Xylitol is an alternative sweetener to sugar. (Photo by Darrell Wong/Fresno Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
New research determined that individuals whose blood was found to contain the artificial sweetener xylitol were at a greater risk of suffering major cardiovascular events.
Big picture view:
The analysis was based on data from 17,710 people who were part of either the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) or the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer-Norfolk (EPIC), and compared results over a six-year period as well as a 30-year one, a statement announcing the results indicated.
The backstory:
Researchers undertook this study after previously finding that high blood levels of xylitol were linked to more cardiovascular events in high-risk individuals over a three-year period. This time around, they planned to examine longer time frames and include a larger sample size among the general population, explained Dr. Marco Witkowski, who is with Berlin’s Charité University Hospital.
What they're saying:
"Artificial sweeteners are consumed by people who think they are healthier than sugar and they are generally regarded as safe by regulatory agencies," noted Witkowski. "Our long-term findings in the general population highlight how little we know about the cardiovascular safety of xylitol and indicate that further studies are warranted, especially as the amount of xylitol in products continues to increase."
Timeline:
When researchers looked at the six-year follow-up results, they found those individuals who were in the highest quartile of xylitol levels among the CLSA group had a 57% higher risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, which the study defined as death, myocardial infarction, or stroke, than those in the lowest quartile.
Researchers said they determined that percentage after correcting for other known cardiovascular risk factors, such as age, sex, smoking status, diabetes, and hypertension.
When the timeframe was extended to 30 years, the risk for individuals whose blood levels were in the highest quartile in the EPIC cohort was 18% higher than that of those in the lowest quartile.
Why you should care:
Those results, along with the data from the middle two quartiles, led researchers to conclude that the higher someone’s xylitol blood level is, the higher their cardiovascular event rate. They added that the increase connected with the xylitol was consistent within other characteristic subgroups, like age and sex. It also was independent of underlying factors that included body mass index, hypertension, and diabetes.
What's next:
The results of the research will be presented during the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2026.
The Source: Information for this article was taken from the European Society of Cardiology. This story was reported from Orlando.