BEVERAGE WITH A BOOST

While energy drinks – such as Red Bull, Monster and Rockstar – originally were marketed to young adults, they are becoming increasing popular with younger consumers. In 2006, about 30 percent of adolescents surveyed reported using energy drinks, an increase of more than 3 million teens in three years.
 

Not only are children and teens attracted to the drinks’ energizing properties, they also like their strong, sweet flavors.
Ben and Abe Lahr, 13, like the taste of energy drinks but rarely buy them because their parents think they are unhealthy. “(We) gotta sneak them,” Ben said.
 

Tommaso Verderame, 17, doesn’t have to sneak energy drinks – his parents often purchase them for him. “I drink Red Bull,” he said. "I'll drink one in the morning and sometimes I'll drink one in the afternoon. I drink them because I need the caffeine.”
Tommaso, a sophomore at Park Tudor, is like a lot of high school and college students who consume energy drinks for a boost to help them get through a late night of homework or just through a hectic day at school. But while a Red Bull or Monster can make a student feel alert and focused, does it also have unintended side effects?
 

Few studies have assessed the long-term effects of energy drinks. But two doctors say the drinks probably are no more harmful than other foods with large doses of caffeine and sugar but should be consumed only in moderation.
 

“People need to be savvy about understanding what they are putting into their bodies,” said Dr. Richard Church, senior toxicology fellow in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worchester.  “Kids need to learn how to read product labels. Parents need to be reading the product labels of whatever their kids are taking in.”
 

The main ingredient in any energy drink is caffeine, which stimulates the nervous system. Top sellers Red Bull, Monster and Rockstar have about 10mg of caffeine per ounce (compared to about 3 mg/oz of Coca-Cola Classic and 13mg/oz of brewed coffee). However, the extent of caffeine in energy drinks is not always apparent in reading the nutrition label.
 

 “The label will say ‘caffeine’ and will tell you the certain amount that the drink has in it, but it also list all these other little compounds, like guarana, which have caffeine in them. So they actually increase the amount of caffeine in the drink,” said Church, who has done research on the effects of energy drinks on adolescents.
 

Most energy drinks also have a good deal of sugar in them – an average of about  28 grams per eight ounces, or a little more than is available in Coke Classic.
Meher Ahmad, 17, a Carmel senior, is suspicious of the ingredients in energy drinks and prefers to get her caffeine from coffee. “Energy drinks are chemically altered. It’s not like coffee where it’s grown out of the ground. It’s something that has been made in a factory.”
 

Too much caffeine – whether from energy drinks or from coffee and sodas – can produce side effects in all people, but especially in young people.
“You’re going to feel sort of jittery and anxious. You might feel that your heart’s skipping, like palpitations,” Church said. 

Overuse of caffeine can pose other problems, and regular use can result in a kind of addiction, according to Dr. Daniel Kraft, a physician specializing in adolescent sports medicine at Methodist Sports Medicine in Indianapolis.
  

“It’s not a life-threatening overdose, but if you take too much caffeine, oftentimes it can cause significant side effects, such as sleep deprivation, anxiety, fatigue,” he said. “If you constantly are drinking those drinks and you stop, then you can have some side effects like headaches.”

Church also said regular users might be more addicted to the sensations they feel after drinking caffeinated beverages than to caffeine itself. “The way you feel after drinking it  is something that can really sort of grab onto people and make them want to continue using caffeinated beverages,” he said.
 

Tommaso thinks he’s addicted. He has been drinking Red Bull for two years and reports that if he doesn’t have one in the morning, he’ll come down with a headache. However, he can substitute. “If I have a coffee in the morning, I’ll be fine,” he said.
Neither doctor said such addiction is dangerous. However, large amounts of caffeine can cause serious problems.
 

“People can develop upset stomach, which can lead to continuous nausea and vomiting that can sometimes be very difficult to control in the emergency department with medication,” Church said. “You can actually increase your heart rate quite significantly, so you’ll have a racing heartbeat, which can lead to potentially life-threatening abnormal rhythms in your heart.”
 

Some people also can develop seizures, Church said, “but it’s usually people who have a pre-existing seizure condition.”
Some athletes who use energy drinks also can run into trouble. Some turn to energy drinks to increase their stamina and focus. However, use of such drinks during competition is generally unsafe.
 

 “People use them because they believe that they make them think more clearly and react faster, and athletes think that they help them to not feel tired, to lose that fatigued feeling,” Kraft said. “The problem is that if you drink too much of them, it can cause you to be too anxious and not able to think clearly.”
Another danger is that Energy drinks might make a person dehydrated, a serious complication for athletes.
 

 “If you’re at basketball practice or something like that and you’ve been running up and down for an hour and you’re feeling like you’re dehydrated, you can’t go over and grab a Red Bull or something like that because the caffeine in these energy drinks actually works as what’s called a diuretic, or it’s something that makes you pee more. So you will lose more fluid if you drink these products,” Church said.
 

 Both doctors agree that water and juice are better drinks for young people to consume. However, for most people, occasional consumption of an energy drink is not a cause for concern.
 

“I’m not sure that I would say that (children) should never drink them, but I would definitely say that they should not drink them regularly,” Kraft said.

“In moderation, they are perfectly fine,” Church said. “Caffeinated beverages do a lot of good and are very helpful for a lot of different people, but in excess they can be pretty harmful.”

REPORTERS: William Andrews, 11; Sam Clark, 12; Sam Gabovitch, 12; Aaron Johnson, 11.

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