Important Current News for All on Diet Soft Drink Danger and Hidden Dangers of Antidepressants

#63 2025 The Rowen Report

Dear Subscriber,

There are a few reports in the news that you need to know about, especially in the summer.

I covered soft drinks as rotting your DNA in a very recent post. Now there is news that artificially sweetened soft drinks and foods are a pretty poor alternative. A report presented at a recent conference on nutrition links artificially sweetened beverages with diabetes, just the opposite of what you have been programmed to expect. I post the abstract below for your enjoyment.

I have repeatedly warned for decades on the dangers of these chemicals. Besides the unknown in their direct effects on your body, there never was any evidence they were safer than the sugary drinks. “Diet” soft drinks splashed on the screen and the Fraud and Deception Administration (aka FDA) permitted sales of chemicals such as aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, etc. in products with the corporate makers brainwashing the public to believe they were healthier.

Well, diet sodas and sugar substitutes, at least in this report, are actually associated with greater risk of overt diabetes! One mechanism is that the sweet taste may trigger your pancreas to ready itself for a sugar load. Insulin is made, no sugar arrives, so, so you have to eat to satisfy the blood glucose lowering effect of the insulin. Please do not think you are doing your body any favor by consuming chemicals in place of real sugar, as bad as the latter might be. Your risk of contracting diabetes might double!

Next there ia a report from Britain warning users of certain psychoactive drugs that such drugs might make the user more sensitive to heat problems.

Britons have been warned as temperatures have soared there in recent days.

Here are some of the drugs:

· Antipsychotic medications such as amisulpride (brand name Solian), aripiprazole (Abilify), clozapine (Clozaril, Denzapine, Zaponex), lurasidone (Latuda), olanzapine (Zypadhera, Zyprexa), paliperidone (Invega, Xeplion), quetiapine (Seroquel, Seroquel XL), risperidone (Risperdal, Risperdal Consta), chlorpromazine, flupentixol, and haloperidol

· Tricyclic antidepressants such as amitriptyline, imipramine, doxepin, mianserin, and trazodone

· SSRIs such as sertraline, citalopram, and fluoxetine

These are very commonly used chemicals Pharma has foisted on the population as if we are born with a genetic deficiency of antidepressants.

It appears that these drugs, which act on the central nervous system, may also interfere with a key brain area – the hypothalamus – which helps regulate temperature in your body. You might not be aware of this temperature problem, permitting your body to heat up to the point of heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

Mental Health. UK adds:

“””some medications increase sweating, meaning you are more likely to become dehydrated, while some decrease sweat production.

It continued: “Medications can also impair your ability to think clearly, or simply change your tolerance to hot temperatures.”

Signs of heat exhaustion can include:

· Feeling sick or being sick

· Being very thirsty

· Dizziness

· Tiredness or weakness

· Headache

· Excessive sweating

· A high temperature

· Clammy skin, or a change in skin colour

· Fast breathing or heartbeat

· Cramps in the arms, legs and stomach

· Irritability (particularly in children)

· Delirium (often in older adults)”””

I have seen people with heat exhaustion and heat stroke in the outdoors. It’s not something you want to play around with, so, if you happen to be on these drugs, please be sure that on hot days you are accompanied in case you get affected. Prevention here is priceless. And whatever you do, please don’t bake yourself in the sun for prolonged periods, no matter how relaxing it feels. Your skin could pay a heavy price aside from your risk of overheating. We all need sun, and we will benefit from daily exposure. But at high noon I don’t recommend more than 20 minutes of sun on unprotected skin. I’m far less concerned about sun before 10am and after 2pm adjusted for daylight savings time.

Oh, the British report says that up to 8 million Brits are at risk, meaning they are taking these psychoactive drugs. The population of Britain is about 68 million. Imagine, one in EIGHT of their society are taking mind altering chemicals. What has the world come to? That figure is not too different from the USA where estimates going back many years suggest that some 13% of Americans had taken antidepressants within a 30 day period.

And, if you are on these synthetic petrochemical pharmaceuticals, please know that there may be many alternatives for you. I believe that most users could free themselves of Pharma bondage by following the wonderful precepts of Dr. William Walsh in his book “Nutrient Power”.

To Your Excellent Health!

Robert Jay Rowen, MD

https://cdn.nutrition.org/article/S2475-2991(25)02494-1/pdf

Objectives: The prevalence of diabetes has risen sharply over the past decades. Artificial sweeteners (ArtSw) are widely used as sugar substitutes which have been linked to adverse health outcomes. This study examined the association between ArtSw intake and incident diabetes risk. We hypothesize that higher ArtSw intake increases incident diabetes risk.

Methods: This analysis included 4,654 adults (54.4% female, 50.1% white) enrolled in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study who were mean age 24.9 years at baseline in 1985-86. Dietary intake was assessed by the CARDIA diet history at year 0 (Y0), Y7, and Y20 cumulative average intakes of ArtSw, diet beverage, aspartame, and sucralose were calculated. Diabetes was defined as fasting glucose greater than or equal to 126 mg/dl, OGTT 2-hour glucose greater than or equal to 200 mg/dl, hemoglobin A1C greater than or equal to 6.5%, or use of diabetes medications at follow-up visits. Time-dependent multivariable cox proportional hazard regression models were used to assess associations of incident diabetes across quintiles of ArtSw, diet beverages, aspartame, or sucralose intakes through year 30. Models were adjusted for age, sex, race, field center, education, energy intake, physical activity, smoking status, alcohol drinking, diet quality, and family history of diabetes.

Results: Over a median follow-up of 30 years (691 incident diabetes events), participants in quintile 5 of diet beverage intake had significantly higher risk of developing diabetes compared to those in quintile 1 (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.29; 95% CI: 1.66–3.18; p_trend< 0.001). Positive associations were also observed for intakes of saccharin (HR: 2.10; 95% CI: 1.37–3.21; p_trend=0.013). Adjusting for waist circumference attenuated the associations slightly. Associations were not significant for total ArtSw, sucralose, or aspartame intake with incidence of diabetes.

Conclusions: Higher intakes of diet beverage and saccharin were associated with an increased risk of incident diabetes. These findings highlight the need to evaluate the long-term metabolic effect of ArtSw on glucose metabolism.

Funding Sources: CARDIA is supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.