I read the news today, oh boy…<\/p>\n
Red Bull drink lifts stroke risk: Australian study<\/a>.<\/p>\n CANBERRA (Reuters) – Just one can of the popular stimulant energy drink Red Bull can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke, even in young people, Australian medical researchers said on Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n The caffeine-loaded beverage, popular with university students and adrenaline sport fans to give them “wings”, caused the blood to become sticky, a pre-cursor to cardiovascular problems such as stroke.<\/em><\/p>\n “One hour after they drank Red Bull, (their blood systems) were no longer normal. They were abnormal like we would expect in a patient with cardiovascular disease,” Scott Willoughby, lead researcher from the Cardiovascular Research Centre at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, told the Australian newspaper.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Red Bull again…I can’t figure out what it is about Red Bull that gets everyone’s knickers in a twist.\u00a0 There are other energy drinks I’d question…but Red Bull???<\/p>\n To put this into context: I work in the bodybuilding field, and analyze a lot of supplements.\u00a0 To be blunt, there’s absolutely nothing in Red Bull that isn’t also found\u00a0in a ton of other products taken by gym rats all\u00a0over the world.\u00a0 And – insofar as I know –\u00a0there\u00a0aren’t any\u00a0stroke or MI epidemics currently raging among\u00a0consumers of the\u00a0vast array of workout boosters, “shooters,” or other, related “energy” supps containing the exact same ingredients: caffeine, glucuronolactone, taurine, B-vitamins and…yes, even that ol’ demon, sugar.\u00a0 In fact, I’d be prepared to argue that Red Bull, for all its bad reputation, is pretty wimpy stuff.\u00a0 It contains only 80 mg of caffeine – less than a cup of coffee.\u00a0 Both taurine<\/a> and glucuoronolactone are naturally-occurring compounds in the body, and Red Bull just doesn’t contain very much of them (this analysis found 983 mg taurine and 56 mg glucuronolactone<\/a>).\u00a0 It doesn’t have\u00a0any more sugar than most soft drinks do.\u00a0<\/p>\n So what’s the deal???<\/p>\n To find the answer, I went looking for the study…and ran straight into a brick wall.\u00a0 There was was no journal mentioned in the article,\u00a0nor was there an abstract\u00a0in PubMed.\u00a0 A Google search just turned up other,\u00a0cookie-cutter\u00a0news reports.\u00a0 Next, I headed over to the Cardiovascular Research Centre at the Royal Adelaide Hospital<\/a>, to see if I could dig up any additional info about the study.\u00a0 I struck out there, too.\u00a0 I couldn’t find a general staff directory; a search for “Scott Willoughby” came up with zero results; and a look at the “Latest News” page – where I’d expect to find a press release – was also unenlightening…the last posting was on November 16, 2007<\/a>!<\/p>\n Frankly,\u00a0this strikes me as rather\u00a0unprofessional.\u00a0 When you make statements to the public, then – in my humble opinion – your peer-reviewed, published data should be readily available through the usual channels, too.\u00a0 Information about controls (or lack thereof) and other test conditions\u00a0is vitally important when it comes to assessing the actual risks.\u00a0 Would another sugar-and-caffeine drink (say – Mountain Dew) provoke a similar reaction?<\/p>\n As I often say, the devil lies in the details.<\/p>\n Personally, I think the fact that\u00a0they went LOOKING for health problems associated with Red Bull is\u00a0the more interesting story.\u00a0\u00a0This is hardly the first\u00a0scary report\u00a0published about it, after all.\u00a0\u00a0To understand why, all you have to do is look at the\u00a0user demographics.\u00a0\u00a0Energy drinks like Red Bull are\u00a0predominantly marketed to young men – a group that always provokes a lot of societal hand-wringing and anxiety<\/a>.<\/p>\n New research suggests the drinks are associated with a health issue far more worrisome than the jittery effects of caffeine \u2014 risk taking.<\/em><\/p>\n In March, The Journal of American College Health published a report on the link between energy drinks, athletics and risky behavior. The study’s author, Kathleen Miller, an addiction researcher at the University of Buffalo, says it suggests that high consumption of energy drinks is associated with “toxic jock” behavior, a constellation of risky and aggressive behaviors including unprotected sex, substance abuse and violence.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n “Toxic Jock<\/a>” syndrome?\u00a0<\/p>\n METHODS: The author conducted linear regression analyses of energy-drink consumption frequencies on sociodemographic characteristics, jock identity, masculine norms, and risk-taking behavior. RESULTS: Of participants, 39% consumed an energy drink in the past month, with more frequent use by men (2.49 d\/month) than by women (1.22 d\/month). Strength of jock identity was positively associated with frequency of energy-drink consumption; this relationship was mediated by both masculine norms and risk-taking behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Sport-related identity, masculinity, and risk taking are components of the emerging portrait of a toxic jock identity, which may signal an elevated risk for health-compromising behaviors. College undergraduates’ frequent consumption of Red Bull and comparable energy drinks should be recognized as a potential predictor of toxic jock identity.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Gee, I don’t know about y’all, but I\u00a0indulged in\u00a0a certain amount of “risk-taking behavior” when I wuz an undergrad.\u00a0 So did most of the guys I knew.\u00a0 It sorta went with the territory.\u00a0 And since Red Bull didn’t even exist back in my party daze, I have a hard time seeing\u00a0the connection.\u00a0 “Kids these days” really aren’t\u00a0much different than they used to be – I have two teenagers (18 and 15)\u00a0myself, and am in daily contact with young, college-aged men through the “Bodybuilding Revealed” forum, so I’m not\u00a0exactly out-of-the-loop here.\u00a0 The only real difference I can see is that they have cooler toys than I (and my “toxic jock” buds)\u00a0did – damn them! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n The vague, menacing warnings surrounding Red Bull remind me of the ones that used to circulate about creatine – another product associated with all those risk-taking, young jocks<\/a>.\u00a0 In other words, it’s less about what’s being taken, and more about who’s taking it.\u00a0 If the kids are doing it, it’s gotta be bad!<\/p>\n One of these days, I’d like to see a study done on\u00a0the potential predictors of a toxic, “Grumpy Old Man<\/a>” (or woman) identity…but something tells me it ain’t gonna happen. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n To return to the news report at the top: I’d be curious to see what the controls used for this study were.\u00a0 After all, elevated blood sugar\u00a0– by itself – might\u00a0be enough to cause transient “sticky blood” (i.e., platelet aggregation<\/a>, potentially leading to abnormal blood clot formation<\/a> and increased cardiovascular risk<\/a>).\u00a0 I’d also be interested in seeing the “Discussion” section of the paper: after all, the weak link is the relationship between the acute event reported here and long-term disease risk.\u00a0 To take an analogy, my blood pressure is going to be transiently elevated every time I do a bench press or squat set<\/a>.\u00a0 Elevated blood pressure is also associated with the risk of cardiovascular events, but does that mean that lifting weights is going to give me a stroke or heart attack?\u00a0\u00a0Not too damn likely<\/a>.<\/p>\n Thus,\u00a0I’m going to have to see some better info than this before I join the dogpile on Red Bull.\u00a0\u00a0It may not be the healthiest choice, but I\u00a0have a hard time\u00a0seeing\u00a0how it’s\u00a0any worse than a\u00a0Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I read the news today, oh boy… Red Bull drink lifts stroke risk: Australian study. 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