Energy Drinks Give You Wings...and Kidney Stones

In these current times, energy drinks are very common among people of all ages, especially teenagers.  We have personal experience with drinking energy drinks, Red Bull specifically, and we know that there can be serious side effects of drinking a lot of such drinks.  Lately, there have been more and more problems with the consumption of energy drinks; people passing out or committing crimes when exceeding the recommended amount of these drinks.  For example, read the back of any Monster Energy Drink can, and you will find the warning statement cautioning you to not exceed three cans a day.  Yet people ignore these warnings, and drink whatever they want, and however much they want of it.

Sarah Gurley, a phlebotomist at Mee Memorial Hospital, has had experience with teenagers coming into the hospital from consuming too many energy drinks.  Gurley says, “I’ve seen an increase in young kids with cases of kidney stones related to energy drinks as the main problem.”  Not only can you get painful kidney stones (which are like sharp grains of sand traveling through your body) as a side effect, but energy drinks also cause liver problems that are similar to those of alcoholics.

We drink Red Bull constantly, almost on a daily basis.  It tastes amazing, makes us feel better, and it even claims to “give you wings.”  But both of us have had issues with drinking too much of it and having too much caffeine in our bodies to be healthy.  But now we’re smarter about drinking Red Bull; yes, we still drink it a lot, probably too much, but we know if we need to stop because we are informed of the consequences.  So next time you drink Red Bull, or Rockstar or Monster, ask yourself this:  do you know how much is too