Two or more daily glasses of sweetened drinks linked to increased heart failure risk

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/b-tom102915.php

Public Release: 2-Nov-2015
Two or more daily glasses of sweetened drinks linked to increased heart failure risk
Findings exclude natural fruit juice...and women
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 published online in the journal Heart.

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. Men and the elderly seem to be most at risk.

Sweetened drinks are popular around the globe, 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.

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After taking account of 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.

To try and exclude reverse causation--whereby those with undiagnosed heart failure drank more sweetened beverages, so inflating the findings--the researchers carried out a further analysis to exclude all those diagnosed with heart failure during the first five years of the monitoring period.

This 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.