By ALEX PAUL
Albany Democrat-Herald | Posted: Sunday, August 19, 2007 12:00 am
Health officials worry about potential harm
ALBANY - When Heidi Schueller started a new job early this summer at a mill in Cottage Grove, the 22-year-old wasn't used to getting up at 4 a.m. so she looked for something to give her a morning boost.
She turned to one of many high-energy drinks on store shelves to get her going before punching the time clock. The 135-pound Schueller soon found she was consuming more than just a cold version of a cup of coffee.
"I drank three cans one day nn 16 ounces, 8 ounces and 24 ounces," Schueller said recently while visiting her friends Terra and Carrie Winslow of Sweet Home. "I got really hyper and shaky. It was a caffeine overload for sure. I'm a good eater … I eat five or six times a day, so that probably helped me a bit."
Her friends had no trouble noticing.
"She was bouncing off the walls," Carrie Winslow said.
"Yeah, and her hands started shaking," Terra Winslow added.
Makers of high-energy drinks say that as with all things, moderation is the key. They are not intended for young children and adults should act responsibility when consuming them.
But Schueller's experience isn't an anomaly: About one-third of U.S. teens nn some 7.6 million of them nn say they consume high-energy drinks. The high-energy-drink market exploded in the last decade, although such drinks have been available to the general public since the 1960s. The craze first started in Japan, but it was an Austrian businessman who took it international with the development of a product called Red Bull in the 1980s. It broke into the U.S. market in the mid-1990s.
"I start work at 4 a.m. and between 5:30 and 8 a.m., I feel like I want to go back to bed," Schueller said. She drinks a 16-ounce high-energy drink and "I get enough energy to last me the whole day."
Schueller doesn't believe she is addicted and doesn't feel any side effects if she doesn't consume any of the drinks for a few days.
High-energy drinks, which had total sales of $3.7 billion and grew by 51 percent last year, rely primarily on two key ingredients to provide their "buzz" nn caffeine and some form of sugar. Some contain the equivalent of 20 spoons full of sugar per container, even though the containers are smaller than the average soda can or bottle.
Although many of the high-energy drinks contain about the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee - about 80 milligrams - others contain two to four times that amount. Some brands contain the total maximum level of caffeine medical officials believe is healthy to consume, about 300 milligrams per day.
Dr. Edward Frothingham, a pediatrician at Samaritan Health Service's Mid-Valley Children's Clinic, said Schueller was "lucky she has a good heart. Kids are lucky they have strong cardiovascular systems."
Frothingham has practiced in Albany for nearly eight years and said parents often confuse energy drinks with sodas, neither of which he believes should be consumed regularly by young people.
"We have a long tradition in the U.S. of marketing adult chemicals in forms that appeal to younger and younger children," Frothingham said. "We've seen sweetened alcoholic drinks such as wine coolers, flavored and sweetened dipping tobacco, and cartoon characters used to advertise cigarettes. Now we're seeing highly caffeinated beverages being sold as soft drinks."
Although he hasn't treated local patients for a caffeine overdose, he has seen the effects, including sleep disruption.
Frothingham believes the large amounts of sugar or sugar-like substances in the drinks also contribute to the nation's exploding obesity problem among young people.
"Our children have become accustomed to drinking sweetened beverages instead of water," Frothingham said. "They are also used to large volumes of sodas. Years ago, sodas came in 8- or 10-ounce bottles. Now, we see children with 64-ounce containers and they drink them every day. We need to remind our kids the primary drink they need is water."
Frothingham said parents also need to realize high energy drinks are not the same as sodas.
"It would be like comparing Tic Tacs to No-Doz," Frothingham said.
What's in high-energy drinks?
Ingredients vary by product, but energy drinks may include: ephedrine, which is a stimulant that works on the central nervous system; taurine, an amino acid that regulates heartbeat and muscle contractions; ginseng, believed to reduce stress and boost energy; B-vitamin, which converts sugar into energy; guarana seed, a stimulant; carnitine, an amino acid that is involved in fatty acid metabolism; creatine, an organic acid that supplies energy for muscle contractions; ginkgo biloba, believed to enhance memory; caffeine, which blocks the effects of adenosine, a brain chemical involved with sleep.
For some people, high caffeine levels can contribute to anxiety, irritability, difficulty sleeping and stomach pains.
Some medical experts also warn that people with psychiatric issues could be negatively affected by high levels of caffeine. They issue the same warning for people with heart disease. A combination of ingredients could cause a sudden jolt to a person's system and trigger a heart attack.
Studies in Sweden have also related caffeine intake with spontaneous abortions in pregnant women who consumed as little as 100 milligrams of caffeine during their first trimester of pregnancy.
An Australian study indicated some 27 percent of 8- to 12-year-old boys and 12 percent of girls in the same age group had consumed at least one energy drink in the two weeks prior to being surveyed. The number jumped to 24 percent for boys and 20 percent of girls in the 12- to 18-year-old age group.
In the United States, one in three children is considered obese. High-energy drinks contain large amounts of sugar and calories, some as many as 120 calories in an 8-ounce can.
High-energy drinks should not be confused with sport drinks such as Gatorade, which replenish the body with fluids and electrolytes. Caffeine in the high-energy drinks is actually a diuretic that pulls fluids from the body, which is one reason it is used in some diet pills.
Earlier this year, a high school in Colorado banned high-energy drinks from campus after several students became ill after drinking them. The students had consumed a product that packed more than three times the amount of caffeine found in a cup of coffee into one 8-ounce can.
In 2006, a poison-control center in Chicago reported seeing a number of caffeine overdoses. Over a three-year period, the center reported 265 cases and about 32 of them required a trip to a hospital.
Some countries have banned all high-energy drinks.
GOOD old WATER
Other than under exceptional circumstances, children and adults don't need high-energy or sports drinks to replenish their bodies during exercise, Dr. Edward Frothingham says.
"Sports drinks such as Gatorade are a good idea in very excessive situations such as a prolonged football practice in very hot weather," says Frothingham, a pediatrician at Samaritan Health Service's Mid-Valley Children's Clinic. In virtually all other situations, water is what the body needs nn and it doesn't have to come out of a plastic bottle. Common tap water will suffice.
High-energy drinks are being marketed as sports drinks and they aren't. They are "a big jolt of sugar and caffeine. They are also not perceived as being unhealthy."
Alex Paul can be reached at alex.paul@lee.net or 812-6076.