The other day I was making a rare visit to our local Starbucks to get some Refresh Tea, which is my wife’s favorite tea. The gentleman in front of me ordered a Grande Mocha with four extra shots of espresso. Then I stopped by the local convenience store to fill my car with gas and the lady in front of me was getting her 65 ounce Big Gulp soda. Unfortunately, the consumption of addictive stimulants like caffeine has become normal in our society, and as the demand has increased so has the availability. There is now a Starbucks, Seattle Coffee, or some kind of coffee shack on every corner, and the sheer volume of soda that is being consumed is truly frightening. Fast paced lifestyles, demanding jobs, and the down economy are just a few of the reasons that people are fatigued, stressed out, and just plain overwhelmed. Where a cup of coffee or a can of soda used to be an occasional treat, it now seems to be a daily ritual for the majority of our society. With the recent spike in availability of energy drinks, this trend has taken a frightening turn.  

Energy drinks are marked as a trendy and sporty way to gain an energy boost. Their cool imaging sends a message of endurance and strength, and many people have been duped into thinking that these drinks are actually healthy for their body. Recently on the Anderson Cooper show, a mother told of her 14-year-old daughter dying after going into cardiac arrest as a result of caffeine toxicity. She drank two energy drinks and combined with her heart condition known as mitral valve prolapse, went into a coma and passed away six days later. Energy drinks are being consumed by adults and teens alike to get through a sport event, staying up late for an exam, meeting a deadline at work or any other activity that requires more than usual energy. What they might not be aware of is these drinks can be extremely harmful to your body and carry the risk of long-term side effects. As a physician, a question I always ask my patients is how much caffeine they are consuming and in what form. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released a report finding that emergency room visits associated with the consumption of energy drinks had increased 1,000 percent between 2005 and 2009. The drinks, which sometimes contain more than five times the caffeine of a cup of coffee, sent a total of 1,128 people to ERs in 2005, and by 2009, that number had risen to 13,114, with the highest number (16,055 visits) occurring in 2008. So I feel that it would benefit all of us to take a closer look at the hidden dangers of consuming too much caffeine combined with other stimulants.

Energy drinks are primarily made up of caffeine, sugar, guarana (an herbal stimulant), along with various other herbs, amino acids, and vitamins. These drinks are marketed as a healthy way to gain more energy, focus, alertness, and are the answer if you are experiencing fatigue. They are even promoted as a cool way to counteract the depressant affect of alcohol and therefore have a benefit when consumed with alcohol. However, it is critical that we take a closer look at the potential side effects of consuming these energy drinks and why they have led to such an increase in ER visits for the younger generation.

Caffeine

The primary ingredient that is present in coffee, sodas, and energy drinks is caffeine. The amount of caffeine in these products might surprise you. We all believe that energy drinks are loaded with caffeine, which is true; however, most of us are not aware of the amount of caffeine that is found in just a simple brewed cup of coffee or in eight ounces of soda. The caffeine content of energy drinks can range anywhere from 80 mg to 500 mg per recommended serving. However, note that a Grande Starbucks Coffee has 320 mg of caffeine, and this is just their brewed coffee:

Most health care professionals agree that the safe level of caffeine intake should be somewhere between 100 and 200 mg of caffeine daily. Caffeine is a stimulant to the body and causes your heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature to increase. Caffeine is also a natural diuretic and causes your kidneys to excrete an increased amount of water, which can lead to dehydration. Because it is a stimulant, caffeine has been shown in many studies to disrupt your normal sleeping pattern. Obviously, the reason many individuals choose to drink an energy drink is because they are tired or fatigued. However, this can quickly lead to a disruption in their normal sleeping cycle and lead to even greater tiredness and fatigue. Also the stimulating effect of caffeine has been known to lead to nervousness and irritability and can even lead to a decrease in coordination. Caffeine stimulates the release of glucose from the glycogen stores in the liver, which causes a spike in your blood sugar.

The most serious potential side effect of caffeine is cardiac arrhythmias. Study after study has shown that caffeine can not only cause frequent palpitations, which is the result of an irregular heartbeat, but also, an abnormal rhythm of the heart called atrial fibrillation. I was visiting with a young pilot this past month that had a spontaneous onset of atrial fibrillation and the only thing he had done was drink an energy drink. This resolved spontaneously within a few hours; however, the consequences were extreme because FAA did not allow him to fly for the next six months. It is important to realize that nearly 50% of the ER visits noted in the study above was because the energy drink user experience severe heart palpitations due to the arrhythmia they had caused.

Caffeine has long been known to have an addictive quality. In fact, as your caffeine consumption increases, the stimulatory effect of this substance becomes less and less effective. Therefore, many individuals find themselves needing to take in more and more caffeine via coffee, sodas, or energy drinks to achieve the same effect. This is a typical characteristic of any addictive drug, alcohol, or a product like caffeine. You need to keep increasing the amount you are consuming to get the same stimulatory effect. The addictive quality of caffeine is very apparent when individuals try to quit. I have found in my medical practice that it is not a very wise decision to quit your consumption of caffeine abruptly. This will lead to headache, fatigue, moodiness, and increased irritability. If you decide to quit caffeine or to decrease your consumption of caffeine, you need to do this slowly over a 3 to 4 week period of time in order to avoid most of these side effects.

High Sugar Content

Sugar is definitely a stimulant and this is why it is often added to sodas, coffee drinks, and energy drinks. Sodas and energy drinks are loaded with sugar in the form of sucrose or table sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. There is nearly one hundred grams of sugar in a 32 ounce soda, adding nearly 400 calories to the beverage. The reason sodas and energy drinks contain so much sugar is the fact that a rapidly rising blood sugar also has a stimulatory effect. After all, these drinks are marketed as a way to overcome your fatigue and give you energy.   When you add the fact that caffeine also raises blood sugar by stimulating the release of glucose from the glycogen stores of the liver as was mentioned earlier, your blood sugar will spike even faster. This leads to an overstimulation of insulin which causes your blood sugar to drop almost as fast as it went up. This can lead to low blood sugar or what is referred to as hypoglycemia. Let me explain: our brain thinks on blood sugar and when you have this roller coaster ride of blood sugars you might be stimulated for a short period of time; however, when your blood sugar drops into this hypoglycemic range you can have a shaky weakness and become mentally confused. What most people don’t realize is the fact that a low blood sugar also stimulates the release of your stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline in order to drive the blood sugar back up to normal. At the end of this roller coaster, your blood sugars may have returned to normal, but you still have elevated stress hormones in your blood stream. This leads to what we refer to as an uncontrollable hunger and you have to eat something and you usually desire to eat something that will spike your blood sugar all over again.

This is why it is so common for individuals who choose to drink a Big Gulp or energy drinks experience a significant crash a few hours later. The more you are stimulated by these energy drinks or sodas the worse the crash. Once you understand this vicious cycle, it is just amazing to me that most energy drinks are marketed to serious or professional athletes as way to improve your athletic performance. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not only do you experience highs and lows with energy drinks, but you also can overstimulate your stress hormones that don’t allow you to perform at your optimal level and can lead to a prolonged and difficult recovery. Energy drinks also are a diuretic and will quickly dehydrate the athlete. Any athlete that understands the devastating effects of dehydration on their performance needs to think twice about the use of energy drinks in an attempt to improve their performance. 

Another common use of energy drinks is to mix them with alcohol. If individuals are not purposely mixing them together, they are often consuming alcohol and energy drinks at relatively the same time. Alcohol has a known depressing effect and is also has a diuretic effect. Most individuals are able to feel the alcohol effect and usually make good decisions when they have had too much. However, when alcohol is mixed with energy drinks, the energy drinks counterbalance the depressant effect of alcohol and the individual tends to drink more alcohol than they normally would. The problem is the fact that alcohol’s effect on our judgment, coordination, and reaction time is actually worse because the energy drinks accentuate these problems. Therefore, driving a car under the influence of both the alcohol and energy drinks is very dangerous.

I know how easy it can be to rely on that morning cup of coffee, or the quick pick me up that an energy drink will offer during the afternoon hours, but I hope that you will begin to think twice now that you are aware of the potential consequences of those decisions. Not only is it harmful to your health, but it also is counterproductive. What makes you feel good for an hour or two is the reason you are so tired later in the day and in need of another pick me up. I would encourage you to keep track of the amount of caffeine that you are consuming on a daily basis, and work to lower that to an acceptable range. If you are looking for an alternative option to consuming these harmful and addictive beverages, I think you will like what I have to say next.

The Healthy Alternative—Rejuveniix

Rejuveniix is a nutritional supplement product that has been developed by Ariix. It combines the healthier, natural caffeine from a green coffee bean extract with a multitude of super fruits. The caffeine from the natural green coffee bean extract not only has significant antioxidant properties, but also contains cholorogenic acid, which helps the liver to process fatty acids more efficiently. In comparison, roasted coffee beans contain cafestol and other compounds associated with the negative effects of coffee, which are not found in Rejuveniix. The super fruit blend found in Rejuveniix is acai berry extract, mangosteen extract, Hawaiian noni fruit, lycium berry, maqui berry, along with sea-buckthorne juice powder. All of these super fruits are known to contain very potent antioxidants and when combined together create a synergistic attack on free radicals. Then they use L-theanine and kava kava extract, which are nature’s natural relaxants. L-theanine is an amino acid that does not make you drowsy and instead creates a state of deep relaxation and mental alertness. Kava kava has been used by the people of Polynesia and valued for its sedative effect without disrupting clarity. Therefore, you have the stimulant effect of the natural caffeine that is counterbalanced by the natural relaxation created by L-theanine and the kava kava extract and the sense of well-being that comes from taking this synergistic combination of super fruits.

The wonderful combination of natural caffeine, kava kava, L-theanine and the super fruits provides mental alertness, energy, and an overall sense of well-being. It also prevents the overstimulation and potential crash that can come later from energy drinks. However, what is even as important as to what Rejuveniix contains is what it does not contain. It does not contain the high doses of caffeine, guarana that stimulatory herb, and sugar. Therefore, it is a wonderful product for the serious or professional athlete and will optimize and enhance their athletic performance without any negative effects. It will not cause the crash or let down that is so common with energy drinks. You have a wonderful smooth stimulatory effect that creates mental alertness and energy, and an overall sense of well-being. And best of all it is healthy for you. Ask an Ariix Representative for a sample of this incredible product today.

Dr. Ray Strand, MD has been involved in a private family practice for over 30 years, and has spent the last 16 years of his practice focused on preventive and nutritional medicine. He has written several books on the subject and is also a sought-after public speaker. To learn more about Dr. Strand, and his unique approach to nutritional medicine, visit his Online Medical Practice located at www.HealthConceptsInt.com.

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