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# Soft drinks boost stroke risk in women
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/soft_drinks_boost_stroke_risk_in_women_1020120639/
- Published: 2012-10-20T19:38:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:09:27.000Z
- Description: Following 39,786 Japanese adults for 18 years, researchers found women with the highest soft drink intake were 21 percent more likely to have any stroke and 83 percent more likely to have an ischemic stroke than those drinking least. No link showed for ischemic heart disease.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Food, Nutrition, #vivvo-import

By David Liu, PHD

Saturday Oct 20, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Drinking too much sugar sweetened beverages too often may increase risk of stroke in women, according to a study in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

E. S. Eshak at Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University in Osaka, Japan and colleagues conducted the study and found soft drink use was positively correlated with risk of total stroke and more specifically ischemic stroke in women.

Soft drinks (non-alcoholic beverages) have been associated with obesity and diabetes in previous studies. The current study was intended to examine the association between soft drink consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease in a Japanese population.

The prospective study enlisted 39,786 Japanese men and women aged 40 to 59 years whose consumption of soft drinks was determined through a self-administered food-frequency questionnaire.

During 18 years of follow-up, 453 incident cases of ischemic heart disease and 1,922 cases of stroke, including 859 hemorrhagic and 1047 ischemic strokes were identified.

The researchers found women with the highest intake of soft drinks were 21 percent more likely to suffer any type of stroke and 83 percent more likely to experience ischemic stroke, compared with those who had the lowest intake. The association remained significant even after the exclusion of early incident cases within three to nine years from baseline.

A similar inverse association was found in men, but nonsignificantly. After the exclusion of participants with comorbidities at baseline, the association was weakened.

However, consumption of soft drinks was not linked to risk of ischemic heart disease and hemorrhagic stroke in either men nor women.

The researchers concluded "Soft drink intake is associated with higher risk of ischemic stroke for women."