Close X
Monday, December 2, 2024
ADVT 
Health

Sugary Drinks Hamper Body's Normal Stress Response

Darpan News Desk IANS, 17 Apr, 2015 12:26 PM
    Do you always pick up a soda can from the refrigerator every time you feel a little stressed? This could be because sugary drinks may relieve stress in humans by disrupting the body's normal response to stressful situations.
     
    "Although it may be tempting to suppress feelings of stress, a normal reaction to stress is important to good health," explained one of the study's authors Kevin Laugero from the University of California, Davis.
     
    Drinking sugar-sweetened beverages can suppress the hormone cortisol and stress responses in the brain, but diet beverages sweetened with the artificial sweetner aspartame do not have the same effect, the findings showed.
     
    "This is the first evidence that high sugar - but not aspartame - consumption may relieve stress in humans," Laugero noted.
     
    "The concern is psychological or emotional stress could trigger the habitual overconsumption of sugar and amplify sugar's detrimental health effects, including obesity," Laugero said.
     
    Overconsumption of sugary drinks such as soda and juice have been linked to the obesity epidemic and several other health risks.
     
    The study examined the effects of consuming sugar and aspartame-sweetened beverages on a group of 19 women between the ages of 18 and 40.
     
    The researchers assigned eight women to consume aspartame-sweetened beverages, and 11 to drink sugar-sweetened beverages for a 12-day period and assessed their performance in a maths test.
     
    Women who drank sugar-sweetened beverages during the study had a diminished cortisol response to the math test, compared to women who were assigned to consume aspartame-sweetened beverages.
     
    In addition, the women who consumed sugar-sweetened beverages exhibited more activity in the hippocampus - a part of the brain that is involved in memory and is sensitive to stress - than the women who drank aspartame-sweetened beverages.
     
    The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

    MORE Health ARTICLES

    Mental illness doubles cardiac, stroke risks

    Mental illness doubles cardiac, stroke risks
    Psychiatric medications, unhealthy activities and access to health care are three major factors that account for the increased risk, the findings showed....

    Mental illness doubles cardiac, stroke risks

    'Spooning' aggravates back pain in women

    'Spooning' aggravates back pain in women
    For women suffering from back pain, spooning - a sexual intercourse position where couples lie on their sides curled in the same direction - may not be the best option....

    'Spooning' aggravates back pain in women

    'Diabetic mother may beget obese daughters'

    'Diabetic mother may beget obese daughters'
    Women who developed gestational diabetes and were overweight before pregnancy were at a higher risk of begetting daughters who became...

    'Diabetic mother may beget obese daughters'

    Single protein behind successful fertilisation

    Single protein behind successful fertilisation
    An international team of researchers has discovered how a single protein oversees the processing of DNA during sperm and egg generation for successful fertilisation....

    Single protein behind successful fertilisation

    Ebola cases exceed 10,000: WHO

    Ebola cases exceed 10,000: WHO
    The World Health Organisation (WHO), in its latest report Saturday said the number of Ebola virus cases has exceeded 10,000, with 4,922 deaths....

    Ebola cases exceed 10,000: WHO

    As A Bad Virus Reaches The Big City, Some Questions And Answers About Hazards From Ebola

    As A Bad Virus Reaches The Big City, Some Questions And Answers About Hazards From Ebola
    NEW YORK - Now that a doctor in New York has been diagnosed with Ebola, health officials are once again stressing that the virus poses little risk in the U.S.

    As A Bad Virus Reaches The Big City, Some Questions And Answers About Hazards From Ebola