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Is Cola Bad for Health?
Soft drinks just taste so good because of the favor and sugar added therein. These are favorite drinks of many people especially kids and youngsters. Many have even chosen soft drinks instead of plain water as their daily intake of fluid. In 2007, worldwide annual consumption of soft drinks reached 552 billion liters. This is equivalent to 83 liters per person per year. The figure is expected to reach 95 liters per day by 2012. In the United States, average consumption last year (2008) was 212 liters. It is unarguably that people are consuming more soft drinks than ever before and a number of health issues have already been identified. These include tooth decay, loss of bone mass, and diabetes. However, do you know that excessive intake of soft drinks containing processed sugars and caffeine can give rise to hypokalemia? Hypokalemia is a condition in which the concentration of potassium in the blood is low. The prefix hypo- means low, kal refers to kalium (the Neo-Latin for potassium), and emia means "in the blood." Changes in potassium levels can disrupt the functioning of the body's cardiovascular and neuromuscular systems. Without sufficient level of potassium, the arm and leg muscles cannot move, the heart cannot beat, and the nerves become impaired. 98 percent of the body’s potassium is stored inside the cells.
A very small drop in potassium usually does not cause symptoms. However, a big drop in the level can be life threatening. In some extreme cases, potassium deficiency can even lead to heart failure and profound paralysis. Symptoms of hypokalemia include muscle weakness, cramping, nausea, fatigue, constipation, paralysis (which can include the lungs), palpitations of the heart, and abnormal heart rhythms (dysrhythmia) especially in those people with heart disease. In a recent study, the researchers from the University of Ioannina in Greece reviewed case studies in which patients drank 2 to 9 liters of soda beverages per day, including 2 pregnant women who were admitted to hospital with dangerously low levels of potassium. One of the women complained of fatigue, appetite loss and vomiting, while the other suffered from muscular weakness. The latter had been drinking up to 7 liters of cola per day over the previous 10 months. Both patients recovered rapidly and fully after stopping intake of cola and taking oral or intravenous potassium. The findings of the study, which were published in June 2009 in the International Journal of Clinical Practice, suggested that hypokalemia could be caused by excessive consumption of 3 of the most common ingredients in cola-type drinks, namely glucose, fructose and caffeine. The researchers admitted that the individual role of each of the 3 ingredients of cola in the pathophysiology of hypokalemia has yet been determined and may vary among different patients. However, caffeine intoxication was thought to play the most important role in most of the cases they examined. After seeing the new findings, some health experts even advice doctors to add cola drinks to their checklist of drugs and substances that can cause hypokalemia.
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