Drinking large amounts of soft drinks associated with asthma and COPD

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-02/w-dla020712.php

[font face=Times, Times New Roman, Serif]Public release date: 7-Feb-2012

Contact: Amy Molnar
[e-mail]
201-748-8844
Wiley-Blackwell

[font size=5]Drinking large amounts of soft drinks associated with asthma and COPD[/font]

[font size=3]A new study published in the journal Respirology reveals that a high level of soft drink consumption is associated with asthma and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Led by Zumin Shi, MD, PhD, of the University of Adelaide, researchers conducted computer assisted telephone interviewing among 16,907 participants aged 16 years and older in South Australia between March 2008 and June 2010 inquiring about soft drink consumption. Soft drinks comprised Coke, lemonade, flavored mineral water, Powerade, and Gatorade etc.

Results showed that one in ten adults drink more than half a liter of soft drink daily in South Australia. The amount of soft drink consumption is associated with an increased chance of asthma and/or COPD. There exists a dose-response relationship, which means the more soft drink one consumes, the higher the chance of having these diseases.

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The odds ratio for asthma and COPD was 1.26 and 1.79, comparing those who consumed more than half a liter of soft drink per day with those who did not consume soft drinks.

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http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/j.1440-1843.2011.02115.x

[mike_c]

1. this report makes no sense....

There is no hint of a causative agent or mechanism here, and the drinks themselves have little in common UNLESS all are sweetened or otherwise contain similar ingredients, but the inclusion of mineral water makes me wonder about that. Not all are carbonated, so that's not the commonality. All in all, this sounds like data mining that revealed an unexplained correlation-- maybe sufferers of respiratory illness simply have drier mouths and throats, so they reach for the handiest beverage more often, and given the amount of marketing that goes into selling these products, it isn't surprising that many folks consume them. But other than a statistical correlation-- which does NOT imply causation-- there's no explanatory link.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. "flavored mineral water" often is sweetened

http://flavored-waters.com/flavored_water.asp

[mike_c]

3. then this study needs an unsweetened control for comparison...

...and even then, as described it's still just correlation mining. Mind you, I don't drink any of those things, so I'm not being defensive or anything-- it's just that the data mining, as described in the article, is not very conclusive. As such, I'd say it generated a hypothesis that now needs testing, and little else.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. “…control for comparison...”

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Furthermore, smoking makes this relationship even worse, especially for COPD. Compared with those who did not smoke and consume soft drinks, those that consumed more than half a liter of soft drink per day and were current smokers had a 6.6-fold greater risk of COPD.

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[dixiegrrrrl]

7. COPD and smoking correlation...wow...who knew?

[mike_c]

8. that's not an experimental control...

...rather, it's a statistical control. The difference might not be obvious, but an experimental control helps to untangle causation, while a statistical control only demonstrates correlation when no causative hypothesis is under test.

[Warpy]

6. That's exactly what it looks like to me, too

They came up with the conclusion before they looked at the data.

Some people are so fanatically attached to the idea that anything sweet is inherently bad, especially when consumed in liquid form, that they'll spend thousands of useless hours exchanging cart for horse to prove their point.

And yes, people who have a great deal of difficulty breathing do have dry mouths and nothing but water gets tiresome quickly.

[Lionessa]

4. Makes perfect sense to me, quit drinking bubbly anything

a few years ago because I kept getting abdominal cramps, I'm guessing from the bubbles not releasing by burping while it was in the stomach. Anyway, I've noticed a great deal of general improvement since them, though I never suffered from asthma or COPD, I have much fewer what I used to think were allergy days. Now I'm thinking maybe it was allergy after all, but bubbly instead. Interesting.

[HuckleB]

9. What if you add a shot of whiskey to each soft drink?

[mopinko]

10. now we're talking!