Researchers have found consuming four cans of energy drinks resulted in abnormal changes in blood pressure and heart rhythm within two hours according to Daily Mail.
The researchers revealed 32 fluid ounces (just under a litre) of a commercially-available energy drink was found to contain about 108g of sugar (roughly 27 teaspoons), and 320mg of caffeine, close to the daily recommended daily limit, along with other substances such as taurine, ginseng and carnitine.
“We decided to study energy drinks’ potential heart health impact because previous research has shown 75 percent of the base’s military personnel have consumed an energy drink,” Dr Emily Fletcher, of the US Air Force Medical Centre in Travis, California, said.
The researchers found energy drinks made the heart pause for an extra 10 milliseconds between beats.
“It’s the pause from the end of the electrical impulse generating the heart to beat to the next impulse,” Dr Fletcher said.
“If this time interval, which is measured in milliseconds, is either too short or too long, it can cause the heart to beat abnormally. The resulting arrhythmia can be life threatening.”
According to Daily Mail, some medications increase this pause by 6 milliseconds and have warnings about the effect on product labels whereas energy drinks seem to have a bigger impact.
The finds of the research were published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Phil