Energy Drinks May Be Unsafe For Kids, New Report

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Energy Drinks May Be Unsafe For Kids, New Report

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/216537.php

Energy drinks may be unsafe for some children especially those with diabetes,

seizures, heart abnormalities or mood and behavior disorders, according to a

report by researchers at the University of Miami School of Medicine

published in the journal Pediatrics this week; however the beverage industry

fiercely disputes this.

Senior author of the report Dr E. Lipshultz, professor and chair of

pediatrics, associate executive dean for child health at the School, said

until we know more about the effects of energy drinks on the health of children

and teenagers, they should be discouraged from drinking them on a routine basis.

" We wanted to raise awareness about the risks. Our systematic review suggests

that these drinks have no benefit and should not be a part of the diet of

children and teens, " he said.

For their report Lipshultz and colleagues reviewed the current published

literature on energy drinks and concluded they have no health benefits for

children and that many of the ingredients they contain are understudied and not

regulated.

They said that both in view of the known and unknown properties of the

ingredients, plus reports of toxicity potentially related to energy drink

consumption (for instance where poison centers have received calls about

caffeine overdose in children), they may even put some children who consume

energy drinks at risk of serious adverse health effects.

They called for more research to understand the effect of energy drinks in

at-risk groups.

They added that regulation of the marketing and sales of energy drinks should be

based on appropriate research, and the surveillance of toxicity related to

energy drink consumption should be improved (for instance the current system in

the US does not separately record if a caffeine overdose was due to consuming

energy drinks).

In the meantime, pediatricians should be aware of the possible effects of energy

drinks in children and teenagers, particularly in the more vulnerable groups,

and to screen for heavy use both alone and with alcohol, and to educate families

and youngsters at risk for energy drink overdose, which can lead to seizures,

stroke and even sudden death, advised the authors.

For their systematic review, Lipshultz and colleagues searched PubMed, the

online database of biomedical journal citations and abstracts, and Google using

key words like " energy drink " , " sports drink " , " ADHD " , " diabetes " , " poison

control center " , " children " , " adolescents " , " caffeine " , " taurine " , to find

articles related to energy drinks. They also read the product information that

energy drink manufacturers put on their websites.

They found that:

Children, adolescents and young adults account for half the energy drink market.

According to self-report surveys, between 30% and 50% of teenagers and young

adults consume energy drinks.

Energy drinks frequently contain high levels of stimulants such as caffeine,

taurine and guarana, and safe consumption levels have not been established for

most adolescents.

There have been reports of energy drinks linked to serious adverse effects,

particularly in children, adolescents and young adults with seizures, heart

abnormalities, diabetes, mood and behavioral disorders, or who are on certain

medications.

Of the 5,448 caffeine overdoses reported in 2007 in the US, 46% of them were in

young people under the age of 19.

Several countries and American states have debated whether to restrict the sales

and advertising of energy drinks.