xyltiol

I saw a report in major media sites recently that the Cleveland Clinic did a study that found that xylitol, the artificial sweetener, doubles one's chances of a heart attack or stroke, in large amounts.

I believe that people taking statins and diabetics have dry mouth problems, and so there may be members on this forum using xylitol products to help dry mouth.  I use it because of having Sjogren's Syndrome, chewing xylitol gum after lunch at work to clean my teeth, and then eat Ice Chips candies after supper.  So I wondered if I had to quit consuming xylitol.  I know that one study does not necessarily mean that something is bad, but...it can make you doubt.

So I messaged my primary care doctor, and he said I should consult my cardiologist.  I messaged the latter and his nurse practitioner said I should consult my primary care doctor.  Talk about a vicious circle!  

So failing firm advice, my plan is to use the xylitol products in limited amounts, and not eat the candy with abandon like I was doing (the salted caramel Ice Chips are so good.)  Two pieces of Ice Chips have 2 g of xylitol, in the study they fed volunteers 30g.

If you want to read the news release from the CC, I can't provide a link here, due to the crazy browser on my laptop, it refuses to paste a URL.  Just google "cleveland clinic xylitol" and it comes up on top of the hits.

I guess I'm posting this as a heads-up for forum members with dry mouth who might use xylitol, and also as an example of the difficulty of communicating between primary care doctors and specialists. 

 

2 Comments

Xylitol

by Rch - 2024-06-14 02:26:50

Hi

Xylitol belongs to the family of carbohydrates like table sugar and is pro-inflammatory! If you use it to help with your dry mouth from Sjogrens, you might look into other teatment modalities for dry mouth. Please discuss with your Rheumatologust. 

dry mouth

by Gemita - 2024-06-14 04:13:44

Thank you so much for sharing this with us Lillian.  Dry mouth is a problem for many of us on prescription meds, so I do understand your dilemma. 

I tend to take sips of tepid water throughout the day.  I don’t drink caffeine (particularly coffee) or alcohol which can both act as diuretics causing frequent urination, leading to dehydration.  I avoid taking anti histamines and decongestants too which tend to be dehydrating.  I try to breathe through my nose, not through my mouth.

It is frustrating I know running from one doctor to another for answers.  Most general doctors will always refer us back to our main consultant for a final decision on stopping, starting, changing medication dosages, but that doesn't always happen or happen quickly enough, leaving us as I well know, to take action.

I can get a very dry mouth from my beta blocker but I don’t drink enough water, so feel my problem is more related to dehydration.  More than 95% of the population burden of dry mouth arises as a result of medication use (see link below that should be copied and pasted into your general browser to open), so review of our meds and/or stopping one of more of these, might also help too.  I would seek advice from your Rheumatologist, Cardiologist and general doctor to find a plan that works best for you

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8544708/

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