Hyderabad: Energy drinks lead to kidney damage, affect the heart and also cause in-creased blood pressure, say doctors.
However, mixing it with alcohol causes over intoxication, claims a recent study.
City-based nephrologists stated that energy drinks contain phosphorous and phosphoric acids that could affect the kidney.
Dr Rajiv M, a nephrologist, said, “Once you mix energy drinks with alcohol, the caffeine content in them keeps the drinker hyperactive. Therefore, the drinker keeps on drin-king without realising th-at they are overdoing it, leading to over intoxication. The mix can cause dehydration and can affect the kidney because caffeine is diuretic i.e. causes the body to lose water,” the doctor added.
Doctors also said that the people who mix caffeine and alcohol are more prone to accidents as they are not aware of the intoxication level. An increase of 6.4 per cent in one’s blood pressure can be noted in people who drink energy drinks.
Dr Ashwin Tumkur, a senior cardiologist, said, “The caffeine content in energy drinks is bad for the heart but once it is mixed with alcohol, it can affect the pumping of the heart by slowing it down. Similarly, it can also lead to arrhythmia which is abnormal beating of the heart. All of this can cause serious heart problems.”
Most energy drinks have about 100 mg of caffeine in 200 ml. Doctors suggested that the daily caffeine intake for an adult is 400 mg only.
The warning label on most energy drinks advises children against consuming it. However, it is widely ignored as youngsters.
“The reason is that these drinks do not generally use sugar but use artificial sweeteners, which contain aspartame that cannot metabolise easily,” said Dr Rajiv. Artificial sweeteners directly affect the metabolism of children with inborn metabolical errors.
