Atrial fibrillation risk associated with consumption of sweetened drinks

Consuming sweetened drinks has been linked to Type 2 diabetes and obesity. They have also been increasingly associated with the development of atrial fibrillation, a heart rhythm disorder characterized by irregular and rapid heartbeats. The artificial sweeteners found in these drinks may disrupt normal physiological processes in the body, leading to adverse cardiovascular effects.

“Our study's findings cannot definitively conclude that one beverage poses more health risk than another due to the complexity of our diets and because some people may drink more than one type of beverage,” said lead study author Ningjian Wang, M.D., Ph.D., a researcher at the Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital and Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in Shanghai, China. “However, based on these findings, we recommend that people reduce or even avoid artificially sweetened and sugar-sweetened beverages whenever possible. Do not take it for granted that drinking low-sugar and low-calorie artificially sweetened beverages is healthy, it may pose potential health risks.”

Researchers reviewed data from dietary questionnaires and genetic data for more than 200,000 adults not having atrial fibrillation between 2006 and 2010. During the nearly 10-year follow-up period, there were 9,362 cases of atrial fibrillation among the study participants.

The analysis revealed that consuming more than 2L per week of artificially sweetened beverages was associated with a 20% increased risk of atrial fibrillation while drinking the same amount of sugar-sweetened beverages was linked to a 10% increased risk. However, consuming 1L or less of pure fruit juice per week was associated with an 8% lower risk. Factors such as gender, age, body mass index, diabetes prevalence, and smoking status influenced the association between beverage consumption and atrial fibrillation risk.

“Although the mechanisms linking sweetened beverages and atrial fibrillation risk are still unclear, there are several possible explanations, including insulin resistance and the body’s response to different sweeteners,” Wang said. “Artificial sweeteners in food and beverages mainly include sucralose, aspartame, saccharin and acesulfame.”

“These novel findings on the relationships among atrial fibrillation risk and sugar- and artificially sweetened beverages and pure juice may prompt the development of new prevention strategies by considering decreasing sweetened drinks to help improve heart health,” concluded Wang.

Reference: Ying Sun, Bowei Yu, Yuefeng Yu, Bin Wang, Xiao Tan, Yingli Lu, Yu Wang, Kun Zhang and Ningjian Wang; Journal: Circulation Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology; DOI: 10.1161/CIRCEP.123.012145