Drinking several strong energy drinks every day may lead to a serious stroke, even in people who seem healthy. This warning comes from a report published in the journal BMJ Case Reports.
Doctors shared the story of a man in his 50s who was fit and healthy but drank eight energy drinks every day. He ended up in the hospital with a stroke caused by extremely high blood pressure.
The man had a stroke in the thalamus, a part of the brain that controls movement and senses. After the stroke, he couldn’t move or feel the left side of his body properly. He also had trouble walking, speaking, swallowing, and keeping his balance.
When he got to the hospital, doctors found his blood pressure was 254/150 mm Hg, which is dangerously high. They gave him medicine to lower it, and it dropped to 170 mm Hg. But even after going home and taking more medication, his blood pressure stayed high.
Doctors asked more questions and found out he was drinking eight energy drinks daily. Each drink had about 160 mg of caffeine, which added up to around 1,200 to 1,300 mg of caffeine a day.
The safe daily limit for caffeine is 400 mg. Once he stopped drinking energy drinks, his blood pressure went back to normal, and he no longer needed medicine to control it.
Sadly, even after eight years, the man still has numbness in his left hand, foot, and toes. He said he had no idea energy drinks could cause so much harm.
The doctors said that many people may not know about the dangers energy drinks pose to the heart and brain. Although some stores in the UK stopped selling them to kids under 16 in 2018, these drinks are still widely available and advertised, especially to young people.
Energy drinks contain a lot of caffeine—more than 150 mg per liter—and are also full of sugar. They also include other ingredients like guarana, taurine, ginseng, and glucuronolactone.
Some of these ingredients can increase the effects of caffeine. For example, guarana has even more caffeine than coffee beans. Some energy drinks can have up to 500 mg of caffeine in a single serving.
Doctors believe that these extra ingredients may make the caffeine in energy drinks even stronger, which increases the risk of stroke and other heart problems. While one case isn’t enough to prove that energy drinks are dangerous for everyone, this report adds to the growing concern about their health effects.
The authors of the report say that stricter rules on energy drink sales and ads could help protect people, especially young people, from long-term health problems like strokes and heart disease.
In conclusion, while more research is needed, this case shows how too many energy drinks can lead to serious health problems. It’s important to understand what’s in these drinks and how they might affect the body, especially if consumed in large amounts every day.
If you care about stroke, please read studies that diets high in flavonoids could help reduce stroke risk, and MIND diet could slow down cognitive decline after stroke.
For more health information, please see recent studies about antioxidants that could help reduce the risk of dementia, and tea and coffee may help lower your risk of stroke, dementia.
The study is published in BMJ Case Reports.
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