Could baking soda increase the risk of an attack on women?

Elderly women, beware: new research warns that drinking a lot of diet sodas artificially sweetened fruit juices can increase your risk of stroke.

In a study of almost 82,000 postmenopausal women, women who consume two or more diet drinks per day had an overall risk of stroke that was 23% higher than those who consumed less than once a day by week.

Clogged arteries were often the main culprit, with diet-based beverage consumption being linked to an increased 31% risk of ischemic stroke, triggered by a clot, revealed the results of the clots. study.

The author of the study, Yasmin Mossavar-Rahmani, acknowledged that an "association does not imply a causality". But she pointed out that the results were valid even after taking into account the nutritional value of the overall diet of each participant.

Thus, "we can not assume that these dietary drinks are harmless, especially when they are consumed at high levels," said Mossavar-Rahmani.

"The message is that these results give us a break," she added. "We need to do more research on why we see these associations, what are the scientific mechanisms, is there anything about artificial sweetenersfor example, which affect bacteria in the gut and cause health problems? "

Mossavar-Rahmani is an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, with responsibility for health promotion and nutrition research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

The authors of the study pointed out that the American Heart Association (AHA) had recently pointed out the inadequacy of research on the cardiovascular impact of diet sodas. While waiting for the work to be completed, the AHA stated that the jury did not determine whether artificially sweetened beverages were rushing or not. cardiac disease.

In the last study, women were between 50 and 79 years old when they first registered for the Women's Health Initiative between 1993 and 1998.

The investigators monitored the overall health status of all registrants for an average of nearly 12 years. During this period – after three years – all women were asked to indicate how often they consumed diet sodas and fruit diet drinks over a period of three months.

The researchers did not note which brands of artificially sweetened beverages were ingested by women and therefore did not know what artificial sweeteners were being consumed.

That said, nearly two-thirds of women rarely consumed sodas or diet soft drinks, less than once a week or never. Only about 5% were "heavy" consumers of artificially sweetened beverages.

After taking into account various risk factors for stroke, including the state of blood pressure, smoking history, and age, the research team concluded that ## 147 ## ########################################################################################## A high consumption of dietary drinks appeared to be related to cardiovascular risks in several ways.

For example, women who drank at least two dietary drinks a day saw their overall risk of developing heart disease increase by 29%. They were also 16% more likely to die prematurely from any cause.

Some groups had even more difficulties: among obese women and black women with no history of heart disease or Diabetes, a dietary drink habit increased the risk of stroke caused by a clot about twice and four times, respectively, reported the researchers.

The authors of the study indicated that the results would apply or not to younger men or women.

The results were published online February 14 in the journal Stroke.

Lona Sandon is Program Director of the Department of Clinical Nutrition at the Southwestern Medical Center at the University of Texas at Dallas.

She agreed that more research was needed to further explore a possible link between diet and heart disease. But for now, Sandon has given simple advice: whether dietetic or regular, sodas offer no nutritional value other than calories.

"If they replace other beverages, such as 100% fruit or vegetable-based milk and beverages, these women will not benefit from a valuable nutritional intake for the protection of the heart and the body." vascular system, "warned Sandon.

"The nutrition you are missing because you drink artificially sweetened beverages may be the real problem," she said.

A group representing the artificial sweeteners industry has issued another warning about the findings: Many women who drink diet drinks already have weight problems.

"It is likely that the subjects in the study were already at greater health risk and chose low-calorie sweetened beverages to manage their caloric and sugar intake as these products are safe and beneficial for their health. those who manage their weight and blood sugar, "said Robert Rankin. President of the Calorie Control Council.

"The contribution of reverse causality, which means that individuals already at increased risk of stroke and cardiovascular events have chosen low-calorie sweetened beverages, is most likely the cause of the associations presented by these researchers, "the council added in a statement.