Overview
- Researchers from Charité pooled data on 17,710 people from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging and EPIC‑Norfolk and reported at the European Society of Cardiology that those with the highest blood xylitol had a 57% higher risk of a major cardiovascular event over six years and an 18% higher risk over 30 years.
- The association showed a dose‑response pattern and remained after adjusting for common risk factors, including age, sex, body mass index, high blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol levels.
- Earlier laboratory work by the same team found that xylitol can increase platelet clotting, which offers a plausible mechanism linking higher xylitol levels to thrombotic events such as heart attack and stroke.
- The findings are observational conference results that have not yet been peer‑reviewed, so they cannot prove that xylitol causes heart disease and may be affected by residual confounding or measurement limits.
- Xylitol is widely used in chewing gum, toothpaste and many foods, so the researchers say their results warrant replication, mechanistic study and possible regulatory and consumer scrutiny before changes to public guidance are made.