Energy Drinks Bad For the Heart

A new study states that consumption of energy drinks might be bad for the heart, especially for the elderly.

According to the study presented at ESC Congress 2014, energy drinks that mostly contain large amounts of caffeine and offer temporary boost can lead to several adverse health conditions including angina, cardiac arrhythmia and sudden death. Nearly 96 percent of the energy drinks contain caffeine - with a typical 0.25 litre can holding 2 espressos worth of caffeine.

"Caffeine is one of the most potent agonists of the ryanodine receptors and leads to a massive release of calcium within cardiac cells. This can cause arrhythmias, but also has effects on the heart's abilities to contract and to use oxygen. In addition, 52% of drinks contain taurine, 33% have glucuronolactone and two-thirds contain vitamins," said Professor Milou-Daniel Drici from France.

In this study, the researchers analyzed the adverse events that were reported between 2009 January and 2012 November. The investigation was done by 15 specialists that included cardiologists, psychiatrists, neurologists and physiologists. They then compared the findings to data documented in the scientific literature.

They found that intake of 103 energy drinks in France increased by 30 percent between 2009-2011 up to over 30 million trees. More than 40 percent of the energy drinks consumed was of the leading brand and two-third of the drinks were consumed when away from home.

There 257 cases reported to the agency in two years in which 212 gave sufficient data for food and drug safety evaluation. Cardiovascular symptoms were seen in 95 people followed by 74 psychiatric and 7 neurological symptoms. There were 8 cases of cardiac arrest and sudden or unexplained deaths, while 46 of them had heart rhythm disorder, 13 had angina, and 3 reported having hypertension.

Dr Drici said: "We found that 'caffeine syndrome' was the most common problem, occurring in 60 people. It is characterised by a fast heart rate (called tachycardia), tremor, anxiety and headache. Rare but severe adverse events were also associated with these drinks, such as sudden or unexplained death, arrhythmia and heart attack (myocardial infarction). Our literature search confirmed that these conditions can be related to consumption of energy drinks."

The researchers caution the public that one must not consume energy drinks during or after physical exercise. When mixed in alcoholic cocktails, the caffeine helps people overcome the effect of alcohol that eventually leads to a greater intake of caffeine.