Health Risks of Children's Increased Energizer Drink Consumption
Energizer drinks are a category of alcoholic beverages that contain varying amounts of caffeine, sugar, vitamins, and herbal ingredients. One of the stimulants in these energizer beverages is caffeine. These beverages can provide the customer with both cerebral and physical stimulation (McGraw, 2013).
Energy drinks have a number of adverse effects when misused or consumed frequently. These include cardiac problems, diabetes, and behavioral and emotional disorders. Despite the fact that these drinks include sugars, they have no therapeutic or physiological benefits. Children who have been exposed to a lot of caffeine consumption, develop heart problems, seizures, and stroke which may lead to death (Energy Drinks, Caffeine, and Athletes, 2014).
Effects on Children
Research was done by health organizations, for example, the world health organization(WHO), has shown that kids who have consumed excessively a lot of caffeine in coffee drinks suffer from dizziness, high blood pressure and maybe fainting. This is because the metabolic system of children is less developed. Hence, these side effects are more severe in kids than in adults. Parents should avoid at all costs avoid feeding their children with energizer drinks.
Energizer drinks have a lot of sugars or sweetener constituents, for example, aspartame. Prolonged consumption of drinks with a high sugar content like red bull, Pepsi, and coffee, results to the development of diabetes mellitus, a disorder characterized by high blood sugar levels. Too much glucose in the blood can cause serious problems to the eyes, nerves, and kidneys of children, and finally heart disease. Therefore, parents should seek other drinks for their kids with a reasonably small content of sugar, like the ones recommended by my medical practitioners, for example, milk.
Monster Energy Drinks have high caffeine content of approximately 160mg in every 16 ounces. When consumed excessively, caffeine has numerous negative health effects. Kids who consume these energy drinks are at a higher risk of incurring caffeine toxicity. Those children suffering from caffeine toxicity vomit frequently, are dizzy, nauseatic and also restless. Rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, tachycardia, and fainting are some of the symptoms of caffeine toxicity.
Addiction and Neurological Disorders
Moreover, frequent consumption of Monster Energy Drinks results in addiction. Individuals who get used to caffeine, for example, cannot be able to withdraw. However, tea has some caffeine content but it is not as harmful as the caffeine in coffee and monster energy drinks like red bull and vodka. Caffeine consumption also causes neurological disorders in children. That is dysfunction of the brain or the nervous system. This affects the child both physiologically and physically.
Caffeine consumption is related to less or no sleep to the consumer. This is detrimental especially to kids since enough sleep is of health benefit to children. This in long-term could make them lose concentration especially on matters of academics, for example, when attending classes.
Over-consumption of high energy drinks with a high alcohol content, for example, Red Bull and Vodka bring about serious problems among the abusers, who are mostly the teens. Side-effects of abuse of these drinks results to behavior change. This translates to aggressiveness, unreasonable fights, use of abusive language, and engagement in sexual immorality, which exposes the individuals to sexually transmitted diseases and infections (STD's and STI's).
Sport drinks are also characterized by a high sugar content. Excessive consumption of these drinks results to increase in weight in individuals who don't do enough exercise. These brings problems of obesity. Parents should, therefore, advise their children on the negative effects of these energy drinks, especially the alcoholic drinks.
Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 Diabetes is caused by high consumption of caffeine, which interferes with the sensitivity of the hormone Insulin. Therefore, the body cannot respond effectively to high or low glucose levels in blood by the help of insulin.
Individuals suffering from or diagnosed with cardiovascular abnormalities (heart problems), should seek medical advice before taking the energy drinks. This is because these drinks can complicate the condition even further. Teens who excessively consume energy drinks have a higher risk of developing depression, a negative effect associated with how an individual behaves, thinks, and acts (El-Sabban, 2016).
Apart from caffeine, energy drinks also contain a number of harmful chemicals like taurine, nicotine, and guarana. Taurine has antioxidant properties. However, if consumed in excess, it has negative side effects. For example, research has shown that in Europe deaths of many athletes were as a result of consumption of energy drinks with a high content of taurine. Nicotine is harmful when taken in large amounts. It results to development of brain, lung, and heart cancer. Guarana, used as a stimulant by athletes to reduce fatigue, can be harmful if taken excessively. For example, it causes anxiety, tremors, restlessness, nervousness, and vomiting.
There are some scientific evidence that show that increased consumption of energy drinks causes constriction of blood vessels. This reduces the flow rate of blood in the vessels from the heart to other parts of the body. Therefore, there is reduced supply of oxygen in the body, which can be fatal. Some journals of medicine have shown that consumption of a lot of energy drinks causes poor mental health, in long-term exposure.
The large amounts of sugars in energy drinks can result to tooth decay and subsequently, tooth loss. This is because of the excess sugars remaining in the teeth after consumption, they form a cavity causing the tooth to decay. Consuming energy drinks excessively causes the loss of bone marrow minerals. Caffeine content in these energy drinks interferes with the absorption of minerals from the small intestines, during digestion. This condition brings about weak and fragile bones. Weak bones in kids can be prevented by feeding them with sufficient milk. Milk has a high level of calcium which is an important mineral constituent of the bones. This is according to the research done by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Other sources of calcium include yogurt and cheese. Enormous consumption of caffeine found in energy drinks causes Arrhythmia Syndromes in children. Arrhythmia is characterized by irregular heartbeats. This poses health risks in children. Parents should educate children and teens on the negative health effects of over-consuming energy drinks and abuse of other alcoholic drinks (Anna, 2015).
References
Anna, V. (2015). Caffeine, Energy Drinks and Atrial Fibrillation: A Mini-Review. BAOJ Nutrition, 1(1), pp.1-4.
El-Sabban, F. (2016). Energy Drinks and Human Body Physiology. MOJ Anatomy & Physiology, 2(5).
Energy Drinks, Caffeine, and Athletes. (2014). Nutrition Today, 49(2), pp.55-56.
McGraw, M. (2013). Are energy drinks safe?. Nursing, 43(3), p.68.
