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Energy Drinks: Negative Effects & Alleged Deaths

Potential HealthRisks according to this link.

Potential health risks
In 2000, Ross Cooney, a healthy, 18 year old basketball player from Limerick, Ireland died after sharing four cans of the drink before a gaelic football game. An inquiry into his death ruled that he died from Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome and the connection to Red Bull was inconclusive.

In 2001, the drink was investigated by the Swedish National Food Administration after being linked to the deaths of three consumers. It has been subject to a number of other health scares regarding glucuronolactone, a precursor of taurine. Sale of Red Bull as a normal soft drink is prohibited in Denmark, Norway, and France. Due to the link with taurine, local authorities categorized Red Bull as a medicine and suggest customers ask for medical advice before drinking.

The official imported Canadian Red Bull is a caffeinated version of Thai Krating Daeng. Until late 2004, its sale was prohibited in Canada. Now a can must carry a warning label that says:

"Cautions: Contains caffeine. Not recommended for children, pregnant or breast-feeding women, caffeine sensitive persons or to be mixed with alcohol. Do not consume more than 500 ml per day."
However, no such warning label is present on cans sold in the U.S., though people who consume the beverage in excess (more than 2-5 250ml cans in a 24-hour period) have been known to express discomfort, such as nausea, stomach pains, gas, and/or sleeplessness.

Doctors and nutritionists have warned of the dangers of mixing caffeine and alcohol in excessive quantities. Their warnings, however, are mostly unheeded as people who appreciate alcoholic beverages feel strongly that the benefits of mixing Red Bull with alcohol far outweigh the risks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Bull

Says not to mix it with alcohol but thats a popular way of drinking it.
 
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It's worth remembering that snake oil marketing of "energy drinks" isn't a completely new phenomenon.

One of the most dramatic victims of the radium craze was Eben Byers, whose demise was caused by his heavy use of an alleged "energy drink" (as we'd call it today) named Radithor.

Radithor's label proclaimed it to be "CERTIFIED Radioactive Water" containing "Radium and Mesothorium in Triple Distilled Water."

Radithor was manufactured from 1918 to 1928 by the Bailey Radium Laboratories, Inc., of East Orange, New Jersey. The owner of the company and head of the laboratories was listed as William J. A. Bailey, a dropout from Harvard College, who was not a medical doctor. It was advertised as "A Cure for the Living Dead" as well as "Perpetual Sunshine". The expensive product was claimed to cure impotence, among other ills.

Eben Byers, a wealthy American socialite, athlete, industrialist and Yale College graduate, died from Radithor radium poisoning in 1932.[5] Byers was buried in a lead-lined coffin; when exhumed in 1965 for study, his remains were still highly radioactive. ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor

See Also:

https://web.archive.org/web/2010120...exhibit/neighborhoods/northside/nor_n106.html
https://theconversation.com/when-energy-drinks-actually-contained-radioactive-energy-67976
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eben_Byers
 
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This Snopes article examines claims that Red Bull is dangerous and can cause medical problems including brain tumors.

Red Bull Is Dangerous?
Does Red Bull contain a dangerous stimulant linked to the formation of brain tumors?

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bull-marketed/
 
This man's energy drink (i.e., caffeine) habit led to hospitalization with both heart and kidney failure.
Man's energy drink habit lands him in the hospital with heart failure

A young man's heart problems may have been triggered by his excessive consumption of energy drinks — he ended up in the hospital with heart failure after consuming four energy drinks per day for two years, according to a new report of the case.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence linking energy drink consumption with heart problems, leading the authors to call for warnings about the dangers of drinking these beverages in large amounts.

The 21-year-old man went to the hospital after he experienced progressively worse shortness of breath for four months as well as weight loss, according to the report, published Thursday (April 15) in the journal BMJ Case Reports. ...

He reported drinking four 500-milliliter cans of energy drinks every day for about two years, with each can containing 160 milligrams of caffeine. (A typical cup of coffee contains about 90 mg of caffeine.)

The man recalled that he occasionally had episodes of indigestion, tremors and a racing heartbeat, which he didn't seek care for in the past. He felt so unwell and lethargic in recent months that he had to stop his university studies, according to the report, from doctors at St Thomas' Hospital in London.

After a barrage of tests, the man was diagnosed with two potentially life-threatening conditions: heart failure and kidney failure. ...

After 58 days in the hospital, the man was cleared to go home and was prescribed several heart medications. He stopped drinking energy drinks completely and his heart function improved so much that his doctors say he doesn't need a heart transplant at this time. However, he will likely need a kidney transplant at some point in the future. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/energy-drink-heart-failure.html
 
I'd better ease off with my Red Bull habit!
 
Here are the bibliographic details and abstract of the published report about the man with heart / kidney failure. The full report is accessible at the link below.

Fisk G, Hammond-Haley M, D'Silva A
Energy drink-induced cardiomyopathy
BMJ Case Reports CP 2021;14:e239370.

Abstract
We report a case of severe biventricular heart failure potentially related to excessive energy drink consumption in a 21-year-old man. The patient presented with a 4-month history of shortness of breath on exertion, orthopnoea and weight loss. Transthoracic echocardiography demonstrated severely impaired biventricular systolic function and bilateral ventricular thrombi, subsequently confirmed on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, which found in addition no oedema, inflammation or focal fibrosis. Blood tests, renal ultrasound and subsequent abdominal MRI demonstrated severe renal failure caused by a chronic obstructive uropathy, long-standing and previously undiagnosed. There was no significant past medical, family or social history other than excessive intake of an energy drink. This case report adds to the growing concern in the literature about the potential cardiotoxic effects of energy drinks, which should be considered when assessing young patients presenting with a non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy.

SOURCE / FULL REPORT: https://casereports.bmj.com/content/14/4/e239370
 
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