ENERGY DRINKS: GIVING WINGS TILL YOU CRASH

A popular advertisement for an energy drink gives wings to the drinker. But like every quick fix this one to flying is often a sure fire way to a crash land. While a whole bunch of today’s urban yuppies swear by their swig of energy drinks, they are often the root cause to many ailments or aggravation of existing conditions like diabetes or hyper tension.

SOME COMMON PROBLEMS OF USING ENERGY DRINKS
While many people use energy drinks to get a kick there is a serious concern about excessive usage. Moderation in consumption of course doesn’t have any major indications. Some of the common afflictions noticed are as below:

• Tachycardia: a condition with increased heart rate leading to palpitations

• Tremors: an affliction associated with spontaneous shaking of the limbs, digits etc., resulting out the neuro-musculoskeletal system being over active

• Agitation: resultant again, of the neural system being hyper excited

• Gastrointestinal upsets

• Cardiac ischemia: this refers to chest pain as a result of short supply of oxygen and glucose to the tissues due to irregular blood supply

• Syncope: commonly called fainting this is resultant of hypoxia or low oxygen supply to the brain

• Paraesthesia: this is a state of intense tingling, pricking or burning of the skin with no long term effect

• Insomnia: the lack of sleep is a typical effect

THE BIOCHEMISTRY OF ENERGY DRINKS
To understand how the energy drinks work and how it may lead to side effects we need to understand the constituents of energy drinks.

Energy drinks primarily comprise of sugar, caffeine, and taurine as their main components. Varying energy drinks have other components like ginseng, carnitine, theanine, inositol etc., sugar free versions have artificial sweeteners like aspartame instead.

Caffeine is a stimulant which tends to stimulate the Central nervous system leading to a heightened sense of awareness, wakefulness, and works on fatigue. A high intake of this leads to some of the above symptoms based around hypertension, tachycardia and tremors or jitters.

Sugar in high doses lead to obesity or may cause diabetes. This may also lead to spike in insulin as reaction which then might lead to a crash and hypoglycemic reactions.

Vitamin B in various forms is available in energy drinks. High intake of niacin may cause skin flushing, while consumption of Pyridoxal based B6 in excess may lead to a skin burning sensation, even to the extent of lesions.

Ginseng is found to contribute to insomnia, tachycardia, and headache.

OTHER CONCERNS
One of the major concerns of energy drinks, particularly for diabetics is the rebound effect. It is often seen that post consumption of energy drinks; due to heightened metabolism there is fall in sugar initially followed by a rebound where the sugar goes up sharply.

Another concern that is made is mixing of energy drinks with alcohol. The effect of energy drinks often mask the effect of alcohol, leading to a person misjudging the level of intoxication.

In 2011 the US has reported about 20,000 visits to the emergency room on account of consumption of energy drinks. Of this as much as 42% has been is as when consumed with alcohol. Thus while a moderated use of energy drinks might really help you fly through stimulation and enhancement of performance, non-moderated and high consumptions is sure to crash land. And in conclusion just as flying is addictive, so also is the consumption of energy drinks addictive on account of the high sugar and caffeine.