Energy drinks a danger in disguise
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Introduction
Most of the time, people, mostly teenagers and young adults, have a lot to do and too little energy to get through. For instance, a 17-year-old can have sports, lessons, and other curricular responsibilities in a day to attend to and are often tiresome and overwhelming. To get by, one opts to find an easy way of boosting their physical and mental energy to fulfill their expectations. One of the most popular ways of a quick energy boost is the consumption of energy drinks. Its popularity is due to its increased availability in the United States and proof that it relieves fatigue and enhances moods. The main ingredient of energy drinks is caffeine, which is responsible for the sudden energy bust. Other substances such as riboflavin, pyridoxine, taurine, nicotinamide, various herbal derivatives, and other B vitamins are used. These energy drinks include red bull, monster, SPIKE shooter, Jolt Cola, and others. Their consumption, however, is beneficially associated with outmatching health risks (Wolk et al., 2012).
How it works
When consumed, caffeine enters the bloodstream in a span of 8 minutes, triggering a heartbeat and blood pressure rise. In this while, it blocks adenosine pathways, making the body not feel the fatigue, and a sudden energy bust is experienced for not more than 50 minutes. After this, a sugar crush occurs, and the body recalls the feeling of tiredness. The liver corresponds to this occurrence by soaking more sugar into the bloodstream. How energy drinks work in the body is proof enough that they are highly detrimental to consumers’ health. The health adversities involved include cardiovascular, neurologic, hepatic, renal, and psychiatric effects, and if not taken care of, death (Reissig et al., 2010).
Cardiovascular adversities
The cardiovascular complications traced back to the consumption of energy drinks include increased cardiometabolic risk with high intake of sugar, a decrease in cerebral blood flow short-term and blood pressure increases all caused by the presence of caffeine in the system, increased or decreased blood pressure from taurine, unmasked cardiac conditions, such as channelopathies, and atrial and ventral fibrillations. Intake of prescribed medication using energy drinks is also detrimental to the cardiovascular system. A popular trend of mixing alcohol with energy drinks has more than in one case caused death to young adults. African American young adults are at a higher risk of hypertension as compared to any other population due to their elevated daytime systolic and diastolic blood pressure (?nceday?, B., Çopur, Ö. U., Karabacak, A. Ö., & Bekar, E., 2019).
Hepatic adversities
Recently, a healthy 23-year-old woman who was known for consuming at least ten cans of energy drink in a day succumbed to acute hepatitis and liver dysfunction. The high sugar and caffeine intake results in these morbidities and others like jaundice and have severally resulted in death. The most lethal, acute hepatitis can be detected by yellowing of the skin. Consumption of a mix of alcohol and energy drinks hastens the liver failure process.
Renal adversities
When consumed excessively, energy drinks are fatal to the renal system since they reduce the kidney’s capability to hold fluids leading to frequent urination and consequently dehydration. The dehydration causes reduced sweating, which leads to an alarming spike in body temperature, muscle breakdown, heatstroke, and in some cases kidney failure, which is highly dangerous and can cause an acute renal complication and eventually death (Oprea et al., 2019).
Psychiatric and neurologic effects
Several cases of severe anxiety and psychosis have been explained to be due to excessive consumption of energy drinks and subsided upon cessation of the intake. Risk-taking behaviors, caffeine dependence and withdrawal, addiction, and poor sleeping habits are also blamed on energy drink intake. Hemorrhage and seizures are neurological adversities credited to excessive consumption of energy drinks (Oprea et al., 2019).
Problematic combination of alcohol and energy drinks
Ingestion of a mix of alcohol and energy drinks is a popular trend mostly among teenagers. Most of them mix the two to fool their parents or guardians since alcohol consumption is prohibited for underage kids. They, however, do not realize the looming health risk of mixing ethanol and caffeine. Several years ago FDA banned the manufacture of alcoholic energy7 drinks upon realization of the involved dangers. Despite the many warnings, people still hand mix the two. The combination is the highest cause of impairment in the human body (?nceday?, B., Çopur, Ö. U., Karabacak, A. Ö., & Bekar, E., 2019).
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Conclusion
Most importantly, people need to find healthy energy boost alternatives. Consumption of foods rich in carbohydrates, adequate sleep, and exercising will provide the body with adequate energy, and if the situation is dire, one can acquire a prescription. Energy drinks companies need to exercise label prominence whereby the possible side effects are clearly indicated, like on cigarette packs and alcohol bottles. If the consumption of energy drinks is mandatory, one should also consider consuming them in small quantities and not mixing them with alcohol. Energy drinks can be positively effective if consumed in the right way but if the health risks involved are too vicious, avoid them generally (?nceday?, B., Çopur, Ö. U., Karabacak, A. Ö., & Bekar, E., 2019).
References
Effect of energy drink and caffeinated beverage consumption on sleep, mood, and performance in children and adolescents. (n.d.). PubMed.
Oprea, E., Ruta, L. L., & Farcasanu, I. C. (2019). undefined. Sports and Energy Drinks, 65-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-815851-7.00003-6
Reissig, C. J., Strain, E. C., & Griffiths, R. R. (2010). Caffeinated energy drinksA growing problem. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 99(1-3), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2008.08.001
Wolk, B. J., Ganetsky, M., & Babu, K. M. (2012). undefined. Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 24(2), 243-251. https://doi.org/10.1097/mop.0b013e3283506827
?nceday?, B., Çopur, Ö. U., Karabacak, A. Ö., & Bekar, E. (2019). Effect of energy drink and caffeinated beverage consumption on sleep, mood, and performance in children and adolescents. Digital Object Identifier System. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-815851-7.00016-4
