New studies on diet and women recently suggested that sweet drinks are possible contributors to elevated colon cancer in young adults.
A report posted on Eminetra.com specified that in recent years, the occurrence of colorectal cancer in individuals aged below 50 years old had risen exponentially.
Those born around 1990 have double the risk of colon cancer and four times the risk of rectal cancer than those born around 1950.
Moreover, in recent years, sugar-containing beverages' sales have been decreasing, although from 1977 to 2001, the calorie consumption of these sweet drinks rose dramatically.
During this period, the number increased from 5.1 percent of calories burned to 19 to 12.3 percent—about 4.8 percent to 10.3 percent of children whose ages range between 39 and below 18 years old.
By 2014, there was a drop in numbers, although seven percent of the calories burned by Americans still came from sweet drinks.
Link Between Colorectal Cancer and Sweet Drinks
The new study, "Sugar-sweetened beverage intake in adulthood and adolescence and risk of early-onset colorectal cancer among women," published in the Gut journal, examined the link between colorectal cancer and sweet drinks in more than 94,400 female registered nurses registered in a long-term perspective health survey between ages 25 and 42 years from 1991 to 2015.
The researchers examined a subset of more than 41,200 nurses who reported ingestion of sugary drinks between ages 13 and 18 years old.
This research included the consumption of soft drinks, sports drinks, and sweet tea. The study investigators recorded ingestion of fruit juices like oranges, apples, prunes, and grapefruits, as well.
Twenty-four years on average, of follow-up, found 109 cases of colorectal cancer among nurses, and the outright risk of colon cancer in young individuals is little.
Nevertheless, women who consumed more than one drink had more than double the relative danger of the disease than women who consumed less than eight ounces of sugared drinks each week on average. Each time they added a sweet beverage, the research found, the risk rose by 16 percent.
Link to Fruit Juices
Daily consumption in adolescence was linked to a 32-percent higher risk, and replacing sweet drinks with coffee or low-fat milk lessened the relative risk by 17 to 36 degrees. No data was available on sugar-sweetened coffee.
According to the Yale School of Public Health's epidemiologist Caroline Johnson, she was really interested in the study, being about women.
Johnson, who has publicly published the environmental dangers of colon cancer, but was not part of this study added, the focus was mainly on men, and it would be interesting to see if it was indeed confirmed in males.
There was no link between consumption of fruit juices or artificially sweetened drinks and early-onset colorectal cancer.
The analysis controlled a variety of factors that could impact the risk of colon cancer, which includes body mass index, race, drinking, smoking, menopausal hormone use, and physical activity.
This research presented only relevance and could not prove the cause and effect. Nonetheless, assistant professor of epidemiology, Noor Makalem, from the Colombian Mailman School of Public Health, who was not part of the study explained, it is known that sweet drinks are linked to weight gain and glucose dysregulation, among others.
Therefore, added the assistant professor, there are risk factors as well, and thus, there is a possible mechanism that underlies these associations.
Elevated Cancer in Younger People
Associate professor Yin Cao, at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, the study's lead author said, it could be because of metabolic problems like insulin resistance and high cholesterol, and intestinal inflammation.
Younger people are playing a role in causing cancer than older people, although the exact possible mechanism has not yet been determined.
One hypothesis, she explained, is that increased weight gain results in increased risk. Still, it may be one of the contributors.
The News York Times report specified, studies in mice have found that high fructose corn syrup adds to the danger of cancer independently of obesity. This, she continued, is the first time sweet drinks have been linked to early-onset colorectal cancer.
More so, this research still needs to be reproduced. Nevertheless, there is a need for study authors and clinicians to be aware of this nearly abandoned risk factor for young-age cancer.
This, the lead author continued, is how sweet beverages are sold. In addition, this is an opportunity to review policies on how they can help lessen consumption. The study presents, too, that elevated colon cancer in young adults is indeed linked to sweet drinks.
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