Healthy women who drink two or three diet drinks a day run the risk of developing heart attacks and cardiovascular disease after several years. In later years, the risk of death as a result of such an attack will increase by as much as 50 percent. n = Diet drinks have a similar effect on men, but their risk of cardiovascular disease is slightly lower.
A team of researchers from the University of Iowa set out to investigate the effects of dietary drinks on circulation. This group includes carbonated and non-carbonated drinks containing artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame, sucralose or saccharin. These compounds are supposed to lower the caloric content of the drink and thus reduce the dietary risk of additional, empty calories. Hence, these drinks, often advertised under the slogan of zero calories, are very liked by women. However, the number of people suffering from cardiovascular diseases and at risk of heart attacks has been growing for several years among those who drink it. The researchers set out to see if there was any type of relationship between drinks and this type of disease.
To this end, researchers examined diet, amount and type of beverages consumed, and cardiovascular risk factors in 59,614 women participating in the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study.
Our research confirmed and expanded at the same time the results of previous research analyzes showing the relationship between the metabolic syndrome and diet drinks. For the first time, it was also possible to establish a link between heart attacks, mortality caused by them and the consumption of this type of drink, which is very fashionable. So far, there has always been a lack of data for this, said Dr. Ankur Vyas, who leads the research team, at the 63rd annual conference of the American College of Cardiology.
1-2 a day is a lethal risk
The surveyed women filled out a questionnaire in which they indicated what drinks they had drunk in the last three months. Each drink consumed was converted into standard 0,354 ml bottles and the number of diet drinks, both carbonated and still, was calculated. The participants of the study were divided into four groups: drinking two or more such drinks a day, drinking 5-7 diet drinks a week, drinking 1-4 bottles of this type of drink a week and drinking up to 3 such drinks a month.
The Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study is a long-term study. After 8 years, it was found in almost 10 percent. women in the group drinking two or more drinks a day the concentration of symptoms that indicate serious circulatory problems: ischemic heart disease and congestive heart failure. In this group, heart attacks, ischemic strokes, peripheral arterial diseases, and eventually cardiovascular death began rapidly. All women in this group died of acute circulatory problems.
The relationship between these diseases and the consumption of diet drinks was clear, despite the fact that scientists, disbelieving such a correlation, included in the analysis, inter alia, demographic factors, BMI, smoking, checking the amount of salt consumed, adjustments regarding lifestyle, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol or even drinking sugar-sweetened beverages. It was only possible to establish that the majority of participants in the group who drank two or more diet drinks a day were the youngest, but had a slightly higher proportion of smokers, with hypertension, onset diabetes, and a high BMI than in other groups.
In general, it turned out that women who drink two or more diet drinks a day are burdened by 30% after a few years. a higher risk of serious cardiovascular disease, attacks and strokes than the other three groups tested during the experiment. In postmenopausal age, the risk of death as a result of these diseases will be 50 percent. greater than in other groups. Interestingly, the risk of a fatal heart attack in other study groups is also greater than in women in the control group – not drinking diet drinks or doing it irregularly and rarely.
The problem is clear because, according to another 2009-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, one in five US residents drink one diet drink a day, and this usually affects women.
However, Dr. Vyas says the issue requires more careful study, as the group of young people participating in the experiment was small, most of whom were in or shortly after the menopause.
It is too early to recommend people to change their diet based on these research findings. However, it is necessary to carefully examine this issue and determine the dependence, if they confirm it. It could be of great importance to public health, ‘said Dr Vyas.
Men less at risk
These are not the only studies to warn of the potentially fatal effects of consuming diet drinks. A team of researchers from the University of Miami and Columbia University Medical Center, led by Dr. Hannah Gardener, investigated the relationship between diet, regular drinking of diet drinks and the risk of heart attack, stroke and death from cardiovascular disease. This time, not only women but also men were studied – 2564 people of different ages as part of the state research program Northern Manhattan Study. The program was to determine the causes of heart attacks over the decade, rates and risk groups for such attacks, and determine the dependence of these attacks on the ethnicity and place of residence of the inhabitants of the US East Coast. In the study of risk factors – in this case, diet – researchers also looked at diet drinks, which were a frequently advertised alternative to sugar-sweetened drinks, and consumption of which increased fourfold in major US cities between 2007 and 2012.
The researchers found that among those who drink carbonated and non-carbonated diet drinks every day, the risk of disease and heart attacks is higher by 43 percent. than among those who do not drink such drinks at all. Factors such as BMI, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, salt intake and lifestyle were also taken into account in these studies. A lower degree of risk occurred in those who drink diet drinks in amounts ranging from 1 per month to 3 per week. It was also found that men were less (by 20%) exposed to the risk of drinking diet drinks than women, especially young ones. As in the research of scientists from the University of Iowa, also here the negative effects of consuming diet drinks were revealed slowly – after about 7-8 years.
Scientists admit that they do not know what mechanism works in the case of the relationship between cardiac diseases and the consumption of diet drinks. However, for several years the US food and drug research agency – the FDA – has been conducting in-depth research on sweeteners such as acesulfame and aspartame, which are suspected of being carcinogenic. There may also be new side effects of this type of substance in the case of cardiovascular disease.
Tekst: Marek Mejssner