Energy drinks are often the go-to for people wanting to tackle tiredness , however, new research suggests these drinks could be linked to serious conditions. The beverages often contain high levels of sugar and caffeine . Doctors have now warned that they may trigger a life-threatening condition requiring emergency treatment.
Energy drinks contain caffeine ranging from 80mg to 300mg per serving, compared with 100mg found in a cup of coffee. Many of them also contain other additional ingredients, such as taurine and guarana, which are thought to alter heart rate, blood pressure and other heart functions. The popular drinks can potentially disrupt the heart’s electrical system, increasing the risk of abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmia) which lead to severe health consequences such as a sudden cardiac arrest – where the heart stops beating.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in the US looked at the medical data of 144 patients who had survived a cardiac arrest following emergency treatment. Results found that seven of them, aged between 20 and 42, had consumed an energy drink some time before the life-threatening event, with six requiring electrical shock treatment and one needing manual resuscitation. Peter Schwartz, of the Centre for Cardiac Arrhythmias of Genetic Origin and Laboratory of Cardiovascular Genetics, in Milan, Italy, wrote in an accompanying editorial: “Critics might say of these findings, ‘it’s just an association by chance’.
“We, as well as the Mayo Cl.
