Volume 13, Issue 9 p. 955-964
Featured Article

Sugary beverage intake and preclinical Alzheimer's disease in the community

Matthew P. Pase

Corresponding Author

Matthew P. Pase

Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA

Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-617-638-8064.

E-mail address: [email protected]

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Jayandra J. Himali

Jayandra J. Himali

Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA

Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

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Paul F. Jacques

Paul F. Jacques

Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA

Jean Mayer-U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA

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Charles DeCarli

Charles DeCarli

Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA

Department of Neurology, School of Medicine & Imaging of Dementia and Aging Laboratory, Center for Neuroscience, University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA

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Claudia L. Satizabal

Claudia L. Satizabal

Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA

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Hugo Aparicio

Hugo Aparicio

Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA

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Ramachandran S. Vasan

Ramachandran S. Vasan

Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA

Sections of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

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Alexa S. Beiser

Alexa S. Beiser

Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA

Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

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Sudha Seshadri

Sudha Seshadri

Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA

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First published: 05 March 2017
Citations: 28

Abstract

Introduction

Excess sugar consumption has been linked with Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology in animal models.

Methods

We examined the cross-sectional association of sugary beverage consumption with neuropsychological (N = 4276) and magnetic resonance imaging (N = 3846) markers of preclinical Alzheimer's disease and vascular brain injury (VBI) in the community-based Framingham Heart Study. Intake of sugary beverages was estimated using a food frequency questionnaire.

Results

Relative to consuming less than one sugary beverage per day, higher intake of sugary beverages was associated with lower total brain volume (1–2/day, β ± standard error [SE] = −0.55 ± 0.14 mean percent difference, P = .0002; >2/day, β ± SE = −0.68 ± 0.18, P < .0001), and poorer performance on tests of episodic memory (all P < .01). Daily fruit juice intake was associated with lower total brain volume, hippocampal volume, and poorer episodic memory (all P < .05). Sugary beverage intake was not associated with VBI in a consistent manner across outcomes.

Discussion

Higher intake of sugary beverages was associated cross-sectionally with markers of preclinical AD.