Energy Drinks and How They Affect the Body

Today, if you are in the United States of America and between the ages of 12-30 you will know what an Energy Drink is and probably have an opinion about which one is the best. Doctors worry more and more about this health crisis every day and every time a new Red Bull, Monster, Blue Demon or NOS commercial flashes across a television screen. With flashy names, exciting flavor and their popularity it is hard for someone to avoid drinking them. What society doesn’t take into consideration is the important health information. There really isn’t anything good about energy drinks.

Image via Wikipedia

The first thing we need to know is what they can do to your body. The entire theory about energy drinks is they will actually give you energy, and they do. Too much energy and it wears off rapidly causing the human to go into a tired slum. In fact France has banned the ever-so popular drink “Red Bull” because an 18 year old boy died playing basketball after drinking four cans of it. The French government thinks his death, “Sudden Adult Death Syndrome”, was triggered by the high caffeine levels mixed with high blood pressure or anxiety. People can also worsen the effects by mixing energy drinks with alcohol. The energy drink can mask the feeling of being drunk, so you may actually be more intoxicated then you think you are. Imagine that energy wearing off! [Wikipedia] [Alcohol Problems and Solutions] [Medical News Today]

What can cause these health problems? There are many ingredients that cause these problems. The most prominent one is most likely to be caffeine. Caffeine can do many things to the body, including causing seizures to people who suffer from certain forms of epilepsy. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that makes the brain do abnormal activities. It is not curable, but it is possible for epilepsy to go away in time. Energy drinks can contain 80-360 milligrams of caffeine. The limits for a human are 400 milligrams, for a woman or child in reproductive age the limit is only 300 milligrams. If you go over you can get adverse health defects. So, if a person drank more than one, or even one, energy drink, they could be over the limit. Wikipedia says “Unhealthy doses of caffeine can lead to nervousness, irritability, anxiety, tremulousness, muscle twitching (hyperreflexia), insomnia, headaches and respiratory alkalosis.” Other health problems could be addiction or dental problems. If someone gets addicted it will only make all the problems worse. [Wikipedia]

Image via Wikipedia

Energy drinks have a long history. The first one was way back in Scotland around the year 1901. They called it “Irn-Bru” or Iron Bru.  Japan also started early. The Japanese drink “Lipovitan” came around in the early 1960’s. Another interesting fact is these early drinks were bottled in small brown medicine bottles, or cans modeled to look like medicine containers. It is interesting to see that even back then they wanted the people to think that they were good for you and actually did give a good stream of energy with no-strings attached. In 1995 Pepsi launched Josta, the first energy drink in the USA, backed by a large company. That is when an Austrian,  Dietrich Mateschitz, created Red Bull. Red Bull was then introduced into the USA around 1997, where it became a best seller. Its share of the market was 47%! Almost half. 65% of the market now days is people younger than 35 years old, and within that 65% males. [Wikipedia]

There are some things America and other countries can do to help this crisis. They could try to limit the intake of energy drinks and other high caffeine supplements. You, as a person can do some things too. You could watch what you drink, maybe read the nutrition facts about it. The most important thing is understanding what is bad, and what to look for in your drinks. Some of the drinks you may have heard of such as Red Bull, and Monster are actually some of the healthier energy drinks around. The worst one I have been able to find is called Spike Shooter. The warning label even says keep out of reach of children, and that is a good thing because it carries a whopping 1200 milligrams (per liter) of caffeine! It almost has as much caffeine as one of those 5 Hour Energy drinks. A 5 Hour Energy is a super concentrated caffeine drink to extremely boost your energy level.  Another loaded drink is Redline. It was the second most extreme drink I could find with 937 milligrams of caffeine (per liter). If you drank either of those you would already be 2 times over the suggested limit.

Both Images via Wikipedia 

However, there are some good alternatives to drinking energy drinks. One of them is the average soda pop. Even with their bad reputation they are still much better for you than energy drinks. Other than some of their sugar levels, they have less bad ingredients such as caffeine, than most of your energy drinks. Also, do not be fooled if an energy drinks says includes natural ingredients. Not all natural things are good, for example illegal drugs are sometimes “natural.” Tea is also a good alternative and usually have around 200 milligrams of caffeine. Do not consider coffee as that bad either, it can vary quite a bit but it still usually has less caffeine than energy drinks. Do not consider espresso as coffee though! An espresso could have as much as 1700 milligrams of caffeine (per liter). That is more than a 5 Hour Energy drink! [Wikipedia List]

Even with this health crisis continuing to sweep the nation, you should be able to still enjoy the occasional energy drink. If you are the avid energy drink customer than you should probably lay off it for a while. Always keep in mind that energy drinks contain some bad ingredients that can cause you problems if used excessively. Also if you do your part in trying to better America, you should have no problems with drinking energy drinks. So next time you are in that gas station looking for a quick refreshment and you see that enticing energy drink on the shelf, look past it and grab a nice tea. Or even better, water.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. (Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_drinks

2. (Medical News Today)

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/5753.php

3. (Wikipedia List)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_energy_drinks

4. (Alcohol Problems and Solutions) 

http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/HealthIssues/1043185105.html