David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
The FDA has received reports of five deaths and one heart attack with alleged ties to Monster Energy drinks between 2009 and June 2012.
BILL: Dave, you read where the FDA says that the drink, 5-hour Energy, may have been involved in 13 deaths over the past four years? Scary to think these highly caffeinated beverages are our fastest-growing type of soft drink, with sales up 17 percent last year to about $9 billion, according to Beverage Digest.
DR. DAVE: Even scarier is that another federal agency, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported that more than 13,000 emergency room visits in 2009 were associated with energy drinks.
BILL: How do they work, Doc? Are they any different from me drinking four cups of black coffee mornings when I have a deadline to meet on three or four hours sleep?
DR. DAVE: Since caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive drug on the planet, the mega-dosage energy drinks has slipped in under the FDA radar. A caffeine-boosted energy drink of 300 milligrams of caffeine is the equivalent of five cups of your black coffee.
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BILL: I wonder how many parents, seeing how fast their pre-teen can slurp these energy drinks down understand little Suzy is guzzling down the equivalent of ten or twenty cups of coffee?
DR. DAVE: Thanks to the marketing 'Mad Men' of our era, not many parents have that awareness. The first energy drink, Jolt Cola, came out in 1985 with direct marketing of its contents: “All the sugar and twice the caffeine.”
BILL: No subtlety and aimed right at the kids.
DR. DAVE: As sales took off, they became completely brazen, taking,“Maximum caffeine, more power!” for their slogan. Parents became so incensed they helped get it pushed off the supermarket shelves.
BILL: I remember the computer programmer in the movie Jurassic Park. He couldn't drink his Jolt Cola fast enough. You also saw it littered all over the desks of the computer whiz kids in the hit flick Hackers….everybody’s hands moving like lightning between another slug of Jolt and the computer keyboard.
DR. DAVE: With the lightning bolt as its logo and sleepless young adult hours in front of the computer as its marketing mantra—Jolt slid around the direct marketing of caffeine, re-branding itself as Jolt Energy Drink...
BILL: The FDA is also investigating the so-called energy drink Monster Energy in five deaths; with one set of parents suing over the death of their 14 year old child. They say the company didn’t warn of the overdose risks: a can of Monster has 240 milligrams of caffeine - seven times the amount of caffeine found in a 12-ounce cola.
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DR. DAVE: I’d say that the company is on pretty thin ice. Caffeine Intoxication is a very real medical disorder that, combined with the type of heart susceptibility that goes undetected in routine exams, can be fatal. If you're going to deliver dosages of caffeine to a teen or adult higher than they are physically used to, it would seem to me that you would want to clearly warn them of the risks.
BILL: That sounds a little flimsy. I mean, warning someone that they might get caffeine Intoxication? I can just see the warnings now at Starbucks—“Two triple shot Venti Mocha Specials can be hazardous to your health.”
DR. DAVE: The people behind Monster, Red Bull and all the other beverages that are marketed to deliver caffeine, need to look at similar products that make it clear that caffeine is a drug. The makers of No-Doz, the iconic caffeine pills of the up-late studying crowd, specifically say NOT to take more than one 100 mg tablet every 3 hours…
BILL: ..less than a half of a can of Monster Energy drink!
DR. DAVE: Another risk is the insidious reduction in sleep. In the last 40 years, Americans have cut a full 90 minutes off of their nightly sleep. The high energy 24/7 pulsing of the internet and these energy drinks to keep you online threatens a whole new fatigue threat -- particularly to our teens.
BILL: Fatigue, risk of cardiac fatality, the jitters we all have experienced—where can our readers turn to look at what should be on the labels of high energy drinks?
DR. DAVE: Readers wanting a quick overview, or a parent guiding a teen’s beverage choices, can go to one of the caffeine websites for products like No-Doz or Vivarin. I personally have used the following website for my teen patients and their parentsquick caffeine guide.
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Dr. David Moore is a licensed psychologist and chemical dependency professional who is a graduate school faculty member at Argosy University’s Seattle Campus. Bill Manville’s most recent work, “Cool, Hip & Sober,” is available at all online bookstores. A Book of the Month novelist too, Bill privately teaches “Writing To Get Published” – whmanville@yahoo.com
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