The Energy Drink Revolution (part 2)

Energy Drinks 102: The myth of the wide awake drunk

Since energy drinks landed on American soil from Europe, they have grown in popularity exponentially.

Considering that the 12- to 24-year-old demographic is powering this boon to the beverage industry, do hyped-up amounts of caffeine, other stimulants and sweeteners pose a perceivable risk to these young Americans? Energy drink manufacturers do not think so.

In fact, they tout the health benefits of their products. As an example, the makers of Red Bull consider their product a “functional beverage.”

According to their Web site, “Red Bull Energy Drink is a functional beverage with a special formulation and combination of ingredients. It has been specially developed for times of increased mental and physical exertion. In addition, Red Bull vitalizes the body and mind.”

How functional and vitalizing is a beverage if it lands you in the hospital?

According to an October 2006 press release by the American College of Emergency Physicians, a poison center in Chicago reported 250 cases of caffeine overdose, with 12 percent of those requiring hospitalization.

The symptoms reported included insomnia, palpitations, tremors, sweating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, chest pains and neurological symptoms. The average age of the patient? Twenty-one.

A local healthcare expert’s view echoes the dangers disclosed by the American College of Emergency Physicians.

According to Janine Loescher, RD, coordinator for Fallbrook Smiles Project and diabetes educator for Fallbrook Hospital, caffeine intoxication can occur and has caused many deaths and emergency room visits.

Usually, consuming 400 to 500mg, or more, will put you at risk for intoxication. With some energy drinks containing as much as 300mg of caffeine per serving, intoxication is a reality.

Loescher believes that a young person should not ingest more than 2.5 milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of his or her body weight; however, it would be ideal, she states, if children or teens did not consume energy drinks at all due to the potential for health problems.

Unfortunately, many young people combine energy drinks and alcohol. With the risks associated with highly caffeinated drinks, does it make sense to add alcohol?

The long-term side affects of alcohol, a leading cause of death and injury in the United States, are already well known. Among them are liver damage, cancer, birth defects and premature neurological development in young teens.

Therefore, the question remains, does adding alcohol to energy drinks exacerbate these problems? The long-term effects of imbibing large doses of boozed-up, caffeinated drinks are still not known.

However, the short term effects have surfaced and they are disturbing. According to an April 2006 study conducted by the Federal University of Sao Paulo’s Department of Psychobiology, when alcohol is mixed with an energy drink it acts like a mask – hiding the effects of booze.

The charged cocktail reduces a person’s inebriated ability to feel the negative aspects of being drunk: headache, weakness, dry mouth and impairment of motor coordination.

Even though this might seem like an ideal side effect – binge drinking without all the sleepy, sickly side effects – it is also a fool’s cocktail.

This study revealed that because an inebriated person, hyped up on caffeine, cannot acknowledge their own drunken stupor, they are not in complete control of their body. In addition to feeling no drunken pain, a person’s coordination, reflexes and reasoning ability are all compromised.

It is the equivalent of breaking your leg in two places, numbing the area and thinking you can go for a jog. This mix causes a person under the influence to think that they are fine to walk across the street or drive a car – a person is wide awake but not alert.

A different study, conducted by Dr. Mary Claire O’Brien, associate professor of emergency medicine and public health at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, found that students whose alcoholic drink of choice is a caffeinated cocktail will drink more and drink longer, making intoxication inevitable.

Dr. O’Brien presented her conclusion at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in Washington, DC.

Users of alcoholic energy drinks are twice as likely to be hurt or injured, twice as likely to require medical attention and twice as likely to ride with an intoxicated driver as were students who did not consume alcohol mixed with energy drinks, she said.

Also, students who drank alcohol mixed with energy drinks were more than twice as likely to take advantage of someone else sexually and almost twice as likely to be taken advantage of sexually.

This study raises new questions and concerns about alcohol in or added to energy drinks. In addition to the immediate individual health risks of ingesting large amounts of an ‘upper’ mixed with a ‘downer,’ what are the risks to the community?

Drunk drivers inflict enough harm to our community. Do our streets need a young wide-awake-drunk behind the wheel of a car, on a bicycle or a skateboard? The obvious answer is ‘no,’ but more importantly, are the citizens of Fallbrook aware of these risks?

According to a 2005 survey, 21 percent of surveyed seventh-graders in Fallbrook felt that it was “very easy” to obtain alcohol.

The alcohol industry has no qualms about selling a “fool’s cocktail.” They market these drinks to not only look 99 percent identical to their nonalcoholic products, they also market them in such a way as to make them seem glamorous, hip and sexy to the demographic at the foundation of this energy drink revolution.

With statistics like this, and alluring marketing techniques, what is at stake in Fallbrook?

To answer this question, consider this fact: empty alcoholic energy drink cans have been found regularly in trash cans at different schools in Fallbrook.

We are not suggesting that there are intoxicated children attending school. However, the possibility of students sneaking an alcoholic energy drink between classes is real.

A hyper-buzzed student is trickier to spot than a blatantly drunk one. Even though 13-year-olds cannot yet drive, they eventually grow up, and what started out as a young teen testing the limits of authority can evolve into an 18-year-old wide-awake drunk motorist.

Next week: ‘Energy Drinks 103: Through the looking glass into your community.’

Questions and comments on this article may be directed to Vi Dupre at (760) 731-9187 or fallbrookhealth

[email protected].