Energy Drinks Linked to Deaths
by Amber Maccione
14 year old's death leads to Energy Drink lawsuit
I have never been a coffee drinker because I have never been able to acquire the taste for it. The funny thing is, I actually have never been a person to like any drink that has caffeine in it except for those energy drinks. Yes, I used to drink them when I was in my early twenties. I was working two jobs and drank them to help me get through the day. Eventually, I had to stop because I was getting headaches from them. I attributed that to the sugar content (which because of my thyroid disorder, I shouldn't have been consuming).
In my teaching career, I noticed a lot of teens would bring those drinks to school to drink in the morning or with their lunch. I always thought that was crazy; a teen should not be consuming that much sugar. I never ever thought to think about the caffeine. There was one student in particular that always had one and drove me nuts that he did. He used to drink about three of them in a day and I knew he didn't need one; you see, he was ADHA. By the time he got to school, he had already consumed two of them (Monster) and had another by the time lunch came. He was a teacher' worst nightmare because he was bouncing off the walls.
Dangers of Energy Drinks
I came across an article that caught my eye. The culprit of these energy drinks is not the sugar, but the caffeine. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now been able to link such energy drinks as Monster and 5-Hour Energy to deaths and serious illnesses such as heart attacks, convulsions, and spontaneous abortions. The problem with these drinks, especially 5-Hour Energy, is that you really don't know how much caffeine is in them. In order to overdose on caffeine, you would have to consume 5 to 10 grams, which is equivalent to about 6 to 12 gallons of McDonald's coffee. Most adults could never get to that point; but if put in a child or young adult with an underlying health condition, that could be a problem especially since they have a smaller body.
Almost a year ago, a 14 year old girl drank two 24 ounce Monster drinks within a 24 hour period. She apparently had an underlying health condition and went into a coma. Eventually, she was pronounced brain dead. Her mother filed a lawsuit, which led the FDA to find that there were five others who had reported death because of consuming energy drinks.
5-Hour Energy has been linked to 13 deaths over the past four years as well as 30 different illnesses. With these types of statistics, I might think twice before I drink one of these "supposedly helpful drinks".
Copyright © 2012 http://ambercita04.hubpages.com/
Caffeine & Your Brain
HUFF Post Business Article
- 5-Hour Energy Implicated In 13 Deaths, 30 Life-Threatening Incidents Since 2008: FDA Report
"What you don't know can't hurt you," goes the old saying. If those unknowns involve popular energy drinks, though, they could potentially be lethal.
© 2012 Amber