Smoking Common in Foreign Films, Study Finds

TUESDAY, Nov. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Movies made in other countries are more likely to depict smoking than films made in the United States, a new study finds.

But in movies that did depict smoking, only those from Argentina showed smoking on screen for a longer time frame than those from the United States, the study authors said.

And, drinking was common in movies from all of the countries studied.

Previous research found that smoking in movies can lead to smoking by young people. In 1997, the United States banned paid product placement of tobacco in movies, but many other countries lack such restrictions.

Countries should ban tobacco use in films that get government subsides, said the authors of the study published Nov. 3 in the journal BMC Public Health.

The international team analyzed 502 American movies and 337 nationally produced films from six European and two Latin American countries. The films were made between 2004 and 2009, and were commercially successful.

Films from Iceland had the highest percentage of tobacco use, while those from the Netherlands had the lowest percentage, the study found.

As for drinking scenes, between 75 percent and 97 percent of films from all of the countries showed scenes where alcohol was consumed.

“Our study found that the presence of tobacco and alcohol in films is high, whether the film is made in Europe or the Americas. Even in countries where tobacco industry payment for product placement is prohibited by law, more than half of films contain tobacco — countries without these policies were even more likely to show tobacco use on screen,” senior researcher James Thrasher said in a journal news release.

Thrasher, of the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health, said no country studied has policies in place to reduce alcohol use in films, and alcohol use in all films is universally high.

“Films are powerful vehicles for influencing behaviors,” Thrasher said. “As recommended by the World Health Organization, governments seeking to reduce adolescent smoking should consider no longer funding national films that portray tobacco use.”

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about youth and tobacco.

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Calorie Counts on Menus May Prompt Healthier Offerings

TUESDAY, Nov. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Large chain restaurants that list the calorie counts on their menus offer more lower-calorie choices than those that don’t provide calorie counts, a new study finds.

Researchers analyzed menu items at 66 of the 100 largest chain restaurants in the United States and found that those with voluntary calorie labeling averaged 140 fewer calories per selection. Much of that difference was due to lower-calorie food offerings rather than beverages.

In 2012, the average menu item at chains that provided calorie counts had 260 calories, compared with 399 calories at those that didn’t offer calorie details. In 2014, the averages were 263 calories and 402 calories, respectively.

Restaurant chains that voluntarily offered calorie counts introduced about twice as many new menu items in 2013 and one-third more new items in 2014 than other chains. This may reflect increasing consumer demand for healthier menu choices in response to calorie information, the researchers said.

The findings were published in the November issue of the journal Health Affairs.

“The menu items in restaurants with voluntary labeling have fewer average calories than restaurants without labeling,” said study co-author Julia Wolfson, a doctoral candidate in the department of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

“If other chain restaurants follow this same trend once mandatory menu labeling goes into effect, it could significantly improve the restaurant environment for consumers. This could get consumers to eat healthier without having to change their behavior, something that is a very difficult thing to do and sustain,” she said in a Hopkins news release.

However, another Health Affairs study, published Nov. 2, that found calorie labeling on menus has had little effect on the number of calories consumed by people eating at fast-food restaurants in New York City.

The findings suggest that menu calorie information alone is not enough to lower obesity rates, the NYU Langone Medical Center researchers said.

In 2008, New York City ordered chain restaurants to provide customers with calorie counts of menu items.

As part of the Affordable Care Act, all chain restaurants with more than 20 locations and many other businesses that serve food will have to include calorie information on their menus. The requirement takes effect in December 2016.

“The biggest impact from mandatory menu labeling may come from restaurants decreasing the calories in their menu items rather than expecting consumers to notice the calorie information and, subsequently, order different menu items,” Wolfson said.

“Given how often Americans eat in restaurants, if more chain restaurants decrease calories on their menus to a level that we are seeing in restaurants that already label, this has the potential to reduce population-level obesity,” she concluded.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine offers tips for healthy eating when dining out.

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Rheumatoid Arthritis May Shorten Life Span: Study

TUESDAY, Nov. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Rheumatoid arthritis may raise the risk of early death by as much as 40 percent, with heart and respiratory problems the most common contributors to a shortened life span, a new study suggests.

And among those who died of respiratory causes, one of the main causes of death was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the researchers reported.

The findings provide new evidence to support previous research suggesting a link between rheumatoid arthritis and increased risk of early death, and they point to the need for doctors to closely monitor these patients, the study authors said.

However, the study only showed an association, and not a cause-and-effect relationship, between rheumatoid arthritis and risk of premature death.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the joints, resulting in pain and swelling. About 1.3 million people in the United States have rheumatoid arthritis, and of these, nearly 75 percent are women, according to the American College of Rheumatology.

For the study, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston analyzed data from 964 women with rheumatoid arthritis who were part of the Nurses’ Health Study, and compared them with women without the disease. The study has followed more than 100,000 registered nurses since 1976.

“Previous studies have suggested that rheumatoid arthritis may be associated with increased mortality, but were not able to control for other variables, such as smoking, that affect both rheumatoid arthritis and mortality risks,” study corresponding author Dr. Jeffrey Sparks said in a hospital news release. He is with the division of rheumatology, immunology and allergy at the hospital.

“Because the Nurses’ Health Study is so large and has been following participants for so long, we were able to gather much more information about our subjects — we could follow them before and after diagnosis, take their health behaviors into account and determine specific causes of death,” he said.

“By doing so, we found strong evidence of increased risk for respiratory, cardiovascular and overall mortality for patients with rheumatoid arthritis,” Sparks said.

The researchers also analyzed differences between the two types of rheumatoid arthritis: seropositive and seronegative. Those with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis — which typically causes more severe symptoms — were nearly three times more likely to die of respiratory causes than those with seronegative disease, according to the study. It was published Nov. 3 in the journal Arthritis Care & Research.

While many doctors know that rheumatoid arthritis patients are at increased risk of death from heart problems, the new findings highlight the need to watch for respiratory symptoms, even among patients who never smoked or are former smokers, Sparks added.

“We hope that this study will encourage patients and clinicians to be more aware that patients with rheumatoid arthritis are at increased risk of both respiratory and cardiovascular mortality, particularly patients with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis,” he said.

More information

The American College of Family Physicians has more about rheumatoid arthritis.

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Acupuncture May Ease Neck Pain Over Long Term

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Nov. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Two alternative therapies — acupuncture and the Alexander technique — appear equally beneficial for the long-term relief of chronic neck pain, new research reports.

Both therapies involve educating patients in ways to relieve stress, as well as improve posture and balance. These techniques appeared to help reduce neck pain in the 12 months following treatment compared with drugs and traditional physical therapy, the British researchers said.

“In general, it is difficult to find long-term treatments that have a positive effect on chronic neck pain,” said lead researcher Hugh MacPherson, of the department of health sciences at the University of York. “But, both acupuncture and the Alexander technique lessons did.”

With both techniques, patients learned methods they could use in their daily life, he said.

“They could make changes in coping that didn’t involve medication and they were able to apply what they learned in a way that made a difference,” MacPherson said.

While the treatments themselves had an effect, what the patients learned about integrating the lessons of acupuncture or the Alexander technique into their lives is what likely made a difference over the long term, he suggested.

During acupuncture, patients have thin needles inserted into specific points on the body to relieve pain. The Alexander technique is an educational process that teaches people how to avoid unnecessary muscular and mental tension to help restore natural balance. This may help reduce pain during everyday activities, the study authors said.

“These two methods are physical therapies that don’t require unsafe medications, but do provide interaction that leads to long-term benefits,” MacPherson said.

Either method is something people with neck pain should consider, he said.

“If you are not getting a benefit from your traditional therapy and you do not want to keep taking medication and you want a more self-help physical therapy that will involve long-term changes, then acupuncture and Alexander technique would be good options,” MacPherson said.

The report was published Nov. 3 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

For the study, the researchers randomly assigned more than 500 patients from the United Kingdom who had chronic neck pain to one of three treatment groups. One group received usual care for neck pain that may have included medication or traditional physical therapy. The other two groups received either 12 acupuncture sessions or 20 one-on-one Alexander lessons. Each treatment group received 600 minutes of the intervention, the study said.

Both acupuncture and the Alexander technique were linked to better pain relief than either painkillers or physical therapy as scored on a pain questionnaire, MacPherson said. Neither of the alternative treatments appeared to offer a significant benefit over the other, however, the study found. And, neither alternative treatment was linked to any serious adverse side effects, the report said.

The Alexander technique generally isn’t covered by health insurance companies, according to the American Society for the Alexander Technique. Costs usually range between $75 to $130 per session, the society said.

Acupuncture may be covered by some insurance companies, according to the University of California, San Diego Center for Integrative Medicine. Sessions cost approximately $125, and some practitioners may offer discounts for payments at the time of service, the University of California San Diego said.

Dr. Houman Danesh, director of integrative pain management at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, said both methods are worth a try.

It’s not clear why these methods work, “but we are finding that they do help,” he said.

The Alexander technique is used by many patients after suffering a stroke, and patients have reported good results, Danesh said.

“Patients should have conversations with their doctors about these methods,” he said. “It’s something they should try.”

More information

For more about neck pain, visit the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

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Online Psychotherapy May Help Some With Emotional Problems

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Nov. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The Internet has made it possible for people to work and study from home, and new research suggests that a staple of mental health care may also be headed to a computer near you.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a mix of two disciplines that aims to help a person improve the way he or she thinks about problems and problem-solving, while also tackling unhealthy behaviors.

For now, online versions of CBT remain rare in North America, with a few pilot programs underway in Toronto, Ohio and Kentucky, said researcher Dr. David Gratzer. He is a psychiatrist and physician-in-charge of mental health inpatient services at Scarborough Hospital in Toronto.

“The long and the short of it,” he said, “[is that] we love our iPhones here in North America, but we are failing to take advantage of technology for mental health services the way the Swedes and Australians have.”

But can depression, anxiety and/or emotional distress triggered by physical illness be treated as well online as face-to-face?

To answer that question, Gratzer and his colleague, Faiza Khalid-Khan, reviewed studies conducted between 2000 and 2012 that have examined the issue.

They found that when it is offered, online therapy typically focuses on solving a patient’s specific goals, and therefore, is usually a short-term venture. Some services are free; others have a cost. The online therapy may or may not be supplemented by in-person sessions with a therapist.

Based on their review, the study authors determined that online therapy can help with anxiety, depression and emotional distress related to illness as much, if not more, than standard face-to-face interventions. The researchers also noted that Internet treatment may be helpful for people who are shy or reluctant to speak directly to a professional.

The study authors also said that Internet-provided cognitive therapy could help some patients minimize out-of-pocket costs.

The study findings were published in the November issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

However, Gratzer and Khalid-Khan cautioned that most studies they reviewed only tracked patients for relatively short periods — ranging from eight weeks to two years — after therapy.

They also noted that the absence of direct human contact can make it more difficult for a patient and therapist to develop a relationship that’s sensitive to a patient’s changing needs.

Internet-based therapy also tends to have bigger dropout rates, a problem the researchers said occasional in-person sessions might prevent.

Most important, they warned that Internet therapy may not be appropriate for patients struggling with a severe mental illness. Most of the studies reviewed didn’t include severely ill patients out of an assumption that such patients’ needs would not be met with remote counseling.

“People with mild to moderate depression and anxiety seem to do better than those with more severe illness,” said Gratzer.

Brenda Major, a professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said the notion of Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy “makes a lot of sense.”

“I think that in theory a Skype therapy session, or even an immersive virtual reality type session, could be very effective,” she said.

“But the real question,” she added, “is how good is the therapist? Because whether they’re sitting on the couch opposite you or on the other end of the computer, you want a therapist who is well trained and highly rated. Therapy provided face to face can be very ineffective with a bad provider. The same would be true online.”

Either way, she said, patients must to do their homework before choosing a therapist. “You need to find references, because I definitely think that the quality of care is more important than the medium of communication,” she said.

More information

There’s more on cognitive therapy at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.

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Why Kate Winslet’s House Is Social Media-Free

Photo: Getty Images

Kate Winslet might be a Hollywood super star but don’t expect the actress to become the next selfie star. The 40-year-old actress and mother of three—daughter Mia, 15, and sons Joe, 11, and Bear, 22 months— revealed in a recent interview that she’s banned social media in her house.

Now before you start questioning your love of Winslet, her reasoning for doing so is quite admirable. In her interview with the Sunday Times, Winslet shares she believes social media can have a negative impact on self-esteem.

“It has a huge impact on young women’s self-esteem, because all they ever do is design themselves for people to like them,” she says in the interview. “And what comes along with that? Eating disorders. And that makes my blood boil. And is the reason we don’t have any social media in our house.”

The actress, who’s known for her body-positive role model status, recently made headlines for her request to Lancôme to leave her wrinkles in ad campaigns in which she appears. “I’m baffled that anyone might not think women get more beautiful as they get older,” Winslet said in an interview with Net-a-Porter. “Confidence comes with age, and looking beautiful comes from the confidence someone has in themselves.”

And just like that, Kate Winslet might have single-handedly convinced us to put down our phones. Just for a second at least.

This article originally appeared on MIMIchatter.com.

More from MIMI:

Kate Winslet Requests Lancôme Include Her Wrinkles in Ad Campaign

Kate Winslet Shows off Her Wrinkles on the Red Carpet

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More Belly Fat in First Trimester Linked to Diabetes Risk Later in Pregnancy

TUESDAY, Nov. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Women with high levels of abdominal fat in their first trimester are at increased risk for diabetes later in pregnancy, a new study suggests.

The study included nearly 500 women, aged 18 to 42, who had ultrasounds to assess their abdominal fat at 11 to 14 weeks of pregnancy. Those with higher levels of fat were more likely to develop diabetes at 24 to 28 weeks of pregnancy. But the study only showed an association, and not a cause-and-effect relationship, between belly fat and diabetes risk in pregnancy.

The study was published Nov. 2 in the journal Diabetes Care.

“This study highlights the potential to screen patients in their early stages of pregnancy, and use abdominal fat to predict the development of diabetes,” study author Leanne De Souza, from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, said in a hospital news release. De Souza is research program manager at St. Michael’s and a Ph.D. candidate in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Toronto.

“By taking pictures of abdominal fat in early pregnancy using ultrasound during routine clinical visits, we could identify women with high levels of abdominal fat who may be at risk of developing gestational diabetes later on,” she added.

Gestational diabetes is diabetes that occurs for the first time when a woman is pregnant.

Typically, doctors screen pregnant women for diabetes in the second or third trimester, looking at risk factors such as age, ethnicity, family history, blood sugar testing and overall body fat.

“The problem with those risk factors is that they don’t really tell us who’s at a high risk of diabetes,” De Souza said.

“Up to 60 percent of women will start their pregnancy overweight, many women are having children at an older age, and most people have a family member with type 2 diabetes, so traditional risk factors are starting to apply to more and more people, which prevents us from properly identifying those at a high risk,” she explained.

Previous research has also shown that between 20 percent and 50 percent of women who develop diabetes during pregnancy go on to develop type 2 diabetes within five years after their pregnancy, the study authors said.

Pregnant women at risk for gestational diabetes can take preventive measures such as adopting a healthy diet and lifestyle and avoiding too much abdominal weight gain, the researchers said.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about gestational diabetes.

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Weight Gain a Challenge for Children With Autism: Study

By Tara Haelle
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Nov. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Children with autism may have a greater risk of obesity, with weight differences seen as early as preschool, a new study reveals.

“A lot of things are happening for these families when their children are under 5, including going through the process of getting a diagnosis and just managing day-to-day behaviors and juggling their child’s education and treatment needs,” said study author Alison Presmanes Hill.

“It is possible that the early signs and symptoms of autism are so salient for parents that they could overshadow concerns about weight problems,” explained Hill, who is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Institute on Development and Disability at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland.

Hill’s team found that preschoolers and teens with autism were a little more likely than their peers without the developmental disorder to be overweight or obese.

The findings were published in the Nov. 2 online edition of the journal Pediatrics.

For the study, the researchers weighed and measured more than 5,000 children, aged 2 to 17, who had an autism spectrum disorder. Each child’s body mass index (BMI) was compared to the expected range for their age and sex. BMI is a ratio of weight to height.

Kids with a BMI at or above the 95th percentile were considered obese, while those at or above the 85th percentile were deemed overweight. Overall, 34 percent of the kids with autism were overweight compared to 32 percent in the general population, and 18 percent of the kids with autism were obese versus 17 percent in the general population.

Differences were more striking in the preschool and teen years. Compared to others their age, 2- to 5-year-olds who had autism were more likely to be obese — 16 percent versus 10 percent. And teens with autism also had a higher risk of obesity than their peers — 26 percent versus 20 percent, the study found.

The researchers also collected information on the children’s behavior, mental abilities, medications and other medical conditions. As scores on scales of sleep problems and behavioral difficulties went up, the study authors found the risk of obesity went up, too.

“The most striking feature of this study is that differences in unhealthy weight status between typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder are apparent as early as preschool age,” said Dr. Sonia Monteiro, a developmental pediatrician at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Contributing risk factors may include selective eating, decreased engagement in physical activity and use of medications that can lead to weight gain, she said.

Hill pointed out that one possible reason for lower levels of physical activity in younger children is that preschoolers with autism may participate less often in social activities, which at that age often involve energetic play.

The findings didn’t surprise Dr. Glen Elliott, chief psychiatrist and medical director of Children’s Health Council in Palo Alto, Calif.

“I believe the observation that children and adolescents with (and without) autism have an alarming rate of obesity is well established,” Elliott said. “What remains less clear is what, exactly, one can do about weight problems.”

It is already difficult to address obesity in children without developmental disabilities, so suggesting calorie restrictions for children with autism will often be unhelpful, he said.

“Some parents find that it is easier to introduce regular exercise into the lives of their autistic children because routines such as daily walks or bike rides tend to be self-sustaining once established,” Elliott said. But that may not be enough when some medications, such as atypical antipsychotics, increase weight and promote fat cell growth in the abdominal area.

“If the culprit is medication, how does one balance benefits with risk?” Elliott said.

Parents can also try to reduce the amount of time children with autism spend with media, such as TV, said Jack Dempsey, a pediatric psychologist at Texas Children’s Hospital’s Autism Center in Houston.

“To reduce their child’s risk for obesity, parents should try to set limits regarding consumption of calorie-dense foods and the amount of screen time from an early age,” Dempsey said. He also recommended incorporating physical activity into children’s daily routine as a family.

“Parents should keep in mind that these strategies are challenging to implement in children with autism spectrum disorders and not be discouraged by setbacks,” Dempsey added.

Also important, Hill added, is that parents do not ignore a child’s weight even while they are working to address a child’s other challenges.

“We hope that our findings encourage health care providers to start thinking about and proactively addressing weight issues early, so that they don’t end up on the back burner,” Hill said.

More information

For more about autism, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Severe Combat Injuries Linked to Risk of Chronic Diseases

MONDAY, Nov. 2, 2015 (HealthDay News) — U.S. soldiers who’ve suffered severe combat injuries are at high risk for chronic diseases, according to a new study.

“The more severely a service member is injured, the more likely they are to develop a wide variety of chronic medical conditions, including high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and hardening of the arteries,” study lead author Major Ian Stewart, a researcher at the David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base in California, said in a news release from the American Heart Association.

The study included more than 3,800 soldiers injured in Afghanistan or Iraq. All received scores ranging from 1 to 75 based on the severity of their wounds. The higher the score, the worse the injuries.

The researchers found that for every five-point increase in injury score, the risk of high blood pressure rose 6 percent; coronary artery disease and diabetes jumped 13 percent; and chronic kidney disease increased 15 percent.

The investigators also found that veterans who developed chronic diseases tended to be older, had higher injury scores and more serious kidney damage.

When wounds were complicated by kidney damage, the risk of high blood pressure rose 66 percent and the risk of chronic kidney disease was nearly five times higher, the study revealed.

High blood pressure rates were 69 percent higher among injured black veterans than wounded white veterans, the researchers said.

Among the most severely injured veterans, rates of high blood pressure, coronary artery disease and diabetes were significantly higher than overall in the U.S. military, according to the study published Nov. 2 in the journal Circulation.

Inflammation may be the reason why combat injuries increase the risk of chronic disease, the study authors suggested. Post-traumatic stress disorder — a mental health disorder common among wounded veterans — may also play a role directly through inflammation or indirectly by leading to weight gain or substance abuse, the researchers said.

“Our study lays important ground work to better understand the longer-term effects of combat-related injury on the risk of chronic disease,” Stewart said in the news release.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about veterans and health.

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Sweetened Drinks Might Raise Men’s Risk for Heart Failure

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Nov. 2, 2015 (HealthDay News) — People who regularly consume sodas or sweetened fruit drinks may have a higher risk for heart failure, researchers report.

In the study, Swedish men who drank two or more servings of sweetened beverages a day had a 23 percent higher risk of suffering heart failure, said lead author Susanna Larsson, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

“People who regularly consume sweetened beverages should consider reducing their consumption to lower their risk of heart failure as well as obesity and type 2 diabetes and possibly other diseases,” Larsson said.

Sweetened drinks have been linked to stroke, diabetes, obesity and other health problems, but so far scant attention has been paid to the effects of excess sugar on heart health, said Dr. Christopher O’Connor, director of the Heart Center at Duke University School of Medicine and editor-in-chief of the journal JACC: Heart Failure.

Heart failure occurs when the heart grows too weak to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Patients tire easily, suffer shortness of breath and develop fluid buildup in their feet, ankles and legs.

Only about half of those diagnosed with heart failure are still alive five years later, researchers said in background material. More than 23 million people worldwide have heart failure, including about 5.8 million in the United States.

Soft drinks have been associated with an increased risk in high blood pressure and heart disease, so it makes sense that sweetened beverages might also increase the risk of heart failure, the researchers said.

Using national registry data, they tracked the health of 42,400 men living in two counties of Sweden between 1998 and 2010.

The men, aged 45 to 79, were asked to record their average consumption of 96 food and drink items over the preceding year. One serving of a sweetened drink was defined as 200 milliliters, or nearly 7 ounces.

The questionnaire made no distinction between drinks sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners. Fruit juices, coffee and tea were not included in the study.

Over an average of 12 years of monitoring, more than 3,600 new cases of heart failure were diagnosed. More than 500 people died of the condition.

After accounting for other potential factors, researchers found that at least two servings of sweetened drinks a day increased heart failure risk by 23 percent, compared with people who consumed no soft drinks or sweetened beverages.

“We controlled for other food groups that could reflect an overall healthy or unhealthy diet such as intakes of fruits, vegetables, fish, processed red meat and coffee consumption,” Larsson said. “We also adjusted for total energy intake.”

The findings were published online Nov. 2 in the journal Heart.

While the study only included men, “we expect that the association would be similar in women,” Larsson said. However, he added that because this is an observational study, it does not establish a cause-and-effect relationship.

Men in Sweden tend to weigh less and are more physically fit than American men, which means this association is likely to be amplified in the United States, O’Connor said.

“In the United States, you have people who are farther down the curve,” O’Connor said. The potential effect “would be larger and faster here.”

O’Connor noted some design problems that affect the clarity of the findings. For example, food surveys tend to be inaccurate because they rely on people’s memories of what they eat, and the beverage question included all sweetened drinks, whether they contained sugar or an artificial sweetener.

But this likely “just reduces the signal,” masking what is probably an even greater effect on heart health than observed here, O’Connor concluded. “The fact the signal is still there means it’s probably real,” he said.

The American Beverage Association responded to the findings by drawing attention to a new industry initiative aimed at reducing beverage calories in the American diet by 20 percent for every person by 2025.

“This initiative will have significant real-world impact by helping people reduce their consumption of calories and sugar from beverages,” the industry group said in a statement. “To reduce the incidence of heart disease, health professionals, industry and others must work together to educate Americans about all the risk factors and encourage people to maintain a healthy weight by balancing their calories and physical activity.”

More information

For more about heart failure, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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