The Risks of Energy Drinks

I' Wendy Zuckerman in J listening to Science versus. And this is the show that pits facts against flat whites. On today's show caffinee Should you quit it Caffeine is one of the most used drugs in the world. eightighty five percent of people in the US drink at least one caffeinated beverage each day. And that includes kids. But yet desespite the fact that we are shoving this drink down our I hold There have always been these fears that caffeine is bad for our health Your cup of coffee could soon come with a spoonful of cancer warning. My heart was racing. I was super anxious. somethingomething was happening. I was having a panic attack. Could it all be a sign though of a serious problem? A problem like caffeine addiction And our worries around caffeine have reached new heights when it comes to energy drinks Just last year, a seventeen year old from Texas died after drinking Alani Mu A Texas family is filing a wrongful death lawsuit over an energy drink that they claimed killed a teenage girl. According to family lawyers, a coroners's report shows that she died from an enlarged heart caused by stress in a large amount of caffeine from Alani energy drinks The distributor being sued denies the claims and the company that makes the drink says it's labeled not recommended for children This is just the latest in a string of scary stories from the past several years of people, often younger people Dying soon after drinking energy drinks. Davis collapsed in the classroom of his high school in South Carolina. It wasn't a car crash that took his life Instead, it was an energy drink. She drank two. twenty four ounce energy drinks in less than twenty four hours And they took her life. So today on the show, what is this drug doing to our brains and our bodies Is it ruining our sleep, turning us into caffeine addicts and potentially even killing us When it comes to caffeine, there's a lot of my heart was racing But then there's science Science versus caaffeine is coming up. just after the break Now on Acorn TV, there's a killer on the loose. Brooke Shields stars in the new original murder Mystery. You're killing me. You spin some cppot theory and I find the evidence. I solved mysteries for a living. I think I'm good to go. Murder has met its match. You cannot be here. This is a police investigation. I've ridden you. What does that mean? It was a big city cub with a small jurisdictic . Boomers are so cute and they flirt. You're killing me all new episodes. Now on Acorn TV Looking to see what's happening around your home? Ring's battery doorbell helps you track packages and see who's at your door in real time. The Outdoor Cam pllus protects your yard at night with a wide field of view and clearer retinal two K video, or upgrade to four K cameras and doorbells with retinal vision for ultra clear zoom in detail Your door, your yard, your home. With Ring, it's protected. Shop cameras, doorbells, and more at ring d. com now Welcome back today on the show. We're taking on caffeine and energy drinks to find out once and for all bad is this stuff doing in our bodies and our brains And we first drank up the science on caffeine a few years ago when we first put down this episode. And back then, there was all of this hbub about the energy drink prime. And that's what got senior producer Rose Rimler interested in this topic in the first place. Yeah, A lot of the talk was about how it's got crazy amount of caffeine, it's bad for us and energy drinks are bad for us. O surfed us this feeling that like caffeine is bad for us And I don't know about you, but I have caffeine every day when I have my coffee So it made me wonder like is my caffeine habit something I should Take a second look at or B caffine, like just all hunky Dory. Yes, I love I love this question because caffeine H has been a thing that I have actively said, you know what? I'm not into meth, but I'm gonna be fine with my caffeine use You know, I felt guilty about it and and I do want to know whether I I need to. So where do we begin? Let's start with Astr Nilig. She's a caffeine researcher. And she says, she hears this idea about people feeling guilty about their caffeine intake all the time I meet somebody and they ask me on what I work and they say, Oh I work on coffees and people are very shy all of a sudden and withdrawing a bit and telling me, Ohh, it's very bad. I should probably not than Bastid is an emermeritus research director at France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research, and she has studied caffeine for decades. With her help, I'm going to walk you through what caffeine is doing to your brain and to your body. Okay So Wendy, I asked you to come prepared with your favorite calffeinated beverage. what did you bring today? I have an cappuccino. Okay, take a sip. Should I do it like ASMR? or if I guess if you have misophodia, just chew it out Okay, so I'm gonna tell you what it's doing right now. Okay. So scientists think that once the coffee gets to your stomach, Basically gonna wake up your guts, It's gonna to get your stomach to make more acid. It's gonna to get your liver to start making bile. So it's really an activator of digestion. Is that why not to be crude, but sometimes you have to go number two after you drink coffee Yeah, atast in some especially sensitive individuals. Yeah, it's like that. We know this because thankfully some scientists in the eighties got permission to stick probes But holes. Oh. and then give them coffee to see what happens. And the reason they wanted to test it this way is because they had given these people a survey and said Do any beverages make you have to poop? And a third of the people in this hundred person survey said, Yeahah, actually coffee Yeah. makes me have to poop So they got some of these people and some other, you know non responders into the lab Probe up in their upper part of their rectum And so what they were looking for was to see, is there an actual physical change in your lower intestine when you've had coffee. And what did they find? In the people who said, yes, coffee does this to me, they could actually measure increased rectal activity. Oh. So that. I'm clenching. I'm clenching. Have you been clenching as you've been reading this research? No, I'm quite relaxed, so okay As So soon as he said increased rectal activity, I was just like I like thinking about like these sort of Peristalsis of your buttth hole, you know, like's graceful. How food gets down, it's something else has to make it come come out and that increased In response to coffee for some people. Interesting Okay, I have a very important question. Yeah. How quickly quickly Does this activation happen? Because it came to happen within minutes. It feels so validated Wow I like I will'll sometimes just take a few sips of coffee and just like need to do a ship Sorry for the kids out there. N to do a big crap And I have come to believe that, oh, it's just placebo at this point. Like surely it can't be working that quickly, but it can It can't just so you know Rose because this is my first coffee for the day Yeah, if you have if you have to run off on the I don't. because I took a couple of sips before our chat And I'm also sort took care of business. I appreciate that level of planning. Always come prepared. That is May. So that's how coffee can affect the gut. And from there, caffeine starts getting absorbed in your bloodstream. Okay Depends on your body, but this takes about half an hour to an hour to peak. So caffeine's in your blood gets to the blood brain barrier and it just sails right past it I talked to Astord about this When I think of coffee entering our brain, I just imagine my brain is a sponge That just soaks up the coffee. Is that Is that kind of right? Yeah, why not? Yes because, you know, you drink your coffee. All of a sudden Your whole body, including your brain, gets invaded by these caffe molecules. brain, it stimulates some neurotransmitters, including dopamine, and that gives us a bit of a mood boost The big thing that caffeine does in our brain is, of course, that it wakes you up. Yes, Yes. It's claim to fame. And this happens because caffeine basically arges into the brain and like elbows out this molecule called adenosine from these special receptors. And what adenosine is, it's like the sleepy molecule So it like binds the receptors in your brain. that basically turn on the feeling of sleepiness. So caffeine's like out of my way. I'm coming in. I'm gonna to by into those adenosine receptors. And that means you don't feel asleepy. So just to get like real nerdy here. It's not that caffeine is binding onto these receptors and going, let's go. brain, get excited. It's rather the lack of adenoside, the lack of sleepiness that wakes you up. Yeah, and that's what we like about caffeine, right? Like that is the whole point that it wakes us up And it's not just about being awake. We actually have a lot of evidence that Caffeine helps us be more alert, more focused, and helps us to react to stuff faster This has been quite extensively studied. This is clea. So for if I take a stupid example, but please you are facing a lion If you have been drinking caffeine, you will react stop And you will have run away before. couldould save your life. Yeah, of could absolutely. Could make a difference and save your life And scientists have actually tested this. They gave free coffee to people who were visiting the zoo that day, and then they opened the lion cage Amazing and they got away, they got away. And some got away, some didn't. That's right. thoseose in the full Sbo group were less likely to get away We are joking. No, there are no lions. But there is one small study that suggests that Cffeine really could save your life So in this study, researchers had people stay up really late and then drive a car on the highway in the middle of the night. This is a real car and a real highway. Oh my God. They had a driving instructor in the next seat who could take over control. things were getting bad. Thank goodness. So the scientists were counting how many times people veered out of their lane when they had placebo versus when they had coffee And it turns out the coffee made a big difference The number of times people veered over the lane went way down after people had coffee. Okay hours of caffe. Yes, right. And then I found this study that just made me laugh because It's just so such a funny concept. these scientists really wanted to find out if coffee can make us appreciate humor more When we are sleep deprived, we kind of lose our sense of humor, It takes a hit. So the researchers were wondering, would caffeine give us back our sense of humor or improve that? Uhuh. and I don't know if you know this Wendy but there is a scientific test of sense of humor. Oh my gosh, that was entirely my next question. What is the joke that scientists ask that they're like, if you find this funny, you have a good sense of humor, then you're operating on full cylinders. Yes. Yeah. So they would show them like two different pictures and ask which picture is funnier or more podcast appropriate, they would have them read two different headlines, fake news headlines and ask, which is funnier? So here's an example I'm curious if you're going to get it right. I feel very cocky about my sense of humor. Okay, so here's an example Which of these two headlines is funnier veterinarian investigates failed panda mating T line one or Pandemating fails, veterinarian takes over. That's headline two. Which is funnier? Headline two is funnier because it suggests. I mean, headline one isn't funny at all, right the headline to suggest. Just something really really disturbing actually And the third headline is veterinaryianfx panda Um you're right. It is the second Headline? Yes. acccording to science, that is objectively funnier, which I guess it is. Al I'm so proud of them for being a little a bit naughty Well, it turns out that the caffeine in this case did not help people. Yeah I totally forgot. we were talking about caffeine So bottom line Caffeine may not improve your humor, but we have lots of evidence to show that It's not. A myth or a placebo effect, like caffeine does help us Wake up, stay up, stay alert So that brings us to something that people actually worry about with caffeine that it's keeping you too awake that it's messing with your sleep. Yes I have worried about this too and in fact cut down on caffeine because I've been worried about this. So let's meet Gregory Marcus. I'm just gonna move my dog. Come on. He's a cardiologist and a professor of medicine at UCSF If you could be any caffeinated product, which caffeinated product would you be Oh, Cappucino, no doubt I guess he sees himself as serious on the bottom, but like a little bit frothy and sweet on the top You know, he didn't. refer to himself that way, but based on my conversation with Greg, I would say that's an accurate Description of him. Buttercup has been removed for the moment So gr to this like pretty unique study where he got people to either drink coffee or not drink coffee at random And then he was able to like precisely measure exactly how that affected their sleep. Oh, okay They recruited about one hundred coffee drinkers in San Francisco They put a bunch of stuff on them They werear a fit fit, which measured how well they slept and their steps and they wore a portable heart monitor. So it's essentially like a very big band aid and it goes on the chest to the left of the sternum essentially. And like interestingly, in the middle of the sticker, there's this big button. We instructed them, just push that button whenever you have cup of coffee or a caffeinated drink. So you have your coffee and you hit your button And one way they made sure that people were doing what they were supposed to do, you know, not drinking coffee if they weren't supposed to that day. They had everyone in the study get this app on their phone allowed the team to monitor their location So the team could see if they visited Cff shops. So if they went to a coffee shop on a day they weren't supposed to have caffeine, that would be highly suspicious Would they get like would there be like a bright button goes off in your office? L a flashing red light, or they get an electric shaw Yeah, that's a good idea, interestnteresting idea That's exactly what I was thinking Well, luckily for the people in the city We didn't design it We did not get shot.. Okay. okay. I'm gonna to go out of a liib heroes and say they're on average Cffee did affect people's sleep? Yes, But the key question here is how much Because there is this idea that coffee just really robs you of your sleep Wow In reality, Greg found on days where people were randomly assigned to consume coffee Eing. They on average slept thirty minutes less. Yeah, so on average, if they were in the coffee drinking group They had half an hour less sleep And I could even dive into the research and figure out How much sleep cup of coffee cost these people. And it turns out about fifteen minutes of sleep. Okay, so loosely for every shot of espresso or just like regular coffee you'll get around fifteen minutes less sleep a day Uhhuh. Okay. Yeah's not t That's not o There is an important Caveat which is that Greg found this really varied from person to person based on their genetics So on top of all that other stuff, Greg also took saliva samples from people and worked out if they had these genes that make them either a fast or a slow metabolizer of caffeine And he found that the slow metabolizers Lost closer to an hour of sleep a night on h. And the fast metabolizers lost Basically no sleep at all H So people who say, oh, yeah, I can have a, you know, cup of coffee at night, I go right to sleep. they may be really telling the truth My mom proudly says that she can drink coffee like at dinner time and it will not affect her sleep to the point where she will mock me When she wants a coffee at four PM and I say too late for me, Mama ook vindicated once more by a science versus episode. Well, it's like you're both right. She's right that she can have a coffee late at night And you're right that you can't. You're probably both right. Okay You know, isn't right is those People online, itfluenzs, I don't know what we wantna call them. Anyway, who have these like definitive statements about How much coffee you're allowed to drink and you need to stop at ten AM and O only drink two cups or whate whatever they're saying, like actually what the science says is this is very dependent on your genetics And And those blanket statements are kindbolics Yeah. So that's sleep But Greg study looked at something else necessarily associate haaving a cup of coffee And that is exercise So on top of measuring sleep, He also measured how many steps they took every day And on days randomly signed a coffee, participants on average exhibited thousandousand more steps on those days. That's a lot. It is a lot. And in fact, there's other evidence that That magnitude of a difference may be meaningful in the long run, and enhancing longevity. Oh, wow. Yeah. For example, one study found that older women who take five thousand steps a day live longer than similar women who took four thousand steps a Oh, that's cool And it's not just step count. We actually have a lot of data showing that caffeine can help us athletically So when people have caffeine before they exercise, they tend to go a little harder So like people will be able to run for longer or, for example, do more squats. boom There's a study that looked at swimmers doing a fifteen hundred meter race. So that's almost a mile. And it found that Having some caffeine beforehand shave twenty three seconds off their time compared to a placebo And having caffeine before exercise is considered safe as long as you don't overdo it. It's the equivalent of one or two coffees before exercising. Wow And so why is that happening? Well, you know how caffeine can boost your dopamine So that might be like putting us in a better mood so we can work harder. And we also know that caffeine can kind of turn the dial down on feelings of pain. That's why some painkillers have caffeine in them So maybe athletes aren't feeling the burn quite as much. And then finally, there's some evidence that caffeine can actually increase the amount of calcium getting released by your cells, which could make your muscles work better. Wow. So Wendy, do you still feel guilty about your about your coffee No Thus far no, but at the same time We haven't really talked about risks yet point. So next we're going to talk about is caffeine addictive? And what's going on with the scary stories we hear about people dying after drinking energy drinks? And that's coming up to st after this quick S rightright Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Z bound tzepatide may be able to help. Bbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity, or some adults with overweight who also have weight related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off Zepbound is approved as a two point five, five, seven point five, ten, twelve point five, or fifteen milligram injection Zeepound contains terzepotide and should not be used with other terzeepotide containing products or any GLP one receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if zeepound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pens or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had medularary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type two Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop zip bound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia, if you're nursing, pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills Taking Z bound with a sulfonyal urea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems to your doctor Call one eight hundred five four five five nine seven nine or visit zeepbounds. liily. com This episode is brought to you by SopFi, the all in one finance app. The sooner you start investing, the more potential you have to build your money. Even for beginners, SopFi makes it simple with an easy to use app. To get you going, SopFi is offering up to one thousand dollars in stock when you open and fund a SopFi's self directed brokerage account. Learn more at Sopi dot com slash sppotify Brokerage offer through Sfi Securities LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. Terms apply. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zbounds terzepetide may be able to help. Zbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity, or some adults with overweight who also have weight related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. Zepbound is approved as a two point five, five, seven point five, ten, twelve point five, or fifteen milligram injection Zeepound contains terzepatide and should not be used with other terzepotide containing products or any GLP one receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if zepound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pens or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had medularary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type two Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop zipbound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia. if your' nursing pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills Taking Zound with a sulfinyl urea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems T to your doctor. callall one eight hundred five four five five nine seven nine or visit zeppbounds. liily. com Every outfit starts with a choice. What am I wearing underneath Something comfortable And let's be honest, something that keeps everything looking smooth That's where Vanity Fair lingerie comes in. Their new smoothing wireless bra has four way stretched fabric for all over smoothing, soft lightightly lined cuubps for a natural shape, and no wire comfort that last all day. All over Smooth, all day comomfort, Vanity Fair lingerie Ay is a target today Welcome back. Today on the show, we are asking should you quit your caffeine? Should you spit out your coffee, spill your tea on the floor Say goodbye to the energy drinks Ros R Milliss, ai producer at Science Fverses is telling us all about it Heroes. Hey Wendy. So the next thing I want to dive into is this idea that you can get addicted to caffeine. You know, And I think a lot of that comes from this like terrible withdrawal that some people have when they stop it S withdrawal is a real thing. And people who quit coffee all of a sudden can totally feel sick. like about half of them will get a headache. couldould be because caffeine restricts blood flow to the brain and when we go off it, the blood whooshes back in. Oh, wow. Some people even feel like they have the flu and they feel like really tired and crappy. so send them help. So pray for them. Do I need to pray for them? Do Like if they, if suddenly there was an apalypse and they couldn't get their coffee, how bad would it be? All those symptoms They go away for most people somewhere between two to nine days Okay, so if they can survive for nine days, they'll be back to normal. Yes, just hunk her down in your bunker. Hunker in your bunker, G. And it'll play itself out All right. Okaykay. But back to this A addiction thing. So You know, you might reasonably call yourself dependent on caffeine if you feel sick without it. That's not the same thing as addiction addiction, what experts point to is that You are using a substance even though it's bad for you, has negative consequences on your life. Maybe you even like really want to quit and you can't And I think right now, the general idea among scientists is that This is not a problem for most people. They don't really see any evidence of this like negatively affecting people. Right for most people. And then what about tolerance? like this idea that You need to have more and more caffeine to have the same effect Yeah, we typically Don't really see that with caffeine And one reason is probably At a high dose, caffeine starts to activate this other type of adenosine receptor in our brain that causes anxiety. Oh, this is why you get all like jittery and like o maybe you have's caffeine There's sort of a A threshold you can cross from all the feeling like alert and energetic and kind of good to, oh, now I feel anxious and jittery and weird And one researcher I spoke to said that for caffeine specifically, this window, this He calls it a window between the good and the bad feelings is pretty short So you can kind of easily tip yourself over when you've had more caffeine into that anxious feeling You're starting to feel that way, you know, many people would probably put down their third venti frappuccino of the day at that point. Yes. So there's kind of a natural cap for a hundred most people how much caffeine we're gonna drink every day Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, because u Reently I did, I was like, f, I'm just gonna to drink more coffee. and it did make me feel anxious. And soil I was like, no, no, just go back to one ofups. like just yeah, this isn't for a run instead or whatever. Yeah, it's not like worth it to most people Yeah, at a certain point You know, this can be different if you're mixing caffeine with other drugs, that's more dangerous. but Bottom line, caffeine is not considered a drug of abuse There is no caffeine use disorder in the DSM. you know, the big manual for psychiatric disorders. It's been proposed rightight now it's not officially in there. Okay. so So for now, we could say science says caffeine isn't really that addictive Is that we'? think I think so. I think yeah Yeah, I think so. So th'us far, al right. it doesn't It's really not seeming like caffeine is that bad and I'm trying to think why I thought Cffine was bad for you? I actually might have an answer In the nineties, there was news that Coffee was associated with bladder cancer. Oh Really? But that has been debunked in more recent years. Turns out it was not a real association. But even if you don't remember that stuff about bladder cancer, I think that sort of percolated, so to speak in the culture. And we haven't quite gotten over it. Plus, there's a lot of fears around pregnancy and caffeine. Right. And that is something to think about because we know that caffeine can cross the placenta and get to the fetus And so drinking a lot of caffeine when you're pregnant isn't recommended. But you know, health guidelines from around the world, they say you can have one or two cups of coffee a day if you're pregnant. Right. You know, overall, just putting aside pregnancy That's away feeling pretty reassured about Caffine because Here's something that I thought was like Really kind of great. So it turns out that people who drink coffee have a lower risk of Parkinson's disease, depression Type two diabetes. and heart disease. Really? And although we once thought coffee was carcinogenic, more recent studies have found that it actually might reduce your risk of some cancers. What? Like liver and breast cancer. Are you kidding me? Are you s like Yeah, and even drinking coffee is associated with being less likely to die earlier So the biggest benefits are seen in people who drink two to three cups a day. Even at higher amounts, we still people apparently getting some benefit One study looked at people drinking as much as eight cups of coffee a day and found they still lived a little longer than people who didn't drink any coffee. Wow Yeah, I mean, there aren't that many people that drink eight cups of coffee a day, so that's kind of a smaller sample size That point stands that the science suggests that coffee is not actively harming you. and caffeinated tea also seems to be good for us. I mean, are we sure? Are we sure about this? L why would caffeine? why would coffee and tea have these benefits? nobody totally knows. It could have something to do with the exercise boosts you get from caffeine because like you said earlier, like walking Yeah more steps a day Yeah but also it could be that it's not really about the caffeine, it's about the other stuff that's in plant So the coffee bean, the tea leaf There's a lot of stuff in there that's really good for us and is anti inflammatory and has antioxidant potential. Wow, I feel very good about my coffes. I was not expecting this from Science, but thank you anytime. So then What I don't want to be I don't want to crapple over this party Is that how that phrase goes Rin on your pir? Yes that It's a very it's a visceral expression You see, I don't know if I have a good sense of beingor I just laugh so much of my own jokes. I know a test you can take. G. Okay, but But But but what does this all make about the energy drinks issue because to to change the tune to get quite serious is like There are these stories about Egy drinks killing people. So what does this mean? Which is the opposite of what I just told you about. coffee right? Yeah. Well, a lot of times what people say is the problem is that Energy drinks are dangerous because they are packed way too full of caffeine. right But the funny thing is when you look at the labels, many of them really don't have that much caffeine in them How much caffeine is in your average energy drink? Well, okay, so like Chuck Schumer said that Prime energy had an eye popping amount of caffeine So I looked up the label of prime It contains two hundred milligrams of caffeine. What two hundred What, like two shots of espresso. That's it. That's it. Yeah, two or three, depending on how you make them. I love that you were like so I went deep Ucover. I bought a prime and I turned it around And I looked at the libel. And of course, you can't overdose on caffeine The toxic effects are thought to start at twelve hundred milligrams, which is about six cans of prime And there are case reports of people drinking a bunch of energy drinks and being hospitalized. But here's where things get mysterious.h. There are reports of people, often younger people dying after drinking less than that which suggests this isn't just about caffeine And Professor Sachin Sha saw reports like that in the news And thought, hey, there's something going on here You know, it was actually a little bit sad at points talking to Sachin because he's actually been in touch with the parents of kids who have died after drinking energy drinks. Yeah, we've had emails from other countries one where somebody's like, I haveve kept drrink that my kid drank from the time when they drank it, just in case it helps future scientist I'm happy to give you that drink Oh, that's heartbreaking Yes So Sachin, who's a professor of pharmacy at the University of the Pacific in California He wanted to know Why would anyone die after drinking a couple of energy drinks? Yeah. Get to the bottom of it He did the study where he got people to drink a couple of energy drinks and then looked at what their heart was doing. Because typically what we see in these cases is that someone's heart stops beating shortly after drinking energy drinks. So he got these volunteers to come into the lab, he hooked them up to an EKG. Many people see this on TV shows when they have somebody in the hospital, they're connected to this screen. They're lying in the hospital and they show this squiggly line. That's looking at your heart rhythm Yes. just to avoid us putting the sound effect in. Always thinking ahead? Okay so they've the energy drinks, and then he monitored them. And one hour, two hours, four hours, six hours, and twenty four hours. And he was looking at this particular part of our heart's rhythm that's called the QT interval It's basically looking at how long it takes your ventricles to contract after every beat If this takes longer than normal It can throw your heart into something that's called fibrillation whichich is like instead of going squeeze, squeeze, squeeze Your heart starts Quivering likeike a nervous Chihuahua And the problem with that is that your heart isn't actually pumping out any blood And you can die. Oh man Okay, so the energy drinks Mck up the QK interval So so yeah. so, you know, what was interesting is in that first study We found that energy drrainks were prolonging the QT interval by ten milliseconds A follow up study he did found this again the energy drinks extended the QT interval by this time six milliseconds And Sachin points out that several drugs have been pulled from the market prolonging the ute interval by six milliseconds. M, Wow Okay, so if I were to drink the equivalent seen from what he gave them But in coffee, would my QT interval be extended like that No, stududies have also looked at this for caffeine or for coffee, and they don't find the same thing And actually in suchin study, and one of his studies, they included a caffeinated control And it didn't do the same thing. to people's hearts So if energy drinks are doing this, Why aren't heaps of people like getting heart attacks or dying after drinking energy drinks. I mean, millions of people must be guzzling this stuff and Only a handful have died or so Yeah, I mean, it's not like anyone in Satchin study had to be rushed to the hospital. But the thinking here is that there are some people who could be really vulnerable to this people who have heartbeats that are already have kind of a long QT interval And then the energy drink might extend it even more tip you over into Chihuahua territory. Right, right One study actually found this, it gave energy drreinks to people with a heart condition Like that and found that the drinks extended their QT interval in such a way it was actually dangerous U huh So then So then can we go back to that Po like if it wasn't the caffeine, if it's not the caffeine doing this then what is it in energy drinks That's That's causing this Yeah, I mean, inception study, they tested a couple different brands. They both had caffeine, toreine, which is an amino acid, and a supplement called glucuranoactone found in a lot of energy drinks Like red bull. So this is the ingredients. this is how we get wings. Is that right This is the wing recipe. Yes. Okay So all this stuff together seemed to extend the QT interval. but then I found this one study that tried to really get to the bottom of which ingredient is the bad guy here? So they basically deconstructed a red bll I had people drink a few of the components one at a time while they were hooked up to an AKG, just like Sachin And after drinking the red bowl, volunteers had a prolonged coutine interval Be None of the individual components. What? Neither did the combination of caffeine and toreine together. So I asked Sachin about this What do you think is in these energy drinks that causes these changes? That's the million dollar question. Syan! D You know I was having coffee with my brother the other day and he said there is always a point in the sciidence versus episode where the scientist says D, we don't really know what's going on And I guess this is that point. Yeah, we've arrived at that point in the episode And of course, it's also really hard to say what's going on when this is probably very, very rare, you know? People drink energy drinks all the time and very few people in in the hospital Okay, so here is what I think I have learned from this episode, Ros Rimla. Tell me how I did. Ssar it And if I pass the test I have a good sense of humor Is what we love? Yeah. Yes. Case Claus. caafeine truly does Make me poo Very quickly. Nice It can affect your sleep, but very much dependent on genetics. So dare I say listen to your body and not what people online might be telling you about what you should and should not do with caffeine. And meanwhile, it might reduce your risk of Depression, if you're drinking coffee and tea What' you say? cancer, Parkinson's, diabetes, diabetes and energy drinks. there is something weird about them. So if you are looking for a boost It's safer to go with tea or coffee. How I do? A plus peopleu. I'm not surprised. You as surprise I sent a case of prime to your house. So great. So don't drink it all at once. Excellent. Cheese. ise. Cers Before you go, Rose Rse Pse. I'm here, I'm still here. Okay, okay. how many citations are in this week's episode? This episode was the first time I've ever opened so many tabs that my browser stopped displaying them