Tired, wired and young

By Michael Mason
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , NEW YORK
Sunday, Dec 17, 2006, Page 19

Cocaine is the latest and most controversial entry in the burgeoning market for so-called energy drinks. PHOTOS: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE

Meet Jamey Kirby. If you're young enough, and hip enough, he'd like to sell you some Cocaine.

Arriving at a convenience stores in the US, Cocaine is a recent and controversial entry in the burgeoning market for so-called energy drinks. Loaded with caffeine and sugar, and often laced with herbs, vitamins or amino acids, they have become the fuel of choice for some thrill-seeking youngsters and, more recently, for weary adults navigating an always-on world.

But with their increasingly novel additives, energy drinks are taking consumers into uncharted nutritional territory, especially because they are often used as mixers with alcohol. Even if they are not dangerous, experts say, energy drinks may be fostering an unhealthy dependence on caffeine even as they pad the waistlines of young adults.

None that much concerns Kirby, the California entrepreneur behind Cocaine. His business is buzz — in every sense of the word. Each 8.4-ounce (approx. 250ml) can of Cocaine contains 280 milligrams of caffeine, more than twice the amount in a cup of coffee, and a throat-numbing blend of fiery spices. It's perfect, Kirby said, for jaded 16- to 28-year-olds clamoring for extreme refreshment.

Energy drinks such as Red Bull are all the rage at bars, where vodka and Red Bulls have become the mix drink of choice. The thought behind the combination is the alcohol gets you buzzed, and the energy gets you hepped up. But is this safe?

And provocative name? Just marketing. "It was always the plan to let negative publicity move us forward," Kirby said. "There is an enormous amount of competition out there."

About there is no controversy. Nearly 200 new energy drinks have hit store shelves since January, according to the market research firm ACNielsen. Led by such brands as Red Bull, Rockstar and Monster, energy drinks are a US$3.7 billion industry whose revenues have increased by 51 percent in the past year alone. Red Bull is the third-largest source of beverage profits in US convenience stores, according to one recent market survey.

"It started out as something for clubbers and extreme-sports types," said Jeffrey Klineman, the editor of Beverage Spectrum. "Now it's gone mainstream."

So has the ingredient list. Energy drinks increasingly are formulated with fruit juices, teas and dietary supplements like ginseng and glucosamine that appeal to older, health-minded consumers. Taurine, an amino acid essential to growth in infants, is a frequent additive, though scientists say large amounts provide no advantage to ordinary adults.

Despite formulations, the energy boost in these drinks is delivered via a whopping dose of common caffeine.

This year, in a study published in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology, a team of researchers analyzed the caffeine content of 10 popular energy drinks and found concentrations as high as 141 milligrams per 16-ounce (approx. 500ml) can. While the Food and Drug Administration does not regulate the amount of caffeine in soft drinks, agency guidelines for colas suggest no more than 68 milligrams per 12-ounce (approx. 355ml) serving.

Only of the drinks carried caffeine warnings on their containers, the researchers noted, and none suggested a limit.

"The caffeine content really should be listed on the labels," said the lead author, Bruce Goldberger, a toxicologist at the University of Florida. "Caffeine may be the mostly widely used drug in the world, but certain people need to avoid it."

Among them are those with high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and certain anxiety disorders, as well as pregnant women.

Perhaps troubling, Goldberger said, is that there is little scientific research on how high intakes of caffeine affect adolescents over the long term. Caffeine is difficult to abuse; unpleasant side effects appear even at modest doses, and toxicity occurs only at very high doses. Those who overconsume it are usually teenagers or young adults.

"There's an American subculture out there that loves the idea of being wired," said James Lane, professor of medical psychology at Duke University. "But caffeine produces real psychological and physiological dependence."

A recent survey by researchers at Northwestern University found that an overdose of caffeine supplements triggered more than 250 reports to the Illinois Poison Control Center over a three-year period. The average age of those affected was 21.

At an emergency room in Berkeley, California, Guy Shochat last year treated an 18-year-old who had arrived in an ambulance with sudden heart arrhythmia. The teenager had been drinking eight 16-ounce cans of Rockstar every evening to stay awake for his night job.

"He was totally clueless that there might be something wrong with drinking so much of this stuff," said Shochat, an assistant clinical professor of emergency medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

The American College of Sports Medicine has warned high school athletes away from energy drinks because the caffeine in them may cause dehydration. High schools in Fairfax County, Virginia, this year removed energy drinks from its vending machines after student athletes complained of headaches and nausea after drinking them at practice.

Energy may be a worry at bars and clubs, too, where certain brands are used as mixers. In a recent Brazilian study, 26 men were evaluated as they downed an energy drink and alcohol, separately and in combination. Consumption of the beverages together did not diminish the men's intoxication, as demonstrated on objective tests.

But the combination did reduce the men's ability to perceive their own inebriation, the researchers found, leading the subjects to believe they were more in control than they were. By masking the depressant effects of alcohol, the scientists concluded, energy drinks may have made it more likely that the users drank to excess.

Ordinary of caffeine may be addictive, experts say, but it is usually benign. Still, there is strong evidence that in a hectic world, this kind of "energy" isn't part of the solution — it's part of the problem.

The grogginess that plagues so many people in the morning and during the day can be a symptom of caffeine withdrawal, according to Lane. Far from being revitalizing, another shot merely sates the user's addiction for a while.

"Caffeine's effect at high doses is like having a chronic anxiety condition," Lane said. "It exaggerates the perception of stress and the body's response to it, and I think it could be contributing to the stress we all experience in daily life."

But if Kirby's reported sales of Cocaine are any measure, the country's jittery romance with caffeine is intact. He said more than 200,000 additional cases of the drink have been ordered and are in production.