Higher consumption of artificially sweetened soft drinks was associated with an increased risk of both stroke and dementia in an analysis of more than 4,000 participants in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort, researchers found.
In the observational study, those who drank at least one artificially-sweetened beverage a day were nearly three times more likely to develop ischemic stroke and 2.9 times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease over 10 years than those who abstained, Matthew Pase, PhD, of Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues reported in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke.
However, sugary beverages containing natural sugar weren't tied to an increased risk of stroke or dementia, a finding the authors called "intriguing".
"It is aworth noting that our sample consumed diet soda more frequently than sugar-sweetened soda and this may contribute to differences in findings between regular and diet soda," said Dr. Pace.
Dr. Pace also cautioned that the association between artificially sweetened drinks and stroke and dementia seen in their study does not imply causation.
