A young man’s excessive energy drink habit of consuming four energy drinks per day for two years lands him in the hospital with heart failure.
The following written content by Rachael Rettner
The man reported consuming four energy drinks per day for two years.
A young man’s heart problems may have been triggered by his excessive consumption of energy drinks — he ended up in the hospital with heart failure after consuming four energy drinks per day for two years, according to a new report of the case.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence linking energy drink consumption with heart problems, leading the authors to call for warnings about the dangers of drinking these beverages in large amounts.
The 21-year-old man went to the hospital after he experienced progressively worse shortness of breath for four months as well as weight loss, according to the report, published Thursday (April 15) in the journal BMJ Case Reports.
He reported drinking four 500-milliliter cans of energy drinks every day for about two years, with each can containing 160 milligrams of caffeine. (A typical cup of coffee contains about 90 mg of caffeine.)
The man recalled that he occasionally had episodes of indigestion, tremors and a racing heartbeat, which he didn’t seek care for in the past. He felt so unwell and lethargic in recent months that he had to stop his university studies, according to the report, from doctors at St Thomas’ Hospital in London.
After a barrage of tests, the man was diagnosed with two potentially life-threatening conditions: heart failure and kidney failure. Heart failure occurs when the heart muscle can’t pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs; and kidney failure happens when the kidneys can’t properly filter waste products from the blood. In the man’s case, the two conditions appeared to be unrelated, but they each had serious effects. The man’s doctors discussed whether he needed a double (heart and kidney) organ transplant.
His kidney failure was due to a long-standing but previously undiagnosed condition called chronic obstructive uropathy, when urine can’t properly drain through the urinary tract tubes and so it backs up into the kidneys. Read more from Live Science.
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