Easter partying: Why consumers should avoid energy drinks

Dar es Salaam. As the Easter season partying continues today, revellers taking energy drinks should be warned that more negative side-effects of the energisers are being discovered.

That raises alarm over the rising consumption of energy drinks especially by the youth. The latest finding by Canadian researchers is a possible link between the consumption of high-energy drinks and some mental health issues.

Locally, health experts have called on merrymakers to think twice as they party because the new discovery adds to the increasing evidence that there are potential harmful effects from heavy consumption of energy drinks.

They have warned that the most vulnerable to the new hazards will be those taking energy beverages to beat hangovers, those mixing them with alcohol and drinkers seeking a sustained rush for longer drinking, even overnight.

Apart from the discovery on behavioural problems and the already known dangers associated with energy drinks such as sleep impairment and abnormal heart rhythms, mixing some of them with alcohol is also now being linked with risky sexual behaviours.

“Researchers believe that energy-drink consumption may lead to behavioural problems, as the risky behaviour is enhanced in the presence of the alcohol, which impairs cognitive ability,” the Journal of Preventive Medicine of Canada reported early last month.

The new research findings should be cause for alarm in the country as the energy drinks are reaching their peak in popularity and increasingly becoming a favourite of the youth. The other alarming aspect of the soft drinks is the rising importation of counterfeit energy drinks that expose consumers to more medical dangers.

Ignorant of the dangers they are exposing themselves to, many people mix energy drinks with alcohol as a means of getting a high without getting sleepy. In a crackdown last month, the Tanzania Drugs and Food Authority (TDFA) seized 1,526 cans of energy drinks that did not meet standards for drinks fit for human consumption. Its director general Hiiti Sillo told journalists in Dar es Salaam on April 3:

“They [the energy drinks] may not be fakes but in order for products to be sold to consumers they must get approval from TDFA.”

A medical researcher on substance abuse from the University of Dodoma, Dr Stephen Nsimba, said recently that combining energy drinks with alcohol was an increasing public health problem mostly among the youth in the country.

Dr Nsimba explained that the energy drinks contain caffeine, which is among the psycho-stimulants (making the brain more alert) while alcohol causes a similar effect — a combination of which fools the body’s response.

He said the situation further tempts the consumer to take more alcohol.

“After combining the two, caffeine (in the energy drink) inhibits alcohol effects and makes the person not aware that he has taken too much alcohol... and this is very dangerous,” Dr Nsimba warned.

“As one increases the quantity of alcohol, it becomes a depressant of the central nervous system and respiratory centre and one could go into a coma, become unconscious and even death may be a final outcome if there is no immediate intervention.”

Canadian researcher Sunday Azagba of the Propel Centre at the University of Waterloo said there might also be a higher tendency for heavy consumers of the energy drinks to be thrill- seekers, and they were also more likely to suffer bouts of depression.

Ms Azagba faults aggressive marketing campaigns for the surge in the consumption of high-energy drinks that only offer temporary benefits but have devastating consequences.

“Researchers, do not yet understand why energy-drink consumption may lead to behavioural problems, but are concerned because, a relatively large number of younger teenagers consume high-energy drinks that offer temporary benefits of enhanced mental clarity, improvement in moods and increased alertness,” Canadian researchers wrote in the Journal of Preventive Medicine.

TFDA’s deputy manager for Food Items Registration, Ms Gwanta Samson, has advised consumers to be extra-careful when choosing what to drink and what they mix it with. Without specifying which age-group was most at risk —for the lack of local research data - she warned of the alarming varieties of energy beverages being sold in major cities in the country.

“We are watching the levels of ingredients as per Tanzania standards, but the major watcher should be the person who uses the drink,” Ms Samson told The Citizen on Sunday last week.

Ms Samson said consumers were also to blame for they sometimes fall prey to dubious products on the market simply because of ignoring instructions and warnings on them.