Two or More Daily Glasses of Sweetened Drinks Linked to Increased Heart Failure Risk

‘Findings exclude natural fruit juice…and women’

A recent study focused on the consumption of sweetened drinks in men; excluding natural fruits juice and discovered that drinking two or more glasses of sweetened drinks is harmful to men. According to BMJ ‘downing two or more glasses of sweetened drinks every day is linked to a heightened risk of heart failure—at least in men—reveals a large study’. The increase in the rate of heart failure in UK and US call for more researches as mortality in that regard is increasing ‘Heart failure is thought to affect more than 23 million people worldwide, nearly 6 million of whom live in the US, and more than half a million of whom live in the UK. Only around half of those diagnosed with heart failure are still alive five years later’ says BMJ. Men and the elderly are most affected by heart attacks.
The consumption of Sweetened drinks are popular globally, particularly among the young. ‘And their regular consumption has been associated with changes in blood pressure, insulin levels, and inflammatory markers, as well as weight gain—factors implicated in metabolic syndrome, diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke’ reported BMJ.
 

The researchers in the study were able to ascertain if the consumption of ‘sweetened beverage consumption is associated with risk of heart failure (HF) in a large prospective population-based study of men’.
The researchers based their data on ‘the health of 42, 400 men residing in two counties of Sweden between 1998 and 2010, using national registry date. All the men, who were aged between 45 and 79 when they entered the study, had been born between 1918 and 1952. They were asked to record their average consumption of 96 food and drink items over the preceding year in a food frequency questionnaire, to include daily and weekly standard servings (200 ml or one glass) of sweetened drinks. No distinction was made between drinks sweetened with sugar, fructose/glucose, or artificial sweetener; neither tea/coffee nor fruit juice were included in the study’ says BMJ. During the reviewed period, of 12 years, 3604 new cases of heart failure were diagnosed, and 509 people died of the condition says BMJ. Considering other potentially influential factors, ‘the data analysis indicated that consumption of at least two daily servings of sweetened drinks was associated with a 23% heightened risk of developing heart failure compared with no consumption as reported. To further confirm the authenticity of their research, the researcher further studied those with undiagnosed heart failure between the period of 5 years who drank more sweetened beverages, the study showed similar results, increasing the associated heightened risk to 25%.



This is an observational study so no definitive conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect, and as the study only involved older white men, the findings may not be applicable to younger age groups, women, or certain ethnicities, the researchers suggest. The researchers concluded that ‘sweetened beverage consumption is associated with higher risk of HF and could have implications for HF prevention strategies. Additional prospective studies investigating the link between sweetened beverage consumption and Heart Failure are therefore needed, the researches reaffirmed.
Some specialists however reacted to this research, ‘ Professors Miguel MartínezGonzález and Miguel Ruiz-Canela of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Navarra, and the Biomedical Research Center Network on Obesity andNutrition, Madrid, Spain, explained that several questions remain to be answered. More so, heart failure is a complex condition, sweetened drink consumption tends to diminish with age, and it’s not clear if there is any difference between sugar sweetened drinks and those sweetened with artificial sweetener’ reported BMJ .Furthermore, high consumption of sweetened drinks is usually an indicator of a poor general diet, which is probably a more reliable determinant of disease development than anyother component, they said. They however see the relationship with obesity and agreed that “ association of sweetened beverages with obesity and type 2 diabetes, are risk factors for heart failure, reinforces the biological plausibility of the study authors’ findings. “ They further advised that based on the results, ‘the best message for a preventive strategy would be to recommend an occasional consumption of sweetened beverages or to avoid them altogether.”

Sources
Article by BMJ ‘Two or more daily glasses of sweetened drinks linked to increased heart failure risk’
A published Research from British Medical Journal
By Iffat Rahman Etal: The relationship between sweetened beverage consumption and risk of heart failure in men