Energy Drinks May Be Bad For Your Heart

Yes, energy drinks do give you more energy, but they may also give you something you don’t want. A University of the Pacific news release reports that researchers at the school monitored the heart health of 27 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 40. The volunteers drank either two cans of an energy drink, an equivalent volume of a drink containing panax ginseng (an ingredient in the energy drink), or a placebo beverage once a day, every six days, for three weeks. The researchers measured subjects’ heart rhythm and blood pressure before the drinks were consumed and four times during the six hours immediately afterward. Ready? The envelope please…..The volunteers who consumed the energy drink experienced a statistically significant increase in a marker of abnormal heart rhythm risk known as the QTc interval, and they also experienced a slight rise in blood pressure. The effects persisted for two hours after the energy drink was consumed. In contrast, the ginseng and placebo groups showed no rises in QTc interval or blood pressure.