Every Rose

When the Boost Flat Lines

As a varsity athlete in it is unacceptable to have an off day.   When your game is off you bring the whole team down with you.  To avoid such situations, athletes today are constantly looking for an extra boost.  In the past few years the energy drink industry has boomed.  There are more energy drinks out right now than anyone can remember.  Just to name a few: Rockstar, Red Bull, Monster, Amp, Crunk, Diesel, Full Throttle, MDX, Pimp juice, Rip it, Vault, and Tab Energy.  They are the latest trend among young people, especially among the athletes.            

The idea among athletes is that these drinks will boost their performance on the field, court, or in the pool by giving them a little extra kick.  What most young people don’t realize is that there is much more in these drinks than a little caffeine.  For example Kim Peterson, a spokeswoman for Red Bull, said the beverage is “uplifting because it contains vitamins and amino acids, such as taurine”, which she says “acts as a metabolic transmitter and additionally has a detoxifying effect and strengthens cardiac contractility." (http://archives.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/diet.fitness/05/29/energy.drinks.02/)  This fact is still under debate between various scientists.  There is a theory that Taurine could actually have a detrimental effect on the heart.  Many of these energy drinks also include Bitter Orange, or citrus aurantium.  Ray Sahelian, M.D., says that with Bitter Orange an “increase in body temperature may occur…. Bitter orange may increase risk of heart irregularities and increase blood pressure…. Long term effects or potential harm from high dose of bitter orange ingestion is still not fully understood.” (http://www.raysahelian.com/bitterorange.html)  With the amount of young people drinking one to two of these drinks in a game, these additives can’t be healthy.  According to health specialist Liz Applegate, "These cans of energy drinks have some enticing, very sexy-sounding claims — that they lift you up, that they give you more energy.  Frankly, they're nothing much more than caffeine in a can with a lot of sugar."  (http://archives.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/diet.fitness/05/29/energy.drinks.02/) And when athletes consume these large, concentrated amounts of sugar, it affects the way that the body can absorb the water that it is taking in           

As a young person involved in competitive sports, these statistics horrify me.  I know that playing a game in a hot, old gym gets me thirsty, but on top of that to not be able to absorb the water I’m taking in!  It scares me to think that harmful ingredients like these listed above can be added to a drink without including the health risks somewhere on the can.  I can understand that the company doesn’t want to lose their customers, but it’s only fair that the consumers are fully aware of what they are ingesting and the harm it can cause them.             

The scarier side of the consumption is the mixing of energy drinks with alcohol.  It has become popular in bars around the country to order a “Red Bull Vodka”.  When someone consumes alcohol their body will respond to it by eventually becoming tired.  This is the signal to stop alcohol consumption.  When people have laced their alcohol with Red Bull, the caffeine counteracts the alcohol, giving people the “buzz” for longer, and prevents them from stopping.  This increases the likelihood of alcohol poisoning and blacking out.  Steve Clarke, the director of the College Alcohol Abuse Prevention Center, commented that "you may feel more alert but actually the alcohol is having the same effect on you. So you might perceive that you are less impaired when in actuality you are not less impaired." (http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/HealthIssues/1043185105.html) This perception of being less impaired can cause the consumer to think they are sober enough to drive which will increase the probability of a car accident. Also there has been research that shows caffeine can cause increased blood pressure and heart palpitations; mixing this with alcohol increases the possibility even further.             

The least the companies could do would be to put a small label on the side of the can that mentions the possibilities.  The current warning on the Red bull can mentions the high amount of caffeine, but it fails to recognize the other possible effects it could have on a person.