Are energy drinks such as 5-hour energy and Monster safe?

Posted on by bill

Are energy drinks such as 5-hour energy, Red Bull and Monster safe?

Energy drinks, made us mostly of caffeine, sugar and flavoring are all the rage. They may not be as safe as many people believe say federal officials that are now linking 13 deaths over the past five years to these drinks.

At a recent wedding, I noticed someone using 5-hour energy to make a mixed cocktail, which apparently makes you both happy and wide awake. These drinks are now a multi billion dollar business.

Should you be concerned? Of course, coffee has caffeine and many students used this in the past to stay awake the night before an exam. Most of these drinks have a much higher concentration of caffeine than two or three cups of coffee would, which may be why many students now drink Monster, Red Bull and 5-hour energy instead.

Read the NY Times article here

Caffeinated Drink Cited in Reports of 13 Deaths

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Federal officials have received reports of 13 deaths over the last four years that cited the possible involvement of 5-Hour Energy, a highly caffeinated energy shot, according to Food and Drug Administrationrecords and an interview with an agency official.

The disclosure of the reports is the second time in recent weeks that F.D.A. filings citing energy drinks and deaths have emerged. Last month, the agency acknowledged it had received five fatality filings mentioning another popular energy drink, Monster Energy.

Since 2009, 5-Hour Energy has been mentioned in some 90 filings with the F.D.A., including more than 30 that involved serious or life-threatening injuries like heart attacks, convulsions and, in one case, aspontaneous abortion, a summary of F.D.A. records reviewed by The New York Times showed.

The filing of an incident report with the F.D.A. does not mean that a product was responsible for a death or an injury or contributed in any way to it. Such reports can be fragmentary in nature and difficult to investigate.

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