Women are at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease if they drink sugary drinks

A study initially started in 1995, examined 106 thousand women with an average age of 52 who weren’t diagnosed with heart disease, stroke or diabetes when it began. The study suggests that drinking one or more sugary drinks per day increases the risk of cardiovascular disease in women by almost twenty per cent. Furthermore, women who consume one sugary drink per day are twenty-one per cent more likely to have a stroke, in comparison to women who rarely consumer any at all.

The researchers outlined that the sugary drinks included sugar-added fruit beverages, sweetened bottled water and caloric soft drinks.

The American Heart Association carried out a report which outlined differences based on the type of sugary drinks that were consumed. It outlined that women who drink soda have a twenty-three per cent risk in the likelihood of cardiovascular disease, in comparison to those who drink one or more sugary added fruit drinks each day, with a forty-two per cent risk.

Cheryl Anderson, the Chair of the American Heart Association’s nutrition committee, lead author of the study and a professor, University of California San Diego, stated: “Although the study is observational and does not prove cause and effect, we hypothesise that sugar may increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases in several ways. It raises glucose levels and insulin concentrations in the blood. This may increase appetite and lead to obesity, a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. In addition, too much sugar in the blood is associated with oxidative stress and inflammation, insulin resistance, unhealthy cholesterol profiles and type two diabetes. These conditions are strongly linked to the development of atherosclerosis, the slow narrowing of the arteries that underlies most cardiovascular disease.”