OH MY –
June 6, 2024 – The popular sugar substitute xylitol, commonly used by those wanting to lose weight or who are diabetic, is associated with an increased risk of a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack and stroke, according to a study published in the European Heart Journal. Researchers found that those who had suffered a cardiovascular event had high blood levels of xylitol.
Researchers also studied xylitol’s effect on clotting using human whole blood and platelets, and found that xylitol caused platelets in the blood to clot. They then tested how fast the blood clots in the presence of xylitol on mice models, by injuring the animal’s carotid artery, and found xylitol enhanced the rate of clot formation at the sites of arterial injury. Blood clots that travel to the arteries or veins in the body’s organs such as the heart can cause heart attacks, strokes and even death.
In another study, researchers tested blood-clotting susceptibility by collecting blood from 10 healthy volunteers before and 30 minutes after drinking a xylitol-sweetened drink. Ten other volunteers were given a glucose- or sugar-sweetened drink. Researchers found that those who drank the xylitol beverage showed a marked increase in clotting ability of their blood right after they ingested it. No change in blood clotting ability was found in subjects who had ingested the glucose. “I think we have to figure out whether or not this is something that is a common behavior of all the sugar alcohols versus just a subset,”…
