{"id":667696,"date":"2026-09-01T23:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T23:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/667696\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T23:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T23:08:14","slug":"popular-sweetener-may-raise-heart-attack-or-stroke-risk-new-study-suggests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/667696\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular sweetener may raise heart attack or stroke risk, new study suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Popular sweetener may raise heart attack or stroke risk, new study suggests<\/p>\n

\"Brian<\/p>\n

A popular artificial sweetener used in chewing gums and jams has been linked to potentially dangerous heart risks, a new study suggests. <\/p>\n

Higher levels of xylitol in the blood were associated with a greater risk of heart attack and stroke, according to new research presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2026 in Germany this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Xylitol is a sugar alcohol used as a lower-calorie sweetener and found naturally in small amounts in some fruits and vegetables. It is commonly added to sugar-free gum, mints, candy, baked goods, drinks, toothpaste and mouthwash.<\/p>\n

Related video above | Doctor discusses study raising questions about common sugar substitute<\/strong><\/p>\n

Researchers collected data from 17,710 participants in Canada and Europe, comparing people with the highest xylitol levels with those who had the lowest levels. <\/p>\n

In the Canadian group, people with the highest levels had a 57% higher risk of a major cardiovascular event over six years. In the European group, the risk was 18% higher over 30 years.<\/p>\n

The researchers also found<\/a> that the risk generally rose as xylitol levels increased. The link remained after accounting for factors such as age, sex, smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol and weight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn previous studies, we showed that xylitol can enhance the ability of platelets to form clots,\u201d said presenter Doctor Marco Witkowski <\/a>of Charit\u00e9 University Hospital in Berlin. \u201cWe also found that high blood levels of xylitol were linked to cardiovascular events in high-risk individuals over a 3-year period. Here we studied if xylitol increases cardiovascular events in a larger sample of the general population over much longer follow-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study shows a link between xylitol levels and cardiovascular events, but it does not prove that xylitol causes heart attacks or strokes. Because the study was observational, the researchers say more work is needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cArtificial sweeteners are consumed by people who think they are healthier than sugar and they are generally regarded as safe by regulatory agencies,\u201d Doctor Witkowski said. \u201cOur 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Dan Atar of the ESC Communication Committee said the findings also need to be studied further. \u201cAs with all observational studies, causalities are difficult to infer, but this work shows that further studies are mandated into this societally important topic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Popular sweetener may raise heart attack or stroke risk, new study suggests A popular artificial sweetener used in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[269383,9778,18,281934,187631,135,6424,281933,281931,19,17,84288,281930,14531,237,281932,11407,37606,115829,1002,281929],"class_list":["post-667696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-artificial-sweetener","tag-doctor","tag-eire","tag-great-risk","tag-gum","tag-health","tag-heart-attack","tag-high-level","tag-high-xylitol-level","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-link","tag-major-cardiovascular-event","tag-new-study","tag-people","tag-popular-sweetener","tag-researcher","tag-stroke-risk","tag-strokes","tag-study","tag-xylitol"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117198304535560190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}