Just because you drink diet soda, doesn’t mean you are safe from disease causing ill effects of your food choice. According to a new study released by the University of Miami school of medicine, at the American Stroke Association’s national 2011 conference in Los Angeles, Researchers found that even if you drank one diet soda day, you had a 61% increase rate of heart attacks and strokes! Additionally, there is evidence that drinking these sugary drinks even if they have no calories, fool the body into increasing its demand for caloric intake and ultimately people become even more obese than if they drank the regular sugary sodas.
In the second study, the multiethnic Northern Manhattan Study which involved 2657 people, scientists found that high salt intake was an independent risk factor for a dramatic increase risk of ischemic strokes in which a blood vessel blockage cuts off blood flow to the brain. This is the most common form of stroke and accounts for 90% of the strokes that occur and the remaining 10% are hemorrhagic strokes in which the blood vessel pops and the leaking blood kills any brain cells that it contacts. It’s important to get a CT scan within the first 90 min. of someone having symptoms of a stroke to determine if it is ischemic or not because if it is ischemic, they may be a candidate for clotbusting drugs. If these drugs are given to people with a hemorrhagic stroke, it will actually make the stroke worse.
People who consume more than 4000 mg of sodium per day have twice the risk of stroke compared to those consuming less than 1500 mg a day. The average follow-up time was 9.3 years average age of the study participants was 69 years old. Even after correcting for patients metabolic syndrome, peripheral vascular disease, and heart disease history the increase rate of stroke was 48%. Only one third of participants meet current US dietary guidelines which recommend sodium intake below 2300 mg or about 1 teaspoon of salt. Only 12% of subjects met the American Heart Association’s recommendation to consume less than 1500 mg a day. The average intake was 3031 mg per day. The moral is: high sodium intake is a risk factor for ischemic stroke among those with high blood pressure as well as those without high blood pressure.
For more information, click on the following links: American Heart Association or American Stroke Association’s or this link to University of Miami’s website: http://med.miami.edu/news/miller-school-researchers-link-diet-soda-and-salt-to-cardiovascular-risk
NutraMetrix
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn