Colon and rectal cancer in young women linked to sugary drinks

Compared with Americans born in 1950, those born in the early 1990s are twice as likely to develop colon cancer and four times as likely to develop rectal cancer, according to the New York Times. The authors of the new study suggest that consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, which increased sharply between 1977 and 2001, may be a factor.

To assess this connection, the scientists used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Health among Nurses, which was conducted from 1991 to 2015. It involved more than 94 thousand women, who were 25 to 42 years old at the beginning of the study. In this cohort, the authors identified a separate subgroup: 41.2 thousand nurses who reported that at the age of 13-18 they actively consumed sugar-containing drinks - sweet tea, carbonated drinks, fruit juices.

During the observation period, 109 study participants were diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Compared with women who drank less than one serving of sugar-sweetened beverages per day (about 230 grams) in their youth, those who consumed two or more servings had a relative risk of developing the disease that was more than twice as high. Each additional serving increased the risk by 16%.

The scientists also found that daily consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with a 32% increase in the development of colorectal cancer in adulthood. At the same time, those who prefer coffee or skim milk have a reduced relative risk of the disease by 17-36%. At the same time, the authors of the study did not find a connection between the development of malignant neoplasms of the intestine at a young age and the consumption of fruit juices or sweetened beverages (for example, tea with sugar).

This study only assessed the association, so the exact reasons why sugary drinks may directly or indirectly influence the development of this disease are not yet known. However, the scientists suggested that the underlying mechanism may be metabolic disturbances, insulin resistance and inflammatory processes in the intestines, the development of which can be triggered by drinks with a high sugar content.