Ripper: Mandrake?
Mandrake: Yes, Jack?
Ripper: Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water?
Mandrake: Well, I can't say I have.
Ripper: Vodka, that's what they drink, isn't it? Never water?
Mandrake: Well, I-I believe that's what they drink, Jack, yes.
Ripper: On no account will a Commie ever drink water, and not without good reason.
Mandrake: Oh, eh, yes. I, uhm, can't quite see what you're getting at, Jack.
Ripper: Water, that's what I'm getting at, water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven-tenths of this earth's surface is water. Why, do you realize that seventy percent of you is water?
Mandrake: Uh, uh, Good Lord!
Ripper: And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids.
Mandrake: Yes.
Ripper: Are you beginning to understand?
Mandrake: Yes.
Ripper: Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure-grain alcohol?
Mandrake: Well, it did occur to me, Jack, yes.
Ripper: Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation. Fluoridation of water?
Mandrake: Uh? Yes, I-I have heard of that, Jack, yes. Yes.
Ripper: Well, do you know what it is?
Mandrake: No, no I don't know what it is, no.
Ripper: Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?
And then there is milk. Does beer contain proteins and fats? No.
I also don't really see why beer is included.
Since 2006 (in uni), when I was first introduced to energy drinks, I've been more or less addicted to them ever since. I even go so far as to regulate my consumption of them in cycles to get the most I can out of it: https://www.rdegges.com/2011/my-use-and-abuse-of-caffeine/
I never really liked the taste of coffee much (without loads of cream and sugar/splenda), so energy drinks were a happy medium because they taste really good, they come in lots of 0 sugar / calorie varieties (which is great when you're trying to stay in shape), and give you a LOT of caffeine per serving which makes me feel super high: happy, productive, focused.
Since 2006, I've probably had roughly 2 energy drinks per day (and over the last few years: maybe 4).
So... This really sucks.
I always "felt" like they were bad for me, but never really did any research as I knew it would most likely make me stop drinking them.
It's surprisingly easy to convince yourself not to look into something so you can continue justifying your actions. But now, I suppose, the fun is up.
It's really time I start being more careful with myself :(
If you want to be awake during the day, then get at least seven hours of sleep a night, preferably eight. If you really need caffeine some days, have one or two cups of coffee or black tea, no sugar added. But don't have caffeine every day or you'll regain that addiction. If your work schedule doesn't allow this, then accept that you are shortening your life and decreasing your quality of life for the sake of your work.
It's your life, make your decisions accordingly.
Maybe back when I was getting started I'd continue it to be a 'cost of business', but at this point in my life? No way! I'd rather be healthy / happy / more balanced.
I appreciate the advice =)
If you're just in it for caffeine, I occasionally quit carbonated drinks and substitute with water or tea and 200mg caffeine pills.
Black tea should work too. I personally don't like it much unless it comes with a heavy does of something else to mask the taste... but if you like it go for it!
I gave up on coffee after 2 years of having easily 6 coffees per day (espressos mostly). I had headaches and I wasn't as snappy as before for a few weeks, but now I feel much better.
I still drink coffee some times, but if I have one I have trouble sleeping that night. I instead have tea, which is one of the side effects of moving to England too ;-), and it works wonders to keep me responsive after lunch without affecting my sleep at night. They also taste great.
The best thing for me is that I now have a very good sleep every night as caffeine doesn't disturb it.
Take it easy, but get most of the caffeine out of your body. You'll feel great.
I like coffee a lot, but I don't crave it, and recently I had cut it out completely - my blood pressure got out of control, and once I almost fainted in the office (I had 160/100). Getting rid of stress, coffee, and a blood donation did wonders.
With caffeine though, it really elevates my mood, and makes me feel happy, and I think that has a lot to do with it.
Just be cautious and don't assume you won't get addicted to something! <33
Washing down multiple cans of it per day and coupled with an unhealthy lifestyle is a guarantee to have trouble down the line.
I'm astonished that the author seemed to expect a different outcome.
You can probably guess where this story leads... yep, onto the back of an ambulance, having a heart attack. :-(
Now anytime someone has a heart attack, there are probably a lot of factors involved. I can't sit here and say that energy drinks in particular caused mine. But in retrospect, the overall lifestyle I was living was not healthy and I paid for it.
So, long story short... don't be like me.
Related: we don't often think about how much alcohol we drink or red meat we eat.
We are also conditioned to accept massive doses of vitamins and minerals by the supplement market, to the point where 2000% B6 doesn't sound like it's a big deal. When you also consider personal variability in absorption rates, dose timing, and concurrent food intake, it's even harder to control for all the confounding variables when poor health manifests in an energy-drink consumer.
I have a typical multivitamin pack, sold in Denmark, which provides 100% of B6. Are things different in the States?
A lot of times it's overlooked that the form of the vitamin is different from what the body usually receives/produces.
There's no evidence that any of the other compounds in energy drinks beside caffeine do anything for alertness, and caffeine is a very safe drug.
These days I drink bulletproof coffee that I make at home and keep in a stainless steel mug. It takes a bit of getting used to, but drinking butter + mct oil+ coffee without sweeteeners is a pretty good way to start the day, IMHO. I feel much healthier because of it and love that it's compatible with the ketogenic diet, which I have lost about 20 lbs doing.
[1]http://www.ewg.org/enviroblog/2009/03/health-canada-finds-bp...
I think bulletproof coffee is a bit overrated though. I tried it and couldn't get into it, and that's with very good quality coffee. A bit of heavy cream is nice sometimes though.
Continued consumption of energy drinks like 5 Hour Energy / Costco Energy Shot / RockStar Pure Zero gave him the 2000% of the US recommended daily B6 of 2mg. Main effect: numbness in half of the body, a known side effect of B6 overdosing.
Interestingly, 46mg per day is still well below the value that's generally considered the safe upper limit: 100mg [1]. Presumably he also got some B6 from food, but probably not more than 1-2 mg.
Just take a quick glance at the ingredient list: Sugar. Caffeine. High-fructose corn syrup.
This is the case with most off the shelf beverages and processed foods. Remember: The majority of manufacturers do not care about your well-being or health. Toxic ingredients are so abundant, that eating "healthy" in the 21st century is a massive under-taking. Green tea might be a better and somewhat healthier substitute to any energy drink addicts that are reading this.
If they are not in the US and they took a sugarfree version, they'd only see caffeine, and that wasn't what caused the problem here, so that's not great advice.
The lesson you should take from this is that, when taking a combination drug like an energy drink, you have to go through ingredient by ingredient checking the dosages and reading the corresponding wikipedia pages. I do consume energy drinks, but I used that procedure to reject the brand that's reported causing a problem here.
Yeah, they're good for helping finish a late-night essay or helping sustain your programming train of thought... but they're not designed to be used often. Too much of anything will more often than not kill you.
When I was in college I was admitted to the ER for arrythmia. The condition was exacerbated by excess caffeine. I went from a pot of coffee a day to 3 cups a day for years, this included exercise and meditation. I refuse to touch energy drinks; while it gives me a shot of energy, prolonged use has consequences like my visit to the ER due to excessive coffee intake. I'd rather focus on getting the correct amount of sleep and taking regular breaks to recoup my energy rather than relying on coffee to feel awake.
The FNB noted that although several reports show sensory neuropathy occurring at doses lower than 500 mg/day, studies in patients treated with vitamin B6 (average dose of 200 mg/day) for up to 5 years found no evidence of this effect. Based on limitations in the data on potential harms from long-term use, the FNB halved the dose used in these studies to establish a UL of 100 mg/day for adults.
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminB6-HealthProfession...
Sometimes I drink the Runa energy drinks and I can verify they have no supplemental B6. I can also verify they taste really bizarre and many people cannot stomach them. Ironically the only thing making the taste of "regular energy drinks" drinkable is weird artificial flavorings and tons of syrupy carbs. Its not as weird tasting as some liquors, someone who can stomach a shot of scotch will probably be fine with a Runa. They taste like strong green tea mixed with a paint store, if that makes any sense.
I was mystified by the claims of poisoning because the dose where people start getting sick according to the medical data I found is about 5000% of the RDA. Only two documented cases in the whole world have resulted in problems at or below 5000% of the RDA. OP is something of a medical miracle to have been the third person on the planet to get symptoms below 5000%. I suppose somebody has to be the unlucky one. More than 50000% of RDA, about 10 times higher, is generally medically recognized as being unsafe for people in general. The ED/LD ratio for B6 is pretty safe compared to aspirin or tylenol or alcohol for that matter.
From wikipedia "For vitamin B6 labeling purposes 100% of the Daily Value is 2.0 mg."
The guy blames his rockstar drink, his 5 hour energy shot, and his supplements equally, but I checked online and the rockstar he's blaming is only 100% of the RDA (which is none the less a bit high) but the "Kirkland energy shot" is marked as 40 mg of B6 which is about 2000% of his RDA! That is a WTF product right there.
http://www.caffeineinformer.com/caffeine-content/kirkland-en...
Doing some math his unnamed OTC vitamin supplement is providing 4 mg or 200% of the RDA. Which is also unreasonably high, although not dangerously so.
I would say the title is very misleading as many (most?) energy drinks don't have near toxic levels of B6. One very specific generic copy of a brand does have a level that sickens people at a rate of 0.5 parts per billion but its still only about a tenth of what most medical professionals think would sicken most people.
I hope the author has a quick and easy recovery.
They also taste pretty nice, if you eat them singly. Much better than any coffee that can be brewed from such..
