A doctor has issued a warning about why you should only drink soda 'reasonably and sparingly' after a man ended up collapsing from excessive consumption, causing devastating health effects.
YouTube channel Chubbyemu - which documents medical cases to raise awareness - has revealed what happened when a patient - nicknamed BA - drank seven liters of soda every day for 'at least' a decade.
The patient, a 48-year-old dad, was admitted to the emergency room 'with sudden onset weakness'.
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The doctor explained BA 'was a dad living a normal life' but at the age of 30, he got a new job and his office stocked 'free, unlimited soda for employees to drink'.
Prepare to start looking at those free sodas your office offers a bit differently...
The video explains that BA slowly began to drink more and more soda until it became an addiction - and it had scary impacts on his body.
'The more he drank the thirstier he got'
It's reported BA would 'wake up thirsty' and immediately reach for 'his normal morning soda'.
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"But the more he drank, the thirstier he got. In the bathroom, for the 10th time in two hours."
The dad became 'short of breath' and suffered from stomach pain alongside experiencing 'brain fog' which later caused him to 'stutter and slur his words'.
And ultimately, BA ended up in the hospital, having been found unconscious at his desk.
Devastating health consequences of seven liters of soda everyday for 10 years
BA had gone into a 'diabetic coma' - the sugary nature of the soda having spiked his blood sugar levels 'sky high for at least the last three months'.
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It's reported BA also experienced high blood pressure and high cholesterol too.
However, with BA having not recognized his soda habit as being a potential cause, he didn't mention it to doctors and so was simply told to adopt a healthier diet and start working out.
He did adapt to zero sugar sodas half the time, but after leaving his job, he went and bought multipacks for himself.
And one day, struggling to stand after getting out of bed one morning and urinating frequently again, he ended up collapsing.
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This time, the medical team noticed BA's 'profound muscle weakness' as well as his history of diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol - but they also pinpointed a diagnosis of 'hypokalemia'.
'Life-threatening' consequences
Hypokalemia is a low presence of potassium in the blood and BA's was 'life-threateningly low'.
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And it was later discovered this meant BA's kidneys were 'shutting down' too, alongside his muscles being 'damaged' and 'spilling their contents out' - something known as 'rhabdomyolysis'.
Doctors placed BA on IV fluids but he suffered from a dry mouth and 'massive headache,' ringing up his wife to bring him something to quench his thirst - soda.
His headache and dry mouth went away, but the next day his results showed he still had hypokalemia and had made 15.1 liters of urine despite only having 3.78 liters through the IV.
Water was passing straight through him and his kidneys wasting the potassium doctors were trying to give him. But how could doctors help BA?
A student reportedly spotted BA being delivered sodas from his wife and did some digging, finding out the sweetening and caffeine in the soda 'explained everything happening to BA'.
Why excess sugar and caffeine consumption can be so dangerous
"In the kidneys, huge excess sugar from drinking one to two gallons of soda every day for 10 years can make it harder to absorb water because the water will want to stay with the sugar," the doctor explains.
The other problem is caffeine - 'blocking inhibition' and stopping a molecule in the body from helping to dilate blood vessels to allow more blood to flow through the brain and heart and promote sleep.
The molecule also helps the kidneys hold onto water by reabsorbing sodium, so the caffeine in the sodas caused the sodium to stay in the urine, which led BA to lose so much fluid.
Excess urine led to BA's muscle proteins floating around in his blood, leading to his kidneys shutting down and muscles weakening.
What happened to BA?
Thankfully, medics were able to help him in the end.
BA was told to lay off the sodas and after he did, his blood potassium levels started to normalise, kidney function returned to normal and muscle weakness went away - 'some baseline function achieved again'.
The doctor warns diet soda still has caffeine in it too. And diet caffeine free sodas? Well, they can still pose various risks.
The doctor adds: "So take the study results with what you will. Type 2 diabetes and all its comorbidities like heart problems and nerve damage. Hypokalemia and all its consequences and kidney stones are what we're thinking of when we're speaking of excess chronic soda ingestion."
So, 'consume reasonably and sparingly' but 'if you don't need to put it in your body, don't put it in your body'.
Topics: Food and Drink, Health, YouTube, Social Media
Poppy Bilderbeck