A recent study conducted by Dr. James Kalus, senior manager of Patient Care Services at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, and colleagues, presented to the American Heart’s Association’s Scientific Sessions 2007, in Orlando, Florida, showed there is a link between consumption of “energy drinks” and high blood pressure or heart disease risk.

The study involved 15 healthy young adult volunteers, 8 women and 7 men of average age 26, which, during the trial, experienced heart rate and blood pressure increases that were not dangerous for their health. The volunteers stopped consumming caffeine from other sourses two days before and also all the duration of the study. Energy drinks contain high leveles of caffeine and taurine aimed to increase wakefulness and alertness, but also known as increasers for blood pressure and heart rate.

Researchers measured volunteers’ blood pressure and heart rate and also took an electrocardiogram (ECG) to assess heart function all the seven days of the study.

On the first day and the seventh day, there were carried out only these measurements, but during every of the five days in between day 1 and 7, these measurements were done at different hours, before and after drinking two cans of energy drink containing 80 milligrams of caffeine and 1,000 milligrams of taurine. Then, reasearchers compared the average of baseline measurements, day 1 and 7, with the peaks from the experimental drinking five days.

They discovered that blood pressure and heart rate went up at every measurement done after day 1. Heart rate increased up to 11 percent on day seven.

The results only suggest that they might be dangerous, when drinking more than two cans per day, and especially in the case of patients with heart disease.

Dr. James Kalus advised people with high blood pressure and heart rate to “avoid these drinks”. He also added that these drinks dhould not be mixed with physical activity or other drinks that are blood pressure increasers.