Energy Drinks?

These highly caffeinated beverages we call "Energy Drinks" didn't hit store shelves until late 1990's/early 2000, but now it's a multi-billion dollar industry. But is now coming under fire for several connected deaths and hospitalizations. In Canada, Red Bull was linked to 3 deaths and 35 having serious side effects. Rockstar was named to four hospitalizations and 13 with Serious side effects. Monster was linked to 5 deaths and 20 hospitalizations, including 14 year old Anais Fourtnier from Maryland who died after drinking two Monsters in a 24 hour period. She reportedly drank one at the local mall, then returned the next day and drank another. She then went into cardiac arrest. An autopsy found that she died of cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity that impeded her heart's ability to pump blood. 5 Hour Energy was cited in 92 reports, including 33 hospitalizations and 13 deaths.

 Are these stories just stories of irresponsible teens or do these Drinks actually pose a threat to your health? Well, let's look at some of the facts. First, Unlike soft drinks, energy drinks are not bound by the FDA guidelines for caffeine in soft drinks so an energy drink often ranges from 160mg (milligram) to 500mg of caffeine a single serving. Consuming over 500mg a day can lead to caffeine addiction, anxiety, irritability, heart problems, headaches and hallucinations. In fact, by definition, Caffeine is a legal psychoactive stimulant Drug that stimulates your central nervous system, respiratory   system and heart. This causes alteration and stimulation of brain function, alertness and increased heart rate.

Studies show that caffeine shows associations, addictive properties and features shared with other psychoactive stimulant drugs such as dependence on alcohol, nicotine, and drugs such as cocaine, morphine, and heroin. Caffeine shows the most similarity to cocaine and reinforces cocaine-seeking behavior, making probability of caffeine dependence on caffeine in the body high. In most Energy Drinks, there is also a free form amino acid named taurine. Taurine is naturally made in the body from the amino acid cysteine, creating all the taurine your body needs Therefore, it's not the taurine itself that's dangerous, but in the energy drinks it's packaged in. Now taurine is produced synthetically and shipped in by the truckload, and put in energy drinks giving yourself an over dose. Because the drinks often act as a diuretic in your body, makes it dangerous, leading to dehydration, to consume one of these before or directly after exercise. As far as adverse effects of taurine on the body, the jury is still out and it's still somewhat of a mixed argument in the medical community. However doctors do say that it's best if people with liver or kidney disease avoid taurine, because it becomes hard for the kidneys to bioaccumulate the excess taurine flowing into the body. The over consumption of taurine may also lead to some medical problems. Doctors also recommend that nursing and pregnant mothers also avoid taurine. Now let's talk about our last ingredient for now, sugar. Now, we all know too much sugar is bad for you, but did you know, according to the USDA, the average person in America eats 156 pounds of added sugar a year? The American Heart Association recommends that for men no for then 36g (that's 9 teaspoons or 150 calories) and for women no more then 34g (that's 6 teaspoons or 100 calories). The sad thing is, most Americans have not clue how much sugar they are consuming on a daily basis. For example, one serving of Red Bull & Monster both have 7 teaspoons, AMP, and Full Throttle  includes 7.5 teaspoons of sugar in a serving & Rockstar energy drink includes 8 teaspoons a serving of sugar. This is not to mention the sugar content in soft drinks, which is almost as bad as energy drink sugar content. Over eating, poor memory formation, learning disorders & depression have all been linked to the overdose of added sugar in the body. Now, we're only beginning to understand the relationship between the chronic intake of added sugar with the brain. What we do know is that having a overdose of added sugar a day, dulls our brain's mechanisms to tell us to stop eating by reducing activity in the anorexigenic oxytocin system, which leads us ultimately to eating more at meals and becoming hungry more often, leading us down the road of overeating. With overeating, comes a whole host of medical problems and issues which I won't go into right now, but long story short, we are slowly killing our selves with added sugar. The sugar over-eating epidemic is no more big of a problem as smoking or alcohol addiction. Next time you go for a pick up from a energy drink I hope you  will think of this first and think: Do I really want to put all this in my body?