Trends Caffeine, the new gateway drug?

[losd]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/...nce/27well.php

Energy drinks linked to risky behavior among teenagers

By Tara Parker-Pope
Published: May 27, 2008




Health researchers have identified a surprising new predictor for risky behavior among teenagers and young adults: the energy drink.

Super-caffeinated energy drinks, with names like Red Bull, Monster, Full Throttle and Amp, have surged in popularity in the past decade. About a third of 12- to 24-year-olds say they regularly down energy drinks, which account for more than $3 billion in annual sales in the United States.

The trend has been the source of growing concern among health researchers and school officials. Around the country, the drinks have been linked with reports of nausea, abnormal heart rhythms and emergency room visits.

In Colorado Springs, several high school students last year became ill after drinking Spike Shooter, a high caffeine drink, prompting the principal to ban the beverages. In March, four middle school students in Broward County, Florida, went to the emergency room with heart palpitations and sweating after drinking the energy beverage Redline. In Tigard, Oregon, teachers this month sent parents e-mail alerting them that students who brought energy drinks to school were "literally drunk on a caffeine buzz or falling off a caffeine crash."

New research suggests the drinks are associated with a health issue far more worrisome than the jittery effects of caffeine — risk taking.

In March, The Journal of American College Health published a report on the link between energy drinks, athletics and risky behavior. The study's author, Kathleen Miller, an addiction researcher at the University of Buffalo, says it suggests that high consumption of energy drinks is associated with "toxic jock" behavior, a constellation of risky and aggressive behaviors including unprotected sex, substance abuse and violence.

The finding doesn't mean the drinks cause bad behavior. But the data suggest that regular consumption of energy drinks may be a red flag for parents that their children are more likely to take risks with their health and safety. "It appears the kids who are heavily into drinking energy drinks are more likely to be the ones who are inclined toward taking risks," Miller said.

The American Beverage Association says its members don't market energy drinks to teenagers. "The intended audience is adults," said Craig Stevens, a spokesman. He says the marketing is meant for "people who can actually afford the two or three bucks to buy the products."

The drinks include a variety of ingredients in different combinations: plant-based stimulants like guarana, herbs like ginkgo and ginseng, sugar, amino acids including taurine as well as vitamins. But the main active ingredient is caffeine.

Caffeine content varies. A 12-ounce serving of Amp contains 107 milligrams of caffeine, compared with 34 to 38 milligrams for the same amount of Coca-Cola or Pepsi. Monster has 120 milligrams and Red Bull has 116. Higher on the spectrum, Spike Shooter contains 428 milligrams of caffeine in 12 ounces, and Wired X344 contains 258.

Stevens points out that "mainstream" energy drinks often have less caffeine than a cup of coffee. At Starbucks, the caffeine content varies depending on the drink, from 75 milligrams in a 12-ounce cappuccino or latte to as much as 250 milligrams in a 12-ounce brewed coffee.

One concern about the drinks is that because they are served cold, they may be consumed in larger amounts and more quickly than hot coffee drinks, which are sipped. Another worry is the increasing popularity of mixing energy drinks with alcohol. The addition of caffeine can make alcohol users feel less drunk, but motor coordination and visual reaction time are just as impaired as when they drink alcohol by itself, according to an April 2006 study in the medical journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

"You're every bit as drunk, you're just an awake drunk," said Mary Claire O'Brien, associate professor in the departments of emergency medicine and public health services at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

O'Brien surveyed energy drink and alcohol use among college students at 10 universities in North Carolina. The study, published this month in Academic Emergency Medicine, showed that students who mixed energy drinks with alcohol got drunk twice as often as those who consumed alcohol by itself and were far more likely to be injured or require medical treatment while drinking. Energy drink mixers were more likely to be victims or perpetrators of aggressive sexual behavior. The effect remained even after researchers controlled for the amount of alcohol consumed.

Energy drink marketers say they don't encourage consumers to mix the drinks with alcohol. Michelle Naughton, a spokeswoman for PepsiCo, which markets Amp, said, "We expect consumers to enjoy our products responsibly."

I wouldn't be surprised if sales of highly caffeinated drinks to minors are restricted in the future. In which case more kids will have to get their kicks from speed.

And is it just me, or are the amounts of caffeine in most of these drinks not really that high? When SWIM worked in a coffee shop as a teen, she consumed a couple GRAMS of caffeine a day, with no ill effects.

Reputation Comments on this post:

good post

[ihavequestions]

SWIM cant handle those energy drinks. makes him jittery and way too wired. he cant even sit still. its a shitty feeling.

i still dont agree with the idea of a "gateway drug". i mean nothing forces a person to do something. its always by there own decision. i mean what is the gateway to the gateway drug? the fact that a person would end up trying a "gateway drug" shows that there is more to it. people need to stop blaming there decisions on other things and take responsibility for there actions.

[losd]

SWIM doesn't like energy drinks either, mostly because they taste disusting and the marketing for them is idiotic.

I don't really agree with the concept of gateway drugs either. But if it did exist the gateway to the gateway drug would be simple curiousity. I think some people have an inborn interest in experimenting, and others don't. For the ones who do, whatever they come across first will be their "gateway" drug.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Very true

[cyndi]

Those drinks make swim very nervous so she doesn't like them. Her teen son does and claims they give him energy. Gateway drug...Red Bull...nonsense. Swim does love her coffee though and thinks that has more caffeine but could be wrong.

[Heretic.Ape.]

Monkey is addicted to energy drinks. But he did many other drugs before trying one... then again, when he was a teenager I don't think there was such a thing as energy drinks.
At least they basically say that it's simply a potential sign that the kid enjoys using available chemicals for pleasure and don't seem to be completely humping the old gateway drug notion. But you still know that there will be parents banning energy drinks from their children because they think it'll make them grow up to be drug-fiend-sex-maniacs. As far as I'm concerned kids not drinking massive amounts of this stuff that any doctor will tell you is horrible for you is just fine, just a shame when it's for the wrong silly reasons.

[losd]

Back when SWIM was a kid there was Jolt cola. Don't know how much caffeine was in it but in junior high SWIM and her friends would chug several of them and get all hyped up. Jolt wasn't marketed as an "energy drink" though, that phenomenon seems to have started with Red Bull, around 99-00 IIRC.

I agree that it's probably best for kids not to be drinking tons of energy drinks. But the responsibility for controlling it should lie with the parents, not the government. Just like with candy, fast food, and all the other things kids like that aren't so healthy for them.

[Lobsang]

SWIM has eliminated all caffeine. It took a lot of work to do it. It takes a long time to get the nervous system stable again. But SWIM would never go back.

[cra$h]

seeing kids get their energy from an energy drink is better than abusing things like aderall. but gateway drug? no. my friend would rather drink an enormous amount of monsters (3 of their biggest bottles at a time) instead of just popping 60mg of aderall. so gateway? not a chance.

[Panthers007]

I dunno 'bout that. Just reading the thread here about what drugs did your monkey use - starting with which - listed caffeine way up there vying for top billing. Along with nicotine and , finally, alcohol. IF we are to believe in the "Gateway-Drug" rehetoric, then caffeine is far away ahead of cannabis. Which made a dismal showing at best.

[Lobsang]

The first time a human brain makes the associative link between an exogenous molecule and an alteration in consciousness or feeling the gateway is opened. This could be very early when a child has a fever and feels sick and his mother fives him some Tylenol. An associative link is made between taking a molecule and feeling better or a change in awarness. When this is learned the person will be prone to using outside things to change inside perceptions.

[Swift Serenity]

SWIM hates energy drinks. plus he doesnt drink caffeine anymore!

i dont know how this can be considered a drug?

[Spyder]

SwiS's 2cents....totally agree w/ Swilosd that some have the inborn curiosity to experiment. SwiS's has gone thru them all (drugs that is) and even at the begining didn't think of what he was doing as a gateway, but rather just tried things as they came along. matter of fact, he tried many pills, LSD, Cocaine before trying many softer drugs.

It was just this willingness and desire to experiment, and the "gateway" was nothing more than pure curiosity......S

[Swift Serenity]

very well said, and agree.

this SWIM loves to experiment!

[dr ACE]

Swimy allways notices an urge/craving to smoke a joint when drinking coffee. Since coffee/tea is so widley used accross the globe the idea of caffine being a 'drug' of anykind never mind a gateway drug is going to be very hard for most folks to believe
but despite its wide spread use and legal stauts it remains the most widley used psychoactive substance in the world second only to liquor or benzos

Reputation Comments on this post:

agree!

[Spyder]

Totally agree dr.......it seems as though the more widespread use (i.e. caffine/alcohol) dulls the peoples perception of them being a "drug", just wonder what the end result of a ban on these substances would cause.

US prohibition proved that it "ain't gonna work" people want their drugs, it just seems that society wants to draw a line as to whats ok and whats not, in an effort to justify what they are doing, "well at least i'm not doing such and such"....

Reputation Comments on this post:

interesting topic you brought up

[Euphoric]

[top] Energy drinks linked to college students' risky behaviour

Thu Jul 24, 1:12 PM

Energy drinks, popular on campuses, have been linked to risky behaviours among college students, U.S. researchers have found.


Two recent studies by research scientist Kathleen Miller, with the University of Buffalo's Research Institute, find that college students who consume energy drinks frequently (six or more times a month) are three times more likely than non-drinkers to have smoked cigarettes, abused prescription drugs and been in a serious physical fight in the previous year.

Energy beverage drinkers are also twice as likely to have alcohol-related problems and to smoke marijuana as non-drinkers, and they are more likely to engage in such activities as unsafe sex, not wearing a seatbelt, participating in an extreme sport and doing something on a dare.

"Energy drink consumption is correlated with substance use, unsafe sexual activity and several other forms of risk-taking," Miller notes. "For parents and college officials, frequent energy drink consumption may be a red flag or warning sign for identifying a young person at higher risk for health-compromising behaviour."

Miller pointed out that drinking energy drinks does not necessarily lead to other activities jeopardizing health and well-being. Nor can it be proven that energy drink consumption is the direct cause of this behaviour, and not a drink sought out by high-risk individuals.

The study looked at the behaviours of 795 students, with 52 per cent of them male and 48 per cent female. Thirty-nine per cent reported consuming at least one energy drink in the previous month.

Approximately 75 per cent of the participants who consumed energy drinks said they had mixed them with alcohol.

"It is widely, but incorrectly, believed that the caffeine in energy drinks counteracts the effects of alcohol, so students will have the energy to party all night without getting as drunk," said Miller. "While the combination may reduce perceptions of intoxication, it does not reduce alcohol-induced impairments of reaction time or judgment."

According to Miller, an eight-ounce energy drink typically contains 80 mg of caffeine (although some brands may contain several times that amount), approximately comparable to one strong cup of coffee or two 12-ounce caffeinated soft drinks.

It also includes ingredients that can potentially interact with other substances, such as taurine, other amino acids, large doses of vitamins, and plant and herbal extracts.

The studies were published in the March/April issues of the Journal of American College Health.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/08072..._energy_drinks

[Milk man]

Originally Posted by Euphoric

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/08072..._energy_drinks

This all seems like a bunch of shit. It reminds me of the post by Richard smoker(http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16679)

!!! BREAD IS DANGEROUS !!!

Research on bread indicates that:
1. More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users.
2. Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
3. In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations.
4. More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.
5. Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average American eats more bread than that in one month!
6. Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low incidence of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and osteoporosis.
7. Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after as little as two days.
8. Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.
9. Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
10. Newborn babies can choke on bread.
11. Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.
12. Most American bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling.

In light of these frightening statistics, it has been proposed that the following bread restrictions be made:
1. No sale of bread to minors.
2. A nationwide "Just Say No To Toast" campaign, complete celebrity TV spots and bumper stickers.
3. A 300 percent federal tax on all bread to pay for all the societal ills we might associate with bread.
4. No animal or human images, nor any primary colors (which may appeal to children) may be used to promote bread usage.
5. The establishment of "Bread-free" zones around schools.


This article was written by B.S. Wheatberry in a desert after consuming mass quantities of yeast bread then realizing his canteen was empty. (seriously :P )

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good point, and thanks for linking the satire.