American doctors recommend refraining from "sports cocktails"
Last reviewed: 20.11.2021
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
American doctors addressed the public with caution about energy drinks. So, to children and teenagers these drinks should not be drunk in any case; it is better to refrain from "sports cocktails", in extreme cases, use them in limited quantities.
According to Dr. Holly Benjamin from the American Academy of Pediatricians, children do not feel the need for energy. Drinks contain caffeine and other stimulants that do not have nutritional value, so they simply do not need a growing body. In addition, children are more vulnerable to harmful ingredients in the energy sector, and if they drink regularly, the child's body begins to experience stress.
Making new recommendations, doctors analyzed the results of previous works, which studied both energy and sports drinks that do not contain stimulants. Specialists note that the composition of the energy pool includes many ingredients, including vitamins and herbal extracts, the side effects of which are not yet fully understood. And although today there are not so many cases of health problems directly related to power engineering, stimulants are able to disturb the heart rhythm and in rare cases lead to seizures.
Ms. Benjamin remembers how recently a 15-year-old boy with a history of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was hospitalized with a heart attack. The cardiac abnormality occurred after taking two 700-gram bottles of a Mountain Dew soft drink containing caffeine. Because of ADHD, the teenager took stimulant medications, and the intake of an additional dose of caffeine in the body had a negative effect on the heart.
Holly Benjamin and her colleagues are sure that most children should drink only ordinary water. If the child or teenager works hard, sports drinks containing sugar can be taken. Those who lead a less active lifestyle, sports and energy drinks provoke a set of excess weight.
Recall that in February, pediatricians from Florida already warned about the dangers of power engineers and described cases of attacks, hallucinations, heart and kidney problems, liver damage in patients who drank a day on one or more cans of power engineers under the brands Red Bull, Spike Shooter, Redline and etc. For example, Ireland recorded 17 such cases between 1999 and 2005, and in New Zealand - 20 episodes that occurred in 2005-2009.