Energy Drinks Linked to Increased Blood Pressure

Despite the fact that energy drinks have been around for more than 50 years, they really never enjoyed much popularity until recent times with the advent of viral marketing and sports sponsorships and nowadays it would seem like sports drinks are everywhere. Their colorful cans and attractive marketing campaigns have helped the energy drink business become a multi-billion industry in the span of just a few years.

It would seem like everyone -from kids to seniors- enjoy chugging a few cans of energy drinks a week; these drinks have become exponentially popular and are often used to deal with the effects of an extended work session, long nights of partying or simply as a replacement for sleep. In fact, a 2013 study found out that almost 30% of adults between the ages of 18 and 65 and a staggering 70% of teenagers consume at least one energy drink per month.

How Energy Drinks Affect the Body

This news unveils a massive health epidemic that is slowly building up as a recent study has found that energy drinks can significantly increase blood pressure levels. The study was conducted among 25 healthy men and women who were asked to drink a 16-ounce can of a popular brand of energy drink every other day. Researches then performed lab studies on all of the test subjects and found that blood pressure levels increased by an average 6.4% after drinking the can, and even though this might not seem like a huge increase, people at a higher risk of heart disease should steer away from energy drinks like this in order to support healthy blood pressure levels.

The American Beverage Association responded almost immediately to the study by stating that “the safety of energy drinks has been established before”. However, the response failed to consider the effects of an increased blood pressure level on people who are prone to suffer from heart disease due to elevated blood pressure.

The study also concluded that people who are known to consume large amounts of caffeine on a daily basis were the group that was most severely affected by these energy drinks, which raises interesting questions when it comes to the effects of combining caffeine with the other ingredients that are most commonly found in energy drinks, such as taurine, guarana and sugar.

Lifestyle and Diet Influence Blood Pressure

The interaction between these the ingredients in energy drinks highlight the importance of making important lifestyle changes such as exercising at least 30 minutes, 5 times a week and having a diet low in sodium and sugar as well as saturated fats. People looking to help maintain healthy blood pressure might consider using a natural blood pressure supplement such as PD120. This is a supplement made from natural compounds that can help users at risk of stroke, coronary disease and heart attacks help maintain healthy blood pressure.

People who love a healthy kick of caffeine throughout the day should also be very careful with energy drinks. While it is generally accepted that caffeine is safe when consumed in moderation, the combination of a diet with plenty of caffeine-rich products such as coffee, caffeine pills and supplements as well as sodas can be potentially fatal. People with underlying heart conditions are at a much higher risk of suffering from cardiac arrest after consuming what most people would consider a regular dose of caffeine. Cardiac arrest (also known as a cardiopulmonary arrest) is a sudden stop in blood flow due to a failed heart contraction and one of the leading causes of Cardiac arrest is increased blood pressure levels over an extended period of time.

Besides the dangerous increase in blood pressure, energy drinks have also been known to cause headaches, migraine, anxiety, insomnia and even diabetes due to the fact that these energy drinks have generally copious amounts of sugar added to them in order to enhance flavor. In fact, those people who are most likely to suffer from diabetes should keep a very close eye on their blood pressure levels since hypertension can easily worsen many of the conditions associated with diabetes.

Increased blood pressure levels have been known to increase the possibility of developing diabetic eye disease and kidney disease, it is also known that many people who have to live with increased levels of blood pressure eventually develop diabetes as well, worsening the health of the patient and making the likelihood if increased heart conditions even greater. The fact that high blood pressure levels damage arteries and makes it easier to develop other artery-related conditions such as atherosclerosis should be more than enough information to keep people away from these energy drinks that have become so popular in recent years. Remember that making significant lifestyle changes along with a natural blood pressure supplement can quickly make the difference when it comes to stabilizing blood pressure levels and improving overall health.