Working around people who drink 5 or 6 energy drinks a day for years. Also consume 1 or 2 a day on average.
Keep seeing everyone talk about how dangerous they are, yet nothing about what makes them dangerous.
Edit: Answers to questions.
Wow, thanks for all the info. Amazing feedback!
Based on feedback, I’d like to specify and give some info of my own. To get more detailed info if possible.
Reign energy drinks have 300mg caffeine. I’ve seen people crush a 12 pack in 2 or 3 days. What are the risks they are giving themselves? The sugar-free ones are not usually consumed, but I have some, and they have 200mg caffeine in each.
I also drink those 5 hour energy drinks too but I will substitute 1 5hr drink for 1 energy drink and will never consume more than 3 in a day. Is that still within a healthy limit?
My routine is as follows:
Wake up, eat breakfast within 2 hours. Drink 1 energy booster an hour or 2 after that, and then wait 4-5 hours and drink another. I have a hard stop on all caffeine and sugar 5 hours before bedtime to help get down off the energy high and sleep better.
A lot of people talked about the sugar and the sugar free drinks. Yet, I see a lot of sugar substitutions like Sucralose, Stevia, aspartame, etc… I have no idea if these are better/safer than actual sugar but I do consume sugar free variants from time to time.
I guess a more detailed title would be, as someone with high heart risks, what are the dangerous levels of caffeine, sugar, and sugar substitutes for me to consume?
I’m wondering now if there is anything else in these drinks that could be a harm. I’ve read the labels on the ones I have and I’m seeing “proprietary blend” on several of them. The ingredients listed afterward are vague and little contact is given. Anyone know what is in them?
Edit #2: Info about why I started drinking them and what led to this post.
I work 17 hour days for 15 days straight. I get 7 hours between shifts to shower and sleep. Pretty much go go go till I get days off. The first day or 2, I die and hardly get out of bed.
I started drinking energy drinks to keep me going, but if I drink them on days off, it is because I’m having caffeine withdrawals and a huge headache.
My wife is super worried about me because I have a history of heart disease in my family, and too much could easily do serious damage.
Can I cold turkey quit energy drink? Will it have any effects other than the severe headache I’ve already experienced from trying to refrain?
In: Other
A few anecdotes around energy drinks.
Caffeine on it’s own is not inherently bad. Yes you can get headaches from withdrawals/dehydration, but people are known to drink huge amounts coffee with far less harmful impacts as energy drinks.
The concerns come from being young, as it’s a little unknown if it is more detrimental to less developed bodies, or if it’s the other ingredients as young people tend to go for energy drinks over coffee.
When it comes to sport, it’s thought that energy drinks before exercise is one of the leading causes of heart attacks in young people. Likely because of the increased heart rate. Young people’s hearts should already be able to go quite high for exercise and quickly come back to rest, they don’t need this added boost from the drink.
Another example is from a friend who drank energy drinks a lot, one day they collapsed and now they suffer from fatigue. They’re unable to do any strenuous exercise without being short of breath, even though they’re otherwise fit, healthy and young (27 or 28 when it happened). Again I think it’s a heart issue and the energy drinks created an irregular heartbeat.
It doesn’t seem to be something that’s guaranteed to happen, and it seems if you stop, there’s no long lasting side effects. It’s just that once you go above your bodies breaking point, that’s when the long term damage is done. That breaking point is unknown, because there’s usually no underlying health issues or checks done prior to the breaking point.
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