It’s not like aerated drinks had any benefits anyway! Well, the only one I can probably think of is relieving gas. Or else, these sugary soft drinks have always been linked to obesity, certain types of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and metabolic syndromes. These are quite deadly by themselves, and now, making another strong point, researchers say that soda can also shorten your lifespan (No; I am not kidding).

This study was done at the University Of California, San Francisco. It was found that drinking soda regularly shortened the length of telomeres in the white blood cells, and these are said to be the predictors (determinants?) of the human life span.

In an informative statement, a professor of psychiatry at UCSF, who also happens to be a senior author of the study, Dr. Elissa Epel, said, “Regular consumption of sugar-sweetened sodas might influence disease development, not only by straining the body’s metabolic control of sugars, but also through accelerated cellular aging of tissues.”

Epel and her colleagues did the study by gathering all their information from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys that were conducted between 1999 and 2002. The study sample embraced 5,309 adults from the United States, aged between 20 and 65. These people had no record of cardiovascular diseases or diabetes. The partakers were asked to pen down their diet from the last 24 hours. The researchers then used their DNA samples to determine the length of the telomere. The average soda consumption per day was recorded at 12 ounces, with a good 21% of the crowd drinking about 20 ounces of soda each day.

The researchers then asserted that drinking about 20 ounces of soda per day was proportional to about 4.6 years of extra biological aging. They came to this conclusion by studying and assessing how the telomere abridged with linear age. This effect of drinking soda on the shortening of the telomere is similar to that of smoking. Both adversely affect aging. But interestingly, what can sort of reverse this syndrome and help with anti-aging is regular exercise. Other age deterrents and telomere choppers are chronic diseases like diabetes, certain cancers, and of course, heart problems.

Epel also said, “This is the first demonstration that soda is associated with telomere shortness, this finding held regardless of age, race, income, and education level. Telomere shortening starts long before disease onset.  Further, although we only studied adults here, it is possible that soda consumption is associated with telomere shortening in children, as well.”

Corresponding with the obesity epidemic in the United States of America, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that the intake of sugary drinks and sodas has increased alarmingly among both adults and children. About half the population of the United States drinks at least two such drinks on any given day. The researchers are now beginning a second study to determine the effect of soda intake on the aspects of cell aging in a real-time setting.

A renowned post doctoral member of the UCSF Centre for Health and Community, Cindy Leung, said, “It is critical to understand both the dietary factors that may shorten telomeres, as well as the dietary factors that may lengthen telomeres; here it appeared that the only beverage consumption that had a measurable negative association with telomere length was consumption of sugared soda.”

Well, knowing this, it is best to steer clear from sugary drinks and sodas. Do not make it a drug you cannot live without. Even though this study was done in the United States, it applies to human beings all around the world. With the plethora of yummy health drinks that we can make today, letting go of colas and sodas is one step closer to living a healthy and happy life. It is worth it.

The post A Study Made People Drink Soda Everyday- This Is What They Found appeared first on STYLECRAZE.

by Shirin Mehdi via STYLECRAZE