What is the harm of energy drinks and who should not drink them
Miscellaneous / / August 12, 2022
It all depends on your age, presence of diseases and diet.
What is included in energy drinks
The main ingredient in any energy drink is caffeine. This substance has a stimulating effect on the nervous system, provides vigor and improves concentration.
Depending on the brand in a large jar of energy drinks (∼ 450 ml) containedEnergy Drinks / National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health about 150 mg caffeine (70–240 mg). This is about twice as much as in a glass of brewed coffee.
Most often, these drinks are quite sweet. big jar containsEnergy Drinks / National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health 54 to 62 grams of sugar, although low-calorie options with sweeteners are also available.
In addition, manufacturers complementA. A. Alsunni. Energy Drink Consumption: Beneficial and Adverse Health Effects / International journal of health sciences energy with other components like plant extracts and vitamins. Often in the composition you can see taurine, vitamin B, ginseng, guarana, yerba mate, yohimbe, creatine, gingko biloba, bitter orange.
These substances are designed to provide an additional stimulating effect, but it is impossible to say for sure whether they are doing their job. Studies on such supplements do not take into account their combination with other components of the energy drink, and manufacturers do not always indicate the amount of stimulants in their formulas.
What harm can energy do?
The combination of a large amount of caffeine and sugar can affect the health of various systems and organs.
Disrupt the work of the heart
Due to caffeine and other stimulants, energy increases heart rate and blood pressure. Excessive consumption of these drinks maybeM. Goldfarb, C. Tellier, G. Thanassoulis. Review of published cases of adverse cardiovascular events after ingestion of energy drinks / The American journal of cardiology cause arrhythmia and even lead to cardiac arrest.
At the same time, it is not at all necessary to have problems with the work of the organs. In one study noticedM. Goldfarb, C. Tellier, G. Thanassoulis. Review of published cases of adverse cardiovascular events after ingestion of energy drinks / The American journal of cardiologythat out of 17 people affected by the use of energy drinks, only one had a pathology of the cardiovascular system, while the rest were healthy.
Invigorating drinks can harm even very young people. For example, there was describedJ. R. D. Rocco, A. During, P. J. Morelli. Atrial fibrillation in healthy adolescents after highly caffeinated beverage consumption: two case reports / Journal of Medical Care Reports a case of atrial fibrillation in two healthy boys aged 14 and 16.
In addition to acute cases, energy drinks can also harm the heart in the long run. Scientists discoveredPommerening MJ, Cardenas JC, Radwan ZA, Wade CE, Holcomb JB, Cotton BA. Hypercoagulability after energy drink consumption. Journal of Surgical Researchthat consumption of invigorating drinks can reduce vascular endothelial function and stimulate platelet aggregation. In the long run, this increases the risk of blood clots.
Negatively affect the nervous system
Drinking several cans of energy drinks in a short period of time can lead to caffeine intoxication. Her symptoms includeC. J. Reissig, E. C. Strain, R. R. Griffithsb. Caffeinated Energy Drinks - A Growing Problem / Drug Alcohol Depend anxiety, insomnia, tachycardia, digestive disorders, tremors, muscle cramps and restlessness.
Due to excessive stimulation of the cerebral cortex, high doses of caffeine also mayEspinosa JC, Sobrino MF. Caffeine and headache: specific remarks. neurologia cause chronic headaches.
Moreover, in one study discoveredZeidán‑Chuliá F, Gelain DP, Kolling EA, Rybarczyk‑Filho JL, Ambrosi P, Resende Terra S, et al. Major components of energy drinks (caffeine, taurine, and guarana) exert cytotoxic effects on human neuronal SH‑SY5Y cells by decreasing reactive oxygen species production. Oxidative medicine and cellular longevitythat the combination of caffeine, taurine and guarana, which is often found in energy drinks, can have a toxic effect on the brain and disrupt the functioning of nerve cells. True, the experiment was carried out not on living people, but “in vitro” - on cells similar to neurons.
As for real life, energy drinks are especially dangerous for teenagers. In one study discoveredKristjansson AL, Sigfusdottir ID, Frost SS, James JE. Adolescent caffeine consumption and self-reported violence and conduct disorder. Journal of youth and adolescence. a direct link between caffeine use and behavioral disorders in young people aged 15–16 years.
Lead to weight gain
Since energy drinks contain a lot of sugar, excessive consumption increasesBedi N, Dewan P, Gupta P. Energy drinks: Potions of illusion. Indian pediatrics risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
For the same reason, invigorating drinks mayGreenblum S, Turnbaugh PJ, Borenstein E. Metagenomic systems biology of the human gut microbiome reveals topological shifts associated with obesity and inflammatory bowel disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. reduce the diversity of beneficial bacteria in the small intestine, which is also fraught with weight gain and the development of metabolic syndrome.
harm the liver
In moderation, energy drinks do not harm the liver, but if you overdo it or add alcohol, the body's main filter may not be able to cope.
For example, there was describedVivekanandarajah A, Ni S, Waked A. Acute hepatitis in a woman following excessive ingestion of an energy drink: a case report. J Med Case Rep. a case where, after consuming 10 cans a day for two weeks, a woman was admitted to the hospital with jaundice, abdominal pain, and elevated liver enzymes. Doctors thought that the key factor was the excessive amount of vitamin B3, which is found in energy drinks and in large doses has hepatotoxicity.
Another case notedHuang B, Kunkel D, El Kabany M. Acute Liver Failure Following One Year of Daily Consumption of a Sugar‑Free Energy Drink. ACG case reports journal. in a report on a 36-year-old man who drank three cans of low-calorie energy drinks over the course of a year. True, he also drank a lot of alcohol, so the blow was on two fronts at once.
Cause dehydration and harm the kidneys
Energy drinks are often used during sporting events, as caffeine can improve the performance of athletes. At the same time, this stimulant increasesRiesenhuber A, Boehm M, Posch M, Aufricht C. Diuretic potential of energy drinks. Amino Acids the amount of urine produced and Mora‑Rodriguez R, Pallares JG. Performance outcomes and unwanted side effects associated with energy drinks. nutrition reviews sodium, which can lead to dehydration and electrolyte deficiencies.
Therefore, you should not drink energy drinks during prolonged physical activity, especially during hot conditions.
If you consume such drinks in unreasonably large quantities, you can harm the kidneys. So, one forty-year-old man who drank 6-7 large cans of a famous energy drink a day, after two weeks of such a regime enteredGreene E, Oman K, Lefler M. Energy Drink–Induced Acute Kidney Injury. Annals of Pharmacotherapy hospitalized for acute renal failure.
Ruin tooth enamel
Due to the high acidity and high sugar content, energy drinks poorlyLi H, Zou Y, Ding G. Dietary factors associated with dental erosion: a meta‑analysis. PLOS One affect tooth enamel.
Two studies involving American and Swedish children and adolescents confirmed1. Hasselkvist A, Johansson A, Johansson A‑K. Dental erosion and soft drink consumption in Swedish children and adolescents and the development of a simplified erosion partial recording system. Swedish dental journal
2. Marshall TA, Levy SM, Broffitt B, Warren JJ, Eichenberger-Gilmore JM, Burns TL, et al. Dental caries and beverage consumption in young children. Pediatricsthat erosion and caries are directly related to the amount of sugary drinks in the diet, including energy drinks.
How many energy drinks can you drink so as not to harm your health
There are groups of people who are better off in general refuseEnergy Drinks / Harvard T.H. Chan from drinking these drinks. These include children and adolescents, pregnant women and patients with cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Energy drinks can harm healthy adults only if consumed excessively. As a rule, the labels recommend not to drink more than one can a day, and this is quite justified for two reasons:
- Amount of caffeine. US Food and Drug Administration recommendsCaffeine / Harvard T. H. Chan consume no more than 400 mg per day. In terms of energy - no more than two large cans, and then if this is the only source of this stimulant in the diet.
- Amount of sugar. WHO recommendsWHO calls on countries to reduce sugar intakes among adults and children / World Health Organization build a diet in such a way that sugar makes up no more than 10% of total calories, and ideally no more than 5%. With an average calorie content of 2,000 kcal per day, this will be 50 and 25 g, respectively. To go a little beyond the permitted boundaries, one large jar is enough.
Thus, it is one can of energy per day that is relatively safe for health, but only if you regulate the diet taking it into account: do not eat sugary foods and refuse others stimulants.
If you drink an invigorating drink half an hour after morning coffee, and at lunch you don’t even think about giving up habitual dessert, the energy drink will make you go overboard with both sugar and caffeine, and over time can harm body.
Read also🧐
- How to replace coffee to maintain vigor and improve concentration
- What is useful watermelon and when it can be harmful
- Why Drinking Corvalol Is a Bad Idea
- What happens to your body when you quit caffeine
- What is harmful tea: 6 unexpected conclusions of scientists
Best deals of the week: discounts and promotions from AliExpress, Lamoda and other stores
What to buy to take care of the car body yourself: 11 essential items