank one artificially sweetened soda a day, the risk of stroke or dementia was nearly three times higher than it was for people who consumed less than one diet soda a week.
The study published in the journal Stroke on April 20 included mostly white Americans, making it tricky to apply the results to people of color who have different genetic and social risk factors for stroke and dementia.
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Incident Stroke And Dementia
We related beverage consumption to the 10-year risk of stroke and dementia. Surveillance commenced from examination cycle 7 to the time of incident event over a maximum of 10 years or until last known contact with the participant. We defined stroke as the rapid onset of focal neurological symptoms of presumed vascular origin, lasting > 24 hours or resulting in death. A diagnosis of dementia was made in line with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition.10 A diagnosis of Alzheimerâs disease dementia was based on the criteria of the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the AD and Related Disorders Association for definite, probable, or possible AD.11 Please see the online-only Data Supplement for complete details on our methods of surveillance, diagnosis, and case ascertainment.
Diet Drinks And Dementia
Find out about the unclear association between artificially-sweetened beverages and dementia.
People who drink at least one artificially-sweetened beverage every day may have an increased risk of developing a stroke or dementia compared to those who drink them less than once a week, according to research carried out in Massachusetts.
The researchers reviewed what people were drinking at three different points in time over seven years. People reported their eating and drinking habits by completing questionnaires.
The researchers kept in touch with the same people for the next 10 years to see who developed a stroke or dementia. There was a link between developing dementia and drinking artificially-sweetened beverages, but not with drinking ones that had been sweetened with sugar.
Dr James Pickett, Head of Research at Alzheimers Society, said, This research does not show that artificially-sweetened drinks cause dementia. But it does highlight a worrying association that requires further investigation.
Research into dietary factors is very complex and there are a number of issues that need clarifying for example, why drinks sweetened with sugar were not associated with an increased risk in this study and teasing out links between all types of sugary drinks, diabetes and dementia.
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Does Diet Soda Dementia Exist
Dietsodahasbeenapopulardrinkforalongtime.Itcontainszero,orverylittle,calories,allowingyoutoenjoycarbonatedorcaffeinatedbeverageswithlittleguilt.Whilesomepeoplecan’tstandartificiallysweeteneddrinks,improvementstotheirformulashavemadethemtasteclosetotheoriginalthing,andsometimespeoplepreferthetasteofdietoverthesugaryregular.
However,dietsodahasbeenquitecontroversialandthesubjectofmanyrumorsandspeculations.Therehavebeenclaimsthatdietsodahasbeenlinkedtoallsortsofailments,includingcancer,diabetes,stroke,andanythingelsethatsoundsscaryenoughtoshare.Sometimes,theseclaimscomefromquackwebsites,andtheirclaimshavelittleevidencetosupportthem.However,therehavebeenotherlinksthathavecomefrommorereputablesources.
Manytimes,thecauseofthesesupposedailmentsisduetoaspartame,theartificialsweetenerusedinmanydietsodas.Somesodacompanies,becauseofthefearofaspartame,havereplacedaspartamewithanotherartificialsweetener,makingpeoplespeculatethatperhapsthereissometruthtotheclaimsthatdietsodaisbadforyou.
Wecan’ttalkaboutalltheailmentsdietsodahasbeenlinkedto,sowe’lltalkaboutonethathasbeenrecent:dementia.
WhatIsDietSoda?
Dietsoda,oranydietdrink,isflavoredusingartificialsweeteners.Theseartificialsweetenerscontainnorealsugar.Sugarcontributestothecaloriesinsoda,sobytakingitaway,sodaisfreeofalmostallcalories.
WhatIsDementia?
Therefore,theclaimthatdietsodacanincreaseyourriskisaboldoneandisworthexploring.
TheStudy
DietSodaAndWeightGain
Ifyouneedyourcaffeinefix,blackcoffeeorunsweetenedteaareafewgoodoptions.
Link Between Diet Soda And Dementia
Jan 16, 2020 | Dementia
Some call it soda, others pop, but scientists call it something else: a cause for concern.
The artificial sweeteners in diet sodas have been shown to be a risk for many health concerns, including heart conditions, metabolic issues and obesity. In 2017, research from the American Heart Association added a risk for dementia to that list of risks.
For ten years, researchers followed nearly 4,500 adults to track their eating and drinking habits in addition to recording which participants suffered a stroke or developed a dementia.
The participants who consumed at least one artificially-sweetened beverage a day were almost three times as likely to either have a dementia or a stroke compared to their counterparts who drank less than one of those beverages a week.
To ensure the strokes and dementia diagnoses were correlated to the consumption of diet beverages and not other factors, researchers adjusted the findings for genetic risk, exercise, caloric intake, healthy eating habits, gender and age. The findings were the same: regardless of these factors, study subjects were still three times more likely to have the stroke or dementia diagnoses.
All this to say: the study findings supports evidence that diet beverages are not as healthy of an alternative to sugary drinks and many people would like to believe.
Pase says We recommend that people drink water on a regular basis instead of sugary or artificially-sweetened beverages.
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Diet Soda Dementia And Stroke
Boston University researcher Matthew Pase, PhD, and colleagues examined 10 years of health information from nearly 3,000 American adults over 45 to count the number who had a stroke. They did the same for nearly 1,500 American adults over 60 to determine how many developed dementia.
After accounting for a variety of things that could influence their health, such as age, physical activity, and waist size, the researchers found that diet soda drinkers nearly tripled their odds of stroke and dementia, compared with those who drank no diet soda.
Scary, right? Not necessarily, says Pase. Only 81, or 5%, of the people in the study were diagnosed with dementia, and only 97, or 3%, had a stroke.
âAt the end of the day, weâre talking about small numbers of people,â says Pase. âI donât think that people should be alarmed.â
Pase also makes clear that his studyâs results, published in April in the journal Stroke, donât explain the link. Do diet sodas cause health problems like stroke and dementia? Or do people who have higher chances of getting such health problems choose to drink diet soda, perhaps to try to cut sugar and calories in their diets? Pase canât say.