A new study in medicine has shown that diet soft drinks are strongly linked to heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular deaths with people regularly having two or more diet soft drinks daily up to 50 per cent more likely to die from heart disease

Though marketed as a viable healthy alternative, artificially sweetened fizzy drinks were linked to a host of health problems.

Regular users were 30 per cent more likely to suffer from what was described as a “cardiovascular event” as compared to those who did not consume the drinks.

Dr. Ankur Vyas of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, lead investigator of the study, said , “Our findings are in line with and extend data from previous studies showing an association between diet drinks and metabolic syndrome,”. This syndrome is associated with a cluster of risk factors including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and weight gain.

The results of the study were presented at the annual scientific session of the American College of Cardiology, Washington.

“We only found an association, so we can’t say that diet drinks cause these problems,” Dr. Vyas said, adding that there may be other factors explaining the apparent connection between diet drink consumption and risk of heart attack and stroke.

More studies need to be conducted to closely assess the risk of diet sodas and cardiovascular risks, if such a connection actually exists.

Previous studies have also suggested a connection between artificially sweetened drinks and weight gain in adults and teens along with a likely increase in metabolic syndrome.