Consumption of water instead of coffee, tea, or soda reduces GER symptoms: Study

Boston: Supporting the common commotion that drinking coffee, tea, and/or soda may lead to gastroesophageal reflux (GER) symptoms, such as heartburn or regurgitation, a recent study has found that drinking these beverages indeed leads to an increased risk of GER symptoms. The study, published in journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, further found that drinking water instead of coffee, tea, or soda reduced the risk of GER symptoms.

To assess associations between beverage (tea, coffee and soda) intake and risk for GER symptoms, Andrew T. Chan, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues collected data from the prospective Nurses’ Health Study II from 48,308 women, 42–62 years old, who were free of regular GER symptoms, without cancer, and not taking proton pump inhibitors or H2 receptor agonists.

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Key findings of the study include:

• During 262,641 person-years of follow up, researchers identified 7961 women who reported symptoms of GER once or more per week.


• After multivariable adjustment, hazard ratios (HRs) for women with the highest intake of each beverage (more than 6 servings/day) compared to women with the lowest intake (0 servings/day) were 1.34 for coffee, 1.26 for tea, and 1.29 for soda.


• Similar results were obtained patients were stratified according to caffeine status.


• No association was observed between milk, water, or juice consumption and risk for GER symptoms.


• In a substitution analysis, replacement of 2 servings/day of coffee, tea, or soda with 2 servings of water was associated with reduced risk of GERD symptoms: coffee HR, 0.96; tea HR, 0.96; and soda HR, 0.92.

"In an analysis of data from the prospective Nurses’ Health Study II, intake of coffee, tea, or soda was associated with an increased risk of GER symptoms. In contrast, consumption of water, juice, or milk were not associated with GER symptoms. Drinking water instead of coffee, tea, or soda reduced the risk of GER symptoms," concluded the authors.

The study, "Association Between Beverage Intake and Incidence of Gastroesophageal Reflux Symptoms," is published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.