Excessive Cola Drinking Causes Muscle Harm

Posted on June 26, 2009 in Health & Medicine

Diet cola addicts beware: drinking several liters of cola-containing beverages can cause muscle harm, due to a chronic depletion of potassium in the body. Greek researchers determined that the depletion could lead to muscle weakness and even paralysis.

Dr. Moses Elisaf and colleagues at the University of Ioannina, Greece found six reports of cola-related potassium deficiency published since 1994. Patients were consuming from two to nine liters a day. The patients required oral or intravenous supplementation of potassium, but recovered quickly after stopping the use of cola products. Muscle complaints ranged from mild weakness to complete paralysis, and all patients had extremely low potassium levels in their blood.

The Greek doctors say that drinking soft drinks in excess is not so uncommon. In an editorial, Dr. Clifford D. Packer at the Louis Stokes Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio writes that “there is very little doubt that tens of millions of people in industrialized countries drink 2-3 L of cola per day.”

Dr. Packer also emphasized that the soft drink industry needs to take responsibility for promoting safe and moderate use of its products.