Sugary drinks raise dementia risk

People who regularly consume sugar-sweetened (SSBs) and artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs) appear to be at greater risk of dementia, but those who drink natural juices (NJs) in moderation show a reduced risk, suggests a study.

A total of 177,926 participants without dementia at baseline in the UK Biobank were included in this prospective cohort study and followed until March 2021. Repeated web-based 24-h dietary recalls from 2009 to 2012 were used to assess the intake of SSBs, ASBs, and NJs.

The authors calculated the genetic predisposition of dementia for each member using a polygenic risk score (PRS). They also estimated the hazard ratios (HRs) with 95 percent confidence intervals (CIs) using Cox proportional hazard models for dementia risk and β coefficients using linear models for brain imaging markers.

Of the participants, 1,293 developed dementia (69.1 cases per 100,000 person-years), excluding dementia cases within the first 2 years, during a mean follow-up of 9.5 years.

Greater consumption of SSBs and ASBs (>2 units/day vs none) each correlated with an increased dementia risk (SSB: HR, 1.34, 95 percent CI, 1.01‒1.77; p_trend=0.040; ASB: HR, 1.20, 95 percent CI, 0.84‒1.72; p_trend=0.004).

On the other hand, moderate NJ consumption (>0‒1 unit/day vs none) resulted in a reduced dementia risk (HR, 0.77, 95 percent CI, 0.68‒0.87), a larger volume of brain gray matter (β, 0.05, 95 percent CI, 0.02‒0.08), and a lower volume of white matter hyperintensities (β, ‒0.07, 95 percent CI, ‒0.11 to ‒0.03).

In addition, the genetic risk of individuals did not significantly modify these associations (SSB x PRS: p=0.839 for interaction; ASB x PRS: p=0.732 for interaction; NJ x PRS: p=0.950 for interaction).