Researchers analyzing the health habits of thousands of nurses found that women who drank two or more diet sodas daily had a two-fold increase in the risk of a significantly faster drop in their kidneys' ability to filter blood compared with those who drank one or none.

Another analysis by the same pair of Harvard researchers found that eating a lot of salt also hurt kidney's filtering power over time. "While more study is needed, our research suggests that higher sodium and artificially sweetened beverages are associated with a greater rate of decline in kidney function," Dr. Julie Lin, a kidney specialist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said in a statement.

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