Energy drinks may make you five times more likely to have a stroke, as experts warn caffeine-packed pop could be fuelling a record rise in diagnoses of irregular heartbeats

Juggling a busy job and family life, Mark Horsman relied on a daily combination of eight cups of coffee and three cans of Red Bull to keep him going.

For three years, the construction manager from Brighton thought nothing of it. But one day, after downing two cans in a row, he was suddenly struck by a terrifying ‘booming’ sound coming from his heart.

Mark, 52, thought he was about to die. ‘It was absolutely terrifying,’ he says. ‘My heart was beating very fast, then would miss a beat and then it would “boom”.’

Mark’s GP later explained that he was experiencing an extra, or ectopic, heartbeat – and it was a result of his excessive caffeine and energy drink habit.

Mark is thought to be one of the many people whose genetics make them more susceptible to the effects of caffeine. And he’s far from alone. Experts are now warning that caffeine-packed energy drinks could be fuelling a record rise in diagnoses of irregular heartbeats, one of Britain’s biggest killers.

Just one energy drink daily could trigger arrhythmia, an abnormal heart rhythm which increases the risk of stroke five-fold.

Recent figures from the British Heart Foundation revealed that the number of people diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation (AF), the most common cause of arrhythmia, has soared by almost five per cent in just a year: in 2017/2018 there were 1,324,067 people diagnosed with the condition, nearly 60,000 more than the previous year.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6499825/Energy-drinks-make-five-times-likely-stroke.html

Caffeine is safe enough to be given to tiny newborn premature babies, to stimulate their breathing. It's a useful life-saving 'drug' in that age group - and it's quite safe when taken in moderate amounts in adults too, it should not be unfairly demonised.


Imo it's NOT the heart rythm side effects of caffeine that's the problem, it's the exhaustion & dehydration that causes problems, in people who deliberately overdose on it in order to stay awake and keep going without resting. This would cause strain on even healthy hearts!

Jules wrote:Caffeine is safe enough to be given to tiny newborn premature babies, to stimulate their breathing. It's a useful life-saving 'drug' in that age group   - and it's quite safe when taken in moderate amounts in adults too, it should not be unfairly demonised.


Imo it's NOT the heart rythm side effects of caffeine that's the problem, it's the exhaustion & dehydration that causes problems, in people who deliberately overdose on it in order to stay awake and keep going without resting. This would cause strain on even healthy hearts!

Which means high levels can be dangerous Jules.

We cannot ignore the mass increase in conditions

There has to be a cause

Heart rythm issues are over exaggerated imo.

One particular celeb [who will remain nameless] droned on & on ad nauseum about her 'abnormal' heart rhythm problems, in the media. Made a fortune giving endless interviews about it and writing even a book too.


Then she effortlessly popped out 2 babies in quick succession. Somehow her 'flawed' heart coped very well with the strain of 2 quick pregnancies - and she wasn't exactly young ATT either, btw. She also had several hours of surgery regarding an unrelated matter.

Somewhere along the line, she forgot all about her cardiac rhythm problems, and never mentioned them again. Hmmm.

Jules wrote:Heart rythm issues are over exaggerated imo.

One particular celeb [who will remain nameless] droned on & on ad nauseum about her 'abnormal' heart rhythm problems, in the media. Made a fortune giving endless interviews about it and writing even a book too.


Then she effortlessly popped out  2 babies in quick succession.  Somehow her 'flawed' heart coped very well with the strain of 2 quick pregnancies - and she wasn't exactly young ATT either, btw. She also had several hours of surgery regarding an unrelated matter.

Somewhere along the line,  she forgot all about her cardiac rhythm problems, and never mentioned them again. Hmmm.  

I disagree that they are over exaggerated, when they can be tested

So going off what one celebrity said, is not the bases or standard for how data has been collated jules, by the medical profession on many cases of people. Where again there has been an increase in cases

Thor wrote:

Jules wrote:Caffeine is safe enough to be given to tiny newborn premature babies, to stimulate their breathing. It's a useful life-saving 'drug' in that age group   - and it's quite safe when taken in moderate amounts in adults too, it should not be unfairly demonised.


Imo it's NOT the heart rythm side effects of caffeine that's the problem, it's the exhaustion & dehydration that causes problems, in people who deliberately overdose on it in order to stay awake and keep going without resting. This would cause strain on even healthy hearts!

Which means high levels can be dangerous Jules.

We cannot ignore the mass increase in conditions

There has to be a cause

There has been an increase in many conditions!

Mainly cos  we are victims of our own success. It's a well known paradox in the NHS!

See, advances in modern technology enable us to prolong life in older people.

plus we can save many more premature babies now. Which is a good thing, of course.

Trouble is  - this throws up its own fresh set of problems. Affects the stats.

We often lay the blame in the wrong place, not at the root causes.

Don't want to  digress too much or open up a pandora's box so I'll leave it there.

Thanks for listening, Didge,  

Jules wrote:

Thor wrote:

Which means high levels can be dangerous Jules.

We cannot ignore the mass increase in conditions

There has to be a cause

There has been an increase in many conditions!

Mainly cos  we are victims of our own success. It's a well known paradox in the NHS!

See, advances in modern technology enable us to prolong life in older people.

plus we can save many more premature babies now. Which is a good thing, of course.

Trouble is  - this throws up its own fresh set of problems. Affects the stats.

We often lay the blame in the wrong place, not at the root causes.

Don't want to  digress too much or open up a pandora's box so I'll leave it there.

Thanks for listening, Didge,  

Thanks also Jules and have a lovely evening

Any stimulant can make your heart beat irregular, faster usually, any irregular beat is not good, even in a reasonably healthy person. It can cause awful problems.

Vintage wrote:Any stimulant can make your heart beat irregular, faster usually, any irregular beat is not good, even in a reasonably healthy person. It can cause awful problems.

Exactly Vintage and agree 100%

Have to go, so have a good evening

Any stimulant can make your heart beat irregular, faster usually, any irregular beat is not good, even in a reasonably healthy person. It can cause awful problems.

The O/P pointedly avoids the obvious...

That construction supervisor was a fuckwit, using Eight cups of coffee and three cans of energy drink during his working day (and probably heading down to the pub at the end of each day -- like all good builders do..).

Shithouse diet, probable dehydration, stressful work exacerbated by self-inflicted bad habits, possibly very little physical activity since moving into a site-management role -- and surprise, surprise, he's then diagnosed with arrythmia..