Researchers found that people who drink sugary drinks are more likely to have the following:
- A poorer memory
- Smaller overall brain volume
- Significantly smaller hippocampus - an area of the brain important for learning and memory
But before you reach for a diet soda, there's 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.
While researchers caution against over-consuming diet soda or sugary drinks, they say more research is needed to determine how these drinks actually damage the brain, and how much damage may be caused by underlying vascular disease or diabetes.
No upside to drinking soda
"These studies are not the be-all and end-all, but it's strong data and a very strong suggestion," says Sudha Seshadri, a professor of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine (MED) and a faculty member at BU's Alzheimer's Disease Center, who is the senior author on both papers.
"It looks like there is not very much of an upside to having sugary drinks, and substituting the sugar with artificial sweeteners doesn't seem to help."
"Maybe good old-fashioned water is something we need to get used to," she adds.
The soda studies
For the first study, researchers examined magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and cognitive testing results from about 4 000 people.
They looked at people who consumed more than two sugary drinks a day of any type - soda, fruit juice, and other soft drinks - or more than three per week of soda alone.
Among that "high intake" group, they found multiple signs of accelerated brain ageing, including smaller overall brain volume, poorer episodic memory, and a shrunken hippocampus, all risk factors for early-stage Alzheimer's disease.
In the second study, researchers looked specifically at whether participants had suffered a stroke or been diagnosed with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease.
No upside to drinking soda
"These studies are not the be-all and end-all, but it's strong data and a very strong suggestion," says Sudha Seshadri, a professor of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine (MED) and a faculty member at BU's Alzheimer's Disease Center, who is the senior author on both papers.
"It looks like there is not very much of an upside to having sugary drinks, and substituting the sugar with artificial sweeteners doesn't seem to help."
"Maybe good old-fashioned water is something we need to get used to," she adds.
The soda studies
For the first study, researchers examined magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and cognitive testing results from about 4 000 people.
They looked at people who consumed more than two sugary drinks a day of any type - soda, fruit juice, and other soft drinks - or more than three per week of soda alone.
Among that "high intake" group, they found multiple signs of accelerated brain ageing, including smaller overall brain volume, poorer episodic memory, and a shrunken hippocampus, all risk factors for early-stage Alzheimer's disease.
In the second study, researchers looked specifically at whether participants had suffered a stroke or been diagnosed with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease.
The researchers then monitored the volunteers for 10 years and found that the people who drank one or more diet soda per day were almost three times as likely to develop stroke and dementia.
Source: Boston University via Sciencedaily.com
Source: Boston University via Sciencedaily.com
