Caffeine is a substance that can provide plenty health advantages like soothing those annoying headaches, enhancing mental alertness and even has the ability to treat certain health conditions like asthma and diabetes.
However, these beneficial properties of caffeine lose all their benefits when it is combined with artificial stimulants, sweeteners, toxins and many other additives very much present in all energy drinks. This is a deadly combination as it makes a great mess in the cardiovascular system thus easily leading to a heart attack.
In this article we shall present you a real story of Cory Terry, who was 33 years old living in Brooklyn and a family man. Unfortunately, he passed away as a result of the consumption of one Red Bull, one of the most popular “energy” drinks all around the world.
His grieving mother, Patricia Terry, said that he was an active, non-smoker who consumed Red Bull on daily basis, in the New York Daily News, she reported the following: “He drank that stuff all the time. He said it perked him up.”
Mayo Clinic Proceedings released a study on energy drinks where it was showed that the consumption of energy drinks like Red Bull might lead to serious health issues particularly to people with cardiovascular conditions; this also may apply to healthy persons as well.
A trial was carried out where 15 individuals were drinking two cans of 500 ml energy drink with almost the same ingredients as Red Bull per day for one week. The findings were: in all participants their blood pressure was increased by 8% in just 4 hours after consuming the energy drink, and showed even further increase by the end of the week, namely the increase was up to 10%.
Furthermore, their heart rates were elevated by 8% on the very first day and increased by 11% by the end of the week.
All these factors in fact raised the risk of a heart attack because high heart rates are related to elevated heart attack risk. On the other hand, the high blood pressure can harm the arteries which cause stroke and heart attack-causing blood clots.
In order to realize all the negative effects of the consumption of Red Bull you need to consider the ingredient list of Red Bull. It is loaded with sugar and carbonation; further on, the key ingredients are various different stimulants among which are caffeine and taurine in a combination with several B-group vitamins.
What is more worrisome is that there is no or very little done research on the effects of this combination.
There is another study released by the same journal which has done analyses on the effects of Red Bull on persons consuming it before and after performed workout. The study involved 13 participants who underwent endurance training. Namely, they were obliged to train 3 times daily, and prior training they had to consume Red Bull or some other similar drink containing no taurine or a placebo without any stimulants.
The obtained results showed that Red Bull was the only drink that influenced the stroke volume, which is the amount of blood pumped in and out of the heart. This is a confirmation of the probable side effects on the well-being of the cardiovascular health when a combination of stimulants is used, although when used separately they may not be harmful.
Nevertheless, always be on the look-out when consuming energy drinks such as Red Bull or other similar drinks as they are harmful for your heart. We advise to try to avoid their use in order to protect yourself from the possible side effects. Replace this beverage with coffee or other healthier drinks that offer great energy boost.