Posted on 06/04/2009 11:12:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
There's growing concern among school officials and health care workers that teen use of energy drinks such as Red Bull and Spike Shooter are early warning signs of the willingness to take risks.
According to researchers, high consumption of energy drinks is associated with aggressive and risky behaviors, including substance abuse, violence, and unprotected sex. No one is saying yet that these energy drinks cause such behaviors, but parents should probably be aware that teens who are willing to abuse caffeine may be more likely to engage in other risky behaviors as well.
The research is published in the March issue of The Journal of American College Health and discussed in a recent news article ("Taste for Quick Boost Tied to Taste for Risk", New York Times online May 27, 2008.)
The energy drink Spike Shooter contains 428 mg of caffeine in 12 ounces, or about 12x that of Coke or Pepsi and 2-5 times that in a cup of coffee. Teens have been sent to the emergency room with heart palpitations, jittery behavior, and sweating as a result of drinking too many energy drinks. Some teens are combining these drinks with alcohol in the mistaken belief that it makes them less drunk.
Do your students use energy drinks, and do they know what's in them?
Give Washingtom time.
They’re very busy going after e-cigarettes (Which have been successful in helping smokers quit -myself included) and will be coming for these drinks when they’re done with us here.
Get in line.
Washingtom = Washington
Teenagers taking risks?
Who knew?
Huh? The results should show that kids are addicted to this crap and do stupid things when they amped up on them.
As opposed to the fact that they're simply stupid, pimple faced teenagers and are just terrible at assessing risk anyway.
When I was in college, we used coffee to stay away in order to study, and according to this, one of those drinks is equivalent to 2-5 cups of coffee. I don't really see the excess in that (I've worked with people that drank coffee all day long.) Sure some kids will get palpitations and jittery, but the caffeine is equivalent to three Starbucks double shots.
LOL. Unbelievable. No one is saying these energy drinks cause such behaviours, but actually, err...we say in the rest of the article that they do.
I think this is just a little to sensational. I drink red bull before I go to the gym. I definitely have an energetic workout. Working out is a healthy behavior BTW.
Of course, if you have high blood pressure or existing heart conditions, I would recommend staying clear of energy drinks.
Yay, now we can start regulating energy drinks!
They admit the danger is 100 percent speculation, and yet they insist that We Must Do Something Now.
It's Got Electrolytes!
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