Teens who down the heavily caffeinated drinks may be more prone to Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Although TBIs happen in a variety of ways — falls, fistfights, car accidents — the No. 1 cause among teens is sports. And, unfortunately, the rate of brain damage is only rising: Between 2001 and 2009, the number of sports-related head injuries among children (ages 19 or younger) leapt by 57 percent, according to a CDC analysis.

This has prompted some experts to call TBI among teens a problem of epidemic proportions. “The teenage years are very vulnerable years. Our brains are still developing into our 20s and 30s,”says Ilie of Injury Prevention Research Office, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Canada. And a serious knock to the noggin can have consequences that extend well beyond being benched for a few games: Poor academic performance, substance abuse, suicide, and violent behaviour have all been linked to traumatic brain injury, says Ilie.

To assess whether energy drink consumption — a persistent trend among young people — could play a role, Ilie and her team analyzed the survey responses of more than 10,000 young people ages 11 to 20, gauging things like alcohol intake and energy drink consumption, along with frequency of TBIs.

What they found: The odds of sustaining a TBI are higher among teens who drink energy drinks. Specifically, those who had consumed at least one of the supercharged beverages in the previous year were twice as likely to have experienced a recent TBI, compared to non-drinkers; while adolescents who downed five or more energy drinks in the past week were nearly seven times as likely to have suffered a recent brain injury. The same trend was observed among teens who reported mixing alcohol with energy drinks.

Of course, these findings aren’t causal. The researchers can’t definitively say that imbibing highly caffeinated drinks leads to TBIs. But “it wouldn’t be a surprise,” says Ilie. With some energy drinks packing as much caffeine as two shots of espresso, along with other stimulants like taurine and guarana, feeling jittery is almost inevitable. “That can predispose you to more accidents, because now you’re so hyper, you can’t focus and pay attention to what you’re doing,” says Ilie.  

And, unfortunately, sports and energy drinks now seem to go hand in hand. Since the silver-canned elixirs are often marketed as sports drinks, young people may be downing them to hype themselves up before big games or high-risk recreational activities. “The [advertising] campaigns usually suggest that energy drinks lead to increased muscle strength and endurance,” Ilie says. “Unfortunately, there is very little scientific evidence supporting these claims.”

Perhaps more alarming is the off-the-field trend of mixing energy drinks and alcohol, with the aim of combining the rush of a Red Bull or shark with the buzz of booze. The danger: “You’re intoxicated but wide awake,” says Ilie. “So you might be more prone to doing crazy things that if you weren’t intoxicated, you would never consider doing.”A 2014 Journal of Pediatrics study found that mixing the two beverages was associated with binge drinking among teens. As a result, this risky mixing may be to blame for some of the TBIs among teens that occur in non-sports settings.

Article courtesy of;

Ilie G, Boak A, Mann RE, Adlaf EM,Hamilton H, Asbridge M, et al. (2015) Energy Drinks,Alcohol, Sports and Traumatic Brain Injuries among Adolescents. PLoS ONE 10(9): e0135860.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0135860