New Study: Diet Soda May Lead To Increased Risk of Stroke

If you drink two or more diet sodas a day, you could be increasing your risk for stoke and other health issues says a new study.  Diet soda is one of the most popular and lucrative beverages worldwide.  The American Heart and the American Stroke report that drinking two or more artificially flavored sodas could lead to heart issues for women over 50, reports 6abc.com.

The study says that women that are obese and have no history of heart disease have the highest risk.  Approximately 82,000 women were involved in the study, according to Medical Daily.com. 

Diet Coke has been on the market since 1982.  It's so popular that it comes in many different flavors.  How popular are diet sodas?  Popular Science quotes a 2018 consumer survey that says Americans aged 18-49 drink at least one diet soda a day.

How did the researchers come to their conclusion?  Once again from Popular Science:

"The authors did take confounding factors into account. That means the conclusions are after considering the characteristics we already know influence a person’s chances of having a stroke or heart disease, like smoking, poor nutrition, hypertension, diabetes status, and age. Once those elements were controlled for, the authors found that women who consumed two or more artificially sweetened beverages each day were 31 percent more likely to have a stroke, 29 percent more likely to have heart disease, and 16 percent more likely for premature death than the women who either drank one artificially sweetened beverages per week or less."

The authors of the study do not say definitively whether or not diet sodas cause strokes and heart problems.  They do stress that doing things occasionally will not be as detrimental to your health.