Energy drinks ‘are a danger for young’

ENERGY drinks can be ‘dangerous’ for people with heart issues, especially young people who may not know they have one yet, an obesity expert has warned.

This comes following a report by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) about a 21 year-old in the UK who developed heart failure after drinking an ‘excessive’ amount of energy drinks.

Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, Professor Donal O’Shea said the amount of caffeine in energy drinks is ‘really excessive’. ‘Some will have six times what would be in a double espresso, so you are talking about massive quantities,’ he said.

‘Some people have a tendency to develop a rhythm disorder in their heartbeat and caffeine drives that. Most people don’t know they have that, especially young people don’t know they have a rhythm problem. These drinks are dangerous, potentially in that situation.’

According to the BMJ case report, the unnamed 21 year-old student drank four 500ml energy drinks a day for two years. Before being admitted into hospital he suffered shortness of breath as well as weight loss for months. He spent 58 days in hospital and some of that period in intensive care.

Doctors treating him concluded that the ‘energy drink-induced cardiotoxicity’ was the most likely cause. Doctors considered an organ transplant after both his heart and kidneys failed but they linked the kidney failure to another long-standing but undiagnosed health condition.

The student survived the ordeal and contributed to the BMJ’s report. He said: ‘When I was drinking up to four energy drinks per day, I suffered from tremors and heart palpitations, which interfered with my ability to concentrate on daily tasks and my studies at university.’ He said he would also suffer from severe migraines during times when he had not been drinking the energy drinks which restricted him from performing day-to-day tasks.

‘I believe they are very addictive and far too accessible to young children. I think warning labels, similar to smoking, should be made to illustrate the potential dangers of the ingredients in energy drink,’ he said.

Nine months after the ordeal, his heart function has returned to ‘mildly impaired function’, but the report stressed that it was difficult to say how long recovery would take and that there is a potential for relapse.

Prof. O’Shea said that this is a ‘fairly dramatic’ example of the harm that these drinks can cause but stressed: ‘If you are consuming several of these energy drinks a day, start by trying to reduce.’