As you say I believe the correlation is reverse causality. It's much more likely that people who consume stuff with "artificial" sweetener are already at risk for stroke than the other way around.
If you don't have weight/cardio problems it is weird to consume "sugar-free" stuff and associated because they are almost always worse tasting than the real deal.
To have any importance they would need a big population sample and correct for already existing risks for stroke and I believe they would find that this stuff has very little impact, if any.
But as always, it doesn't cost much to limit consumption, so why not?
To the reader, I strongly and vehemently urge not listening to some rando on the internet (as opposed to the scientists) who asks you to dismiss a study, because the risk-reward calculus here is strongly in favor of not taking the unnecessary risk of brain damage. The rando will not be around to look after you after you get brain damage.
I can not speak to this study, just my own anecdotal experience. I consumed sugar free monsters erythritol for a long time and it now causes pain level 2 in my left temple and visual auras in my left eye if I consume more than two cans in a day its not the 142mg of caffeine before someone suggests it. There is a coconut water at the grocery store that has 20G of erythritol and that will quickly give me a powerful kaleidoscope visual aura that lasts for a couple hours. I can make it go away faster if I lay down in a cool dark room.
Your experience deserves a proper evaluation by a neurologist, including several tests/scans. You don't want to risk seizures down the road - they can cause significant damage and even kill. A proper course of memantine for up to three months probably also won't hurt.
Not dismissing your experience, in fact, quite the opposite:
I think you should talk to some doctors about this; I've never heard of anything like this before, and I know that when odd vision/eye-stuff is concerned, it can sometimes warrant a visit to a neurologist.
I appreciate the input. I just avoid having hard amounts of erythritol as do many others like me. In my experience doctors just give me blank stares, talk fast and send me away. I am pretty much done with the medical business. I will be fine.
My point being that it might not be purely due to erythritol itself, and they're might be something else underlying that only (currently) manifests clearly when exposed to it.
I get it. In my experience with the medial business and especially with the "doctors" in my area this is how it would play out:
- They ask a series of questions trying to determine if the issues are a risk to myself or others.
- If it's serious enough they may do a series of the wrong scans.
- They prescribe me some drugs and send me on my way.
Even if by some bizarre chance I had real neurologists and lets say they find something, then what? Statistically my chances of mortality go up the moment I enter the OR and that is even before they attempt to fix something. If the issue is not getting worse I prefer to accept the risk rather than compounding it by letting people confidently act like they know what they are doing. Now if some day it starts getting worse and especially if it gets in the way of normal daily life then I might consider it but even then I would likely leave the country to get better treatment and reduced risk of mortality. In the mean time I keep an eye on the sub-set of people with the same condition the numbers appear to be growing and see how it plays out for them. As of now I suspect it will play out like tinnitus; in that, it will be loosely studied but nobody will know what to do with it or ever fully understand it.
I know that I sound jaded. I am. That train has left the station. I've been abused by the medical business far too long. In my unwavering opinion the entire thing needs to be completely wiped and re-created by entirely different people but that is a 42 volume set of books for another day.
Evidence in vitro suggests enhanced platelet activity. Plasma levels of erythritol are sustained for >2d above thresholds associated with platelet hyper-reactivity after consumption of realistic doses.
I use artificial sweeteners, but prefer sucralose or anything else to erythritol. I actually don't understand why people still use it (often in 'health food' because it's seen as 'natural'), there are much safer options.
* It does not show human harm, only cellular disruption.
* It uses an unnatural exposure method.
* It builds on epidemiological correlations that may be reverse causality.
* It does not account for systemic factors, metabolism, or adaptive responses.