Energy Drinks Boost Blood Pressure

Energy may be good thing, but energy at the price of increased blood pressure? You decide. Science Daily reports that researchers at the Mayo Clinic gave a can of a commercially available energy drink or a placebo drink to 25 healthy young adults, age 19 to 40, then measured changes in heart rate and blood pressure. Blood pressure and heart rate were recorded before and 30 minutes after energy drink/placebo drink consumption, and were also compared between people who didn’t regularly drink caffeinated beverages and regular caffeine users, defined as those who had at least one cup of coffee a day. The envelope please…The researchers found a marked rise in blood pressure after consuming the energy drink as compared to the placebo, and they found that the effect was most dramatic in people who did not typically consume much caffeine. In fact, the blood pressure increase was more than doubled in caffeine naïve adults after consuming the energy drink vs. placebo.