Sugary Drinks Increase Endometrial Cancer Risk in Post Menopausal Women

Women need to watch their cola consumption post menopause. A new study has found that sugary drink intake is associated with higher risk of endometrial cancer in older women.

Researchers found that post menopausal women who drank sweetened beverages had 78 percent increased risk for estrogen-dependent type I endometrial cancer than other women of the same age.The risk of the cancer increased with the rate of consumption.

Endometrial cancer is the most common type of uterine cancer and most women are diagnosed with this cancer at 60 or 70 years of age, according to Medline Plus.

Sugary drinks have been blamed for the rise of obesity in the U.S. Recently; three large studies have said that sweet beverages increase obesity risk. Another study had reported that about 180,000 deaths in the world can be attributed to sugary drinks.

"Although ours is the first study to show this relationship, it is not surprising to see that women who drank more sugar-sweetened beverages had a higher risk of estrogen-dependent type I endometrial cancer but not estrogen-independent type II endometrial cancer," said Maki Inoue-Choi, lead researcher .  Inoue-Choi  was a research associate at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health when the study was conducted.

"Other studies have shown increasing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages has paralleled the increase in obesity. Obese women tend to have higher levels of estrogens and insulin than women of normal weight. Increased levels of estrogens and insulin are established risk factors for endometrial cancer," Inoue-Choi added, according to a news release.

Researchers found a co-relation between sugary drink consumption and cancer risk, and not a cause-effect relationship.

The study was based on data from 23,039 postmenopausal women participating in the Iowa Women's Health Study. These women had provided information about their dietary habits and medical history in 1986.

They categorized sugary-drink intake pattern of these women into quintiles with 'no intake' referring to lowest quintile. Women who drank between 1.7 and 60.5 servings a week were put in the highest quintile.

In the study group, about 506 women developed type I and 89 developed type II endometrial cancers. Researchers didn't find any association between type I or type II endometrial cancers and use of sugar-free soft drinks.

The study is published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.