   | | Public Health |  | | Story of the Week | August 06, 2008 | | Why they are bad news for your health | By Mike Magee, MD Had a so-called “energy drink” lately? If so, you are like millions of Americans, who make these liquids a part of their weekly diet. In terms of product growth, the story of energy drinks is quite amazing. They are a $3.4 billion a year industry that grew by 80% between 2004 and 2005, with names like Red Bull, Adrenaline Rush, Power House, Atomic Energy, Monster, Rockstar, and believe it or not, Cocaine.
In 2006, more than 500 new varieties were introduced worldwide, and nearly 8 million U.S. teens call themselves customers. So what’s in the stuff? First and foremost, energy drinks include caffeine -- 80 mg of it in Red Bull. By comparison, that’s about what you’ll find in an average-strength cup of coffee, but more than the amount in a can of Mountain Dew, which has 55 mg of caffeine, or a can of Coke, with 23 mg.
But some other drinks have outrageous levels of caffeine. The prize has to go to Redux Beverages, which marketed Cocaine, an 8.4-ounce drink containing a whopping 280 mg of caffeine. Its inventor, James Kirby, termed it a “legal alternative” and a “fruity, atomic fireball.” He called it an energy drink with a fun name and said, “As soon as people look at the can, they smile.”
But a lot of other people aren’t smiling. There are just too many health concerns with energy drinks.
First, their use during pregnancy is dangerous. Most experts recommend a daily limit of 300mg of caffeine during pregnancy, making a high-caffeine energy drink a very bad idea.
The second major concern is the use of energy drinks in association with sports and exercise. The problem is that they’re dehydrators. The concentration of sugar in energy drinks is really the problem here. High levels of carbohydrates, in the form of glucose, slow the body’s absorption of water, which reinforces dehydration. In other words, energy drinks are not suitable for use during or after exercise.
The third concern is perhaps the greatest of the three, and that is the use of energy drinks with alcohol, usually vodka. Taste is often not the primary attraction here. Rather, drinkers -- most of them young -- feel the mixture of caffeine with alcohol cancels out some of the negative effects of drunkenness, allowing them to stay out longer and consume additional alcohol. This is very dangerous
Among the things we could do to lessen the dangers of energy drinks is including warning labels on them. Meantime, be cautious of how much of this popular liquid you drink.
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