A Kickstart in the Wrong Direction
It is said to be common knowledge that the average energy drink is not good for the average human being, and personally, I love energy drinks, however lately I started to feel different after I drank my favorite energy drinks. Naturally, I got nervous, and even though I’m currently fine and writing this blog, I decided that I would do a little research to educate the masses on how much energy is too much energy. The first step in finding my answers was figuring out that caffeine can literally cause an overdose, much like an overuse of drugs. Caffeine is also a neurotoxin which means that it could actually make an individual have slower and less efficient brain performance. There are other factors in how much caffeine one can consume in a day other than what they do normally. For example, for those prescribed ADHD medication, any extra caffeine could be life threatening.
If you’re reading this blog, I had hoped by now you’d be scared to pickup another life threatening energy drink. However, as I sit by and enjoy my Rockstar fruit punch flavored energy drink, I have some great news. It is actually extremely difficult to straight up overdose on caffeine. While it is still very possible to overdose, one study from medical daily says that the average 125 pound person would have to consume a total of 107 standard sized cans of Red Bull in order to overdose. This study however does not take into account at what point you would most likely have a heart attack, but to straight overdose and die from energy drinks solely it would take over 100 energy drinks. According to the same study, 200 to 300 mg’s of caffeine is safe for one day. The drink I am drinking right now is 240 milligrams. If only 200 to 300 milligrams are safe why are companies allowed to sell single drinks that fall into that category? In addition to this fact, should the government put a regulation on how old a person should be to buy energy drinks? After all if its safe for an adult to consume 200 to 300 mg’s it cannot be safe for a child to be consuming 240 in one sitting. A child is way more vulnerable to a caffeine induced heart attack. According to caffeine informer out of close to 4,000 calls to poison control regarding energy drinks, 51% of them involved children.
Caffeine is very addictive. In fact, after drinking a lot of caffeine for an extend period of time, caffeine becomes hard to quit and an individual will start to go through withdrawal and lack of functioning without an ample amount of caffeine. Caffeine also causes a number of other health defects like high blood pressure, an increased amount of stress, paranoia, vomiting, and other reactions.
![[Cans of Monster Beverage Corp. energy drinks are arranged for a photograph in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Monday, April 30, 2012. Monster Beverage Corp. surged the most in almost eight years after the Wall Street Journal reported Coca-Cola Co. is in talks to buy the maker of energy drinks. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg] *** [] **DP OUT,OS OUT,HOY OUT**](https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/wp-content/uploads/sites/29639/2015/12/729982011.jpg)
From my own personal studies, I consume too much caffeine a day to keep going at the rate I am now. Now that I have answers and know how much is naturally handleable, I feel safer, but not better. I will be cutting down on my caffeine use and trying to kickstart my life without caffeine.
I don’t know that you can caffeine can cause heart attack! I think many people will think twice about drinking energy drinks after reading this post. I don’t drink coffee or energy drinks, because they don’t actually work on me. But for many people, caffeine is the things that keep them alive, and they need to consume a lot each day. During the final weeks, more people will start to drink a lot of energy drinks, but most of them are healthy young people, so I thin they will survive! Here is the source I found about energy drinks: Are Energy Drinks Bad for You?. according to this site, after drink energy drinks and coffee for a long periods, they actually stop to work on you. You need more caffeine to keep yourself awake. Very interesting topic, thanks for sharing!
I found this post really interesting, as I myself just started to try to cut back on the caffeine I drank. I would drink anywhere from 3-5 cups of coffee a day and it began to effect my sleep cycle and make me jittery and nervous as well. According to webmd.com, caffeine shouldn’t be consumed four to six hours prior to going to sleep. Caffeine can be in soda, tea, chocolate, medication, and various other drinks as well. Some tips on how to kick start your day without caffeine are to exercise and eat foods that provide power and energy!
Here’s a link with more on caffeine and your sleep cycle.
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/news/20011004/12-tips-better-sleep-troubled-times
I was nervous to read this blog post due to my love of energy drinks. My mindset about them is similar (I assume) to that of people who smoke cigarettes: as long as I could avoid coming face to face with the dangers of my habits, I could overcome the hesitation and just do it. I drink them for the same reasons most everyone does, to feel more alert. I never enjoyed the taste of coffee, so this is my alternative of choice.
I think this leads to an interesting discussion revolving around the science of psychology. The reasons to why people do enjoy drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and consuming energy drinks are odd, to say the least. Surely, the rational decision is to ignore the minor benefits of feeling more “alert” or “calm” in favor of living a more heathy lifestyle, yet most people do not practice this rational way of thinking.
I think this discussion relates quite a lot with what we have learned in class, and I’d like to hear your opinion.