A young man’s years of energy drink nearly killed him, doctors in the UK say. In a new report this week, they detail how the man developed heart failure probably related to his habit of drinking four energy drinks a day for two years in a row. Although, as a result, he was admitted to the intensive care unit, he fortunately survived.
According to the report, published Thursday at BMJ Case Reports, a A 21-year-old UK man had gone to a local hospital with complaints of shortness of breath and bloating. Her symptoms, which also included weight loss, tremors, heartbeat and general fatigue, had started four months earlier and were gradually getting worse. His health had deteriorated such that he had stopped going to school three months earlier. Tests soon revealed the man had heart and kidney failure, to the point damaging the brain and causing delirium.
The man denied having consumed alcohol or other drugs, and nothing else in his family history seemed to indicate a unique vulnerability to heart problems. But he did regularly describe energy drinks, up to four 500milliliter cans per day for the last two years.
Finally, doctors concluded that the man’s heart failure was probably caused by the intensive consumption of energy drinks, which had probably been slowly damaging his heart over time. His kidney failure, on the other hand, was caused by a chronic blockage of urine in both the kidneys and urethra. but it was it’s probably not related to your energy drinking habit or the heart damage that followed.
Both conditions threatened to kill him without intensive treatment, and the third day after upon admission, he was taken to a specialized hospital. He would spend 58 days in hospital, much on dialysis, but was finally discharged in relatively decent health.
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“There is no doubt that if his heart failure had not been detected and treated, including the treatment of blood clots that were in the heart when it was functioning very poorly, he would have had a very high risk of death from heart failure or potentially deadly stroke, ”study author Andrew D’Silva, a cardiologist at Guy’s NHS Foundation and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and a researcher at King’s College London, told Gizmodo.
As the authors point out, this is not the first case of heart damage related to the use of energy drinks in young and seemingly healthy people. In 2012, doctors reported a similar case of a 24-year-old man whose heart failure required him to be put on a ventilator. And just last year, doctors reported a case in which a 26-year-old needed 10 months of treatment, including mechanical support, after heart failure related to energy drinks.
These cases appear to be rare, bbut it is not yet clear how these drinks can contribute to heart damage. One likely culprit is the large doses of caffeine they provide for drinking. Stimulants like caffeine can make the heart beat faster and harder than he would have done otherwise, D’Silva points out. But he also suspects that some people are more susceptible to the negative health effects that heavy caffeine use can lead to than others.
“In some people, when the heart beats faster than it needs to for a long period of time, it can temporarily weaken the heart. Also, if the heart is stimulated to beat harder, it can overstimulate and regulate its receptors to stimulants, including normal body hormones such as adrenaline and norepinephrine, which are part of the normal “fight and flight response,” he said. “This can cause temporary weakness as the heart becomes less sensitive to normal controls.” .
For now, these possible explanations are still speculation. And in general, more research is needed to investigate the link between energy drinks and heart problems, including finding out if some people are more vulnerable to them.
As for young people home, Said D’Silva he is doing very well, since he has since stopped consuming energy drinks. Although his kidneys are still damaged, and ultimately, you may need a transplant, as your heart seems to be almost normal tests. You can also walk miles without problems, and no longer experiences problems such as shortness of breath or fluid retention. Wbut there may be many unknowns about the dangers of using energy drinks hoping people can learn from their experience.
“I think we should be more aware of the energy drink[s] and the effect of its contents. I think they are very addictive and too accessible for young children, ”wrote the man with an accompanying patient perspective. “I think we should make warning labels, similar to smoking, to illustrate the potential dangers of the ingredients of the energy drink[s]”.
Doctors D’Sliva should be on the lookout for the possibility that energy drinks could cause such heart problems, though only after thorough research to rule out other causes, D’Sliva said..