Are Energy-Boosting Products Safe?
Energy-boosting products have been in the health news. One of the abstracts presented at the recent American Heart Association conference reported on data extracted from the Adverse Event Monitoring System of the FDA concerning cardiac anomalies associated with the use of stimulants found in energy drinks and other energy-boosting products.
The researchers compared the number of reports attributed to caffeine and stimulant-containing products with close to the same number of adverse events reported for no-caffeine or stimulant-containing products. They also checked a very specific age demographic: 18- to 34-year-olds, a group not known for cardiac issues.
The abstract reported that there was up to an 1100% increase in the risk of sudden death from products containing a stimulant; that’s 11 times the normal risk. Heart attacks were 450% more likely, and arrythmias were 400% more likely. Other cardiac conditions also increased, but those two led the news release from the conference.
I’ll save some time by saying that if you drink a couple of energy drinks per day or use a pre-workout energy booster, this report doesn’t indicate that you should stop consuming those products, regardless of age. I’ll dig deeper into the numbers on Saturday. One clue may be something you’ve heard me say many times: always be suspicious when results are presented as percentages.
What are you prepared to do today?
Dr. Chet
P.S. Free radicals, by-products of energy production in the mitochondria, interfere with energy production. No matter what your age, if you feel you don’t have the energy you used to have, join me for this webinar replay. Check out Reclaiming Your Power! at drchet.com for only $9.95. Insiders and Members get the usual discounts.
