What are your kids drinking? Are they consuming large amounts of sugary sodas or some of the high caffeine energy drinks on the market today? It's well known that the younger generation's problem with obesity stems largely from their eating and drinking habits coupled along with lack of exercise. Things like the fast food industry, vending machines at schools have made it too easy for kids to acquire bad eating and drinking habits. Kids are now turning to the latest trend of energy drinks with the idea that it will be a healthier choice for them. This may not be the case Energy drinks beverages like Red Bull, Venom, Adrenaline Rush, 180, ISO Sprint, and Whoopass, contain large doses of caffeine and other stimulants like ephedrine or guarana. Energy drinks may contain as much as 80 mg of caffeine, the equivalent of a cup of coffee. Compared to the 37 mg. of caffeine in a Mountain Dew, or the 23 mg. in a Coca-Cola Classic, that's a big punch. These drinks are marketed to people under 30, especially to college students, and are widely available both on and off campus. Individual responses to caffeine vary, and these drinks should be treated carefully because of how powerful they are. Energy drinks' stimulating properties can boost the heart rate and blood pressure (sometimes to the point of palpitations), dehydrate the body, and, like other stimulants, prevent sleep. Energy drinks should not be used while exercising as the combination of fluid loss from sweating and the diuretic quality of the caffeine can leave the user severely dehydrated. Some young people use energy drinks as mixers with alcohol. This combination can be extremely dangerous. The stimulant effect can give the person the impression they're not impaired. No matter how alert they feel, their blood alcohol concentration is the same as it would be without the energy drink. Once the stimulant effect wears off, the depressant effects of the alcohol will remain and could cause vomiting while asleep or respiratory depression. Both energy drinks and alcohol are very dehydrating (the caffeine in energy drinks is a diuretic). Dehydration can hinder the body's ability to metabolize alcohol and will increase the toxicity, and therefore, the hangover. Dr. Michael Hirt, a California physician, is more worried about the smaller number of drinks that contain the drug ephedrine, a stimulant occasionally used in energy drinks that is also included in decongestants. Combined with caffeine, he says, ephedrine has been proven to cause deadly heart problems. Many drinks also contain guarana or extract from its seeds, yet another source of caffeine. "It just becomes more of a witches brew. You're playing with things that we don't really understand and the long-term consequences are unclear," says Hirt, medical director at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center in Encino, Calif. |
