Diet sodas linked to risk of stroke and dementia

Drinking artificially sweetened beverages, such as diet sodas, is associated with a much higher risk of having a stroke or developing dementia, a new study suggests. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • The research also contradicted previous studies that sugared drinks did not raise the risk of serious health outcomes.
  • Researchers were, however, unable to determine an actual cause-and-effect relationship between drinking artificially sweetened drinks and an increased risk for stroke and dementia.

Drinking artificially sweetened beverages, such as diet sodas, is associated with a much higher risk of having a stroke or developing dementia, a new study suggests.

The study published in Stroke, the American Heart Association’s journal, has prompted renewed questions about whether drinks with artificial sweeteners can increase the risk of serious illness, just like heavily sugared drinks.

Those taking at least a can of any diet drink every day were 2.96 times more likely to suffer an ischaemic stroke and 2.89 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those who drank diet drinks less than once a week, the study, based on data from the long-term Framingham Heart Study, showed.

The research also contradicted previous studies that sugared drinks did not raise the risk of serious health outcomes.

“To our knowledge, our study is the first to report an association between daily intake of artificially sweetened soft drink and increased risk of both all-cause dementia and dementia because of Alzheimer’s disease,” the co-authors said

Researchers were, however, unable to determine an actual cause-and-effect relationship between drinking artificially sweetened drinks and an increased risk for stroke and dementia.

As a result, some experts caution that the findings should be interpreted carefully.

“We have little data on the health effects of diet drinks and this is problematic because diet drinks are popular amongst the general population,” said Matthew Pase, a senior research fellow in the department of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine and lead author of the study.

Nevertheless, this is not the first time that artificially sweetened drinks have been implicated in the development of serious ill-health.

The study quotes a Northern Manhattan study that documented that “daily consumption of artificially sweetened soft drinks was associated with a higher risk of vascular disease, but not stroke”.