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Are We Sitting On Yet Another Health Scare Time Bomb?
OK listen up
folks. Consuming Energy drinks could be bad
for High Blood Pressure. This is potentially
some interesting stuff in that a study has
been published recently that in all essence
is actually quite a small study and hence
the findings could potentially be open to
question but (and this is a big but) could
actually grow and have the potential of
something quite significant down the line if
replicated.
Phew, that is quite a major sentence (in
more ways than one) to try and comprehend so
let’s try and break it down into manageable
proportions.
Basically the issue is this. “Energy” drinks
unlike sports drinks that contain water,
sugar and salts are known to contain quite
high levels of Caffeine and a substance
known as Taurine that is aimed purely at
increasing energy and/or “alertness”. Now
Taurine, which is an Amino acid and is found
in protein foods like fish or meat also has
the same properties as Caffeine and hence as
has been proved in the past can lead to
raised blood pressure. |
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Now the initial results of this survey and
study and I do need to re-emphasize at this
particular point in time that it is indeed a
small study, have provided us with the
results that showed the following:
Basically researchers took 15 healthy young
adults, who were volunteers and the group
comprised of seven men and eight women whose
average age was about 26 years and got them
to stop consuming caffeine from other
sources two days before also during the
duration of the study.
The researchers took the volunteers and at
the outset of the study recorded the blood
pressure and heart rate and carried out an
ECG (electrocardiogram) to assess the heart
function of each volunteer.
Once the study had started researchers got
the participants to drink two cans of an
energy drink containing caffeine and taurine
and then they initiated a series of blood
pressure, heart rate and ECG tests after 30
minutes and then hourly from one to four
hours later making five tests in all. This
exercise was actually repeated every day for
the next five days until the seventh day of
the study when they repeated what they did
on the first day in terms of measurements
and tests.
The results did not make for pretty reading
if you are interested in High Blood
Pressure. The bottom line was that the
results showed that within four hours of
drinking the energy drink the maximum
systolic blood pressure which is basically
the first figure of the reading and actually
the highest of the two figures when you
carry out a blood pressure reading increased
by 7.9% on the first day and rose to nearly
10% on the seventh.
The Heart Rates measured in the study
increased by 7.8% on the first day and rose
to 11% on the seventh.
Now taken in isolation it would be very easy
to look at these figures and go “yes what's
the problem”. The problem is this, the
increase in blood pressure and heart rate
were not enough to cause the participants in
the study to necessarily feel unwell because
they were actually sitting in chairs
watching films and not partaking of any
active vigorous sport. Also if these changes
were to take place in people who were
suffering from either cardiovascular
problems or blood pressure irregularities
and then would be looking at something much
more serious.
So where is this “sleeping time bomb” you
keep mentioning I hear people say?
While the sleeping time bomb is this
basically. The nature of high blood pressure
is such that unless you happen to be
undergoing a medical check up by and large
it remains undiagnosed for long periods of
time. It has been alleged that potentially
anywhere between 10 and 15% of the
population have high blood pressure
irregularities and the majority of these are
undiagnosed.
So what we have is 10 to 15% of the
population consuming energy drinks (which
are on the increase) and as a result causing
fairly significant short-term increases in
their blood pressure and being unaware of
it.
This potentially, if these initial results
are replicated on larger scale and there are
no logical reasons why they shouldn’t be,
could be a recipe for potential disaster.
High Blood Pressure, causes, cures, treatment, and
more.......
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