Doctors Say Beware Of Overusing Energy Drinks
Energy drinks are everywhere these days. You can even see them in vending machines at your local high schools and sadly even in lower grades. The question is; should kids…
Alkaline Battery on Fire.
Energy drinks are everywhere these days. You can even see them in vending machines at your local high schools and sadly even in lower grades. The question is; should kids even be drinking them? Energy drinks are loaded with caffeine that supplies their "energy" and that is precisely the problem with them.
Too much caffeine? It's one thing to have an occasional energy drink before a sporting event or for a quick boost to get your day going. However, it is becoming too commonplace to see people drink them all day, every day.
Coming from someone like me who used to drink upwards of 6 cups of coffee a day, trust me when I say that there are definitely bad side effects from too much caffeine.
A couple of years ago I noticed that my blood pressure was elevated throughout most of the day even though I was taking a low dose medicine for it. My doctor was concerned but couldn't come up with a reason why it was so high suddenly.
I did my own research on the reasons for high blood pressure and saw that indeed caffeine can elevate your blood pressure to dangerous degrees. Thinking that might be the case with me, I decided then and there that I would switch to decaffeinated coffee.
Before long my blood pressure came down to manageable numbers and now I rarely drink caffeine coffee. Surprisingly I have gotten used to it and have found that I have plenty of energy to get up at 3:21 AM every day and get ready to host a morning radio show. After all, look at all the energy you had as a kid before you ever had a cup of coffee (assuming it wasn't just a sugar high of course)
Let this be a lesson to people that might be overdoing the consumption of energy drinks.
Doctors are warning that heavy energy drink consumption may increase heart disease and stroke risk after treating a healthy man in his 50s who suffered a stroke. The patient consumed eight energy drinks daily, totaling 1,200mg of caffeine per day, three times the recommended 400mg maximum.
His blood pressure measured 254/150mmHg upon hospital admission, which doctors called extremely high. Medication failed to control his blood pressure until he stopped drinking energy drinks, after which it returned to normal without drugs. “I obviously wasn’t aware of the dangers drinking energy drinks were causing to myself. [I] have been left with numbness [in my] left-hand side hand and fingers, foot and toes even after eight years,” the patient said anonymously.
The case, published in BMJ Case Reports, prompted calls for tighter regulation of energy drink sales and advertising. (Story URL)
