Sugary drinks may double bowel cancer risk in women under 50
10 May, 2021
Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related death in america.
The incidence of EO-CRC, which identifies when persons under 50 years develop the condition, has increased markedly in several wealthy countries.
One 2020 article in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians suggested that during the period of the year, about 150,000 U.S. individuals would receive a diagnosis of colorectal cancer and about 53,200 would die therefore.
The authors also predicted about 18,000 cases of people younger than 50 years receiving a diagnosis of colorectal cancer, with 3,640 forecasted deaths in this population.
Compared with adults born in the U.S. around 1950, those born around 1990 have twice the riskTrusted Way to obtain developing cancer of the colon and four times the risk of developing rectal cancer.
A new study in the journal Gut links drinking two or more SSBs per day in adulthood with a doubling in the chance of bowel cancer prior to the age of 50 years.
Researchers discovered that each daily SSB serving among adult women may be connected with a 16% higher threat of developing EO-CRC.
Also, the study found that each additional SSB serving each day among individuals aged 13-18 years could be associated with a 32% increase in the chance of developing EO-CRC.
Types of SSBs include carbonated drinks, pre-packaged fruit drinks, energy beverages, and sports drinks. Sweet drinks will be the leading sourceTrusted Source of added sugars in the American diet.
Actually, from 1977 to 2001, energy intake from SSBs increased by an impressive 135%.
Unique epidemiologic evidence
Because of this study, the researchers used data from 95,464 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study II. That is a continuing monitoring study of 116,430 U.S. registered nurses, all women, who were aged 25-42 years if they enrolled in 1989.
Every 4 years from 1991, the ladies in the analysis reported on what they ate and drank using validated food frequency questionnaires.
In 1998, researchers asked the participants to recall their health status and lifestyle habits as teenagers.
Also, 41,272 of the ladies reported on what they typically ate and drank as well as on the levels of these things between 1960 and 1982. These were aged 13-18 years at this stage.
The participants also gave information on potentially influential factors, including their genealogy of bowel cancer, their lifestyle habits, and any regular usage of aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or nutritional vitamin supplements.
Over 24 years of monitoring, 109 women developed bowel cancer before the age of 50 years.
The analysis authors write that their findings “add unique epidemiologic evidence that SSB intake may partly donate to the rapid increase of CRC in younger adults.”
Notes on the analysis
It is crucial for researchers to comprehend what is behind this increase, said study co-author Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt. He's the clinical director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA.
“It really is presumed that exposures early in life are adding to this rise,” Dr. Meyerhardt told Medical News Today. “Studying exposures that can be prevented is [essential] to getting control of the rising ailment.”
Substituting SSBs with reduced-fat milk or whole milk appears to be beneficial, according to study co-author Dr. Yin Cao. She is an associate professor of surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO.
“In this study,” she told us, “we showed [that] replacing one daily serving (8 oz) of SSBs with an equivalent amount of reduced-fat milk or total milk was connected with a 35-36% lower risk of EO-CRC.”
“Through the second half of the 20th century, that average U.S. per capita soft drink consumption has significantly increased by ~500%, milk consumption has declined by half. Milk is an effective way to obtain calcium, a mineral found to be protective of colorectal cancer.”
“We postulate [that] low milk consumption could possibly be plausibly associated with the increased threat of EO-CRC, and additional research upon this topic is in the offing.”
The researchers point to several limitations of their study. First, they caution that this was an observational study, that may only establish correlation, not cause. In addition they note that a lot of the participants were white women, so the findings may not apply to men or other ethnic groups.
Even so, the analysis provides insight into possible actions that public health leaders usually takes, Dr. Cao explained.
“Particularly in adolescence,” she wrote, “the immature and rapidly growing organs could be more vunerable to exposures that could cause cancer development.”
“Campaigns, education programs, and interventions targeting the young population to lessen SSB intake and/or replace SSBs with other healthier beverages may help reduce the accrual of time at risk and convert this window of increased susceptibility into an opportunity for better health outcomes later in life.”
Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com
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