People whose blood carried the highest levels of the sweetener xylitol had substantially more heart attacks, strokes and deaths than people with the lowest levels, according to an analysis of nearly 18,000 people presented at a major cardiology meeting in Munich.
The European Society of Cardiology announced the findings ahead of a congress session on nutrition and heart disease. Over six years of follow-up in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, the risk of a major adverse cardiovascular event, defined as death, heart attack or stroke, was 57 percent higher in the top quartile of blood xylitol compared with the bottom, after correcting for age, sex, smoking status, lipid levels, diabetes and hypertension.
