Sugary Drinks Might Raise Hypertension Risk: Study

(Health.USNews.com) — Drinking sugar-sweetened sodas and fruit drinks appears to be associated with a greater risk for high blood pressure among adults, a new study suggests.

The research team says that both the glucose and fructose found in such drinks are implicated in the linkage.

The findings “suggest that individuals who consume more soda and other sugar-sweetened soft drinks may have higher blood pressure levels than those who consume less,” said study author Ian J. Brown, a research associate in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics with the School of Public Health at Imperial College London. “And the problem may be exacerbated by higher salt intake, an important cause of high blood pressure in itself.”

“We also found that men and women who consumed one or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day tended to be heavier, consume more calories, and have less healthy diets than those who consumed none,” Brown added.

Brown and his colleagues report their findings in the Feb. 28 issue of Hypertension.

To explore the potential for a link between sugar-sweetened drinks and high blood pressure, the authors analyzed the consumption patterns of nearly 2,700 American and British men and women between the ages of 40 and 59.

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