Energy drinks contain caffeine ranging from 80mg to 300mg per serving, there is 100mg in a cup of coffee
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in the US looked at the medical data of 144 patients who had survived a cardiac arrest following emergency treatment. Results found that seven of them, aged between 20 and 42, had consumed an energy drink some time before the life-threatening event, with six requiring electrical shock treatment and one needing manual resuscitation.
Peter Schwartz, of the Centre for Cardiac Arrhythmias of Genetic Origin and Laboratory of Cardiovascular Genetics, in Milan, Italy, wrote in an accompanying editorial: “Critics might say of these findings, ‘it’s just an association by chance’.
“We, as well as the Mayo Clinic group, are perfectly aware that there is no clear and definitive evidence that energy drinks indeed cause life-threatening arrhythmias and that more data are necessary, but we would be remiss if we were not sounding the alarm.”
7/144 = 4.9%
With the information presented and using the same jump-to-conclusion analysis, energy drinks reduced the likelihood of a cardiac arrest by over 95%.
I winder how many of the 144 had brown hair. Let's guess 30%. The article could read, "People with brown hair have a 30% likelihood of cardiac arest. Why hair dye saves lives?"
It's poor reporting, but not necessarily poor research.
Out of the 144, how many of them were under 42 years old.
All we know from this article is that some number of 20-42 year olds had a cardiac arrest correlated with energy drinks. That age group is extremely young to have a cardiac arrest.
If the 7 they looked at were all otherwise healthy 20-42 year olds, that consumed high levels of energy drinks, then there might be more to the story. Especially if they didn't find any otherwise healthy 20-42 year olds that had a cardiac arrest and did not consume energy drinks.
Though with only the information in the article, we have no way to understand what is really being said.
Gonna guess that energy drinks and similar products just make it a lot easier to exceed safe limits as compared to lower concentration sources like tea and espresso coffee.
A 16oz coffee has 150-300mg of caffeine depending on the variety; the eight o'clock coffee in my cupboard has 224mg in 16oz. The monster I just drank has 150mg in 16oz. Coffee is certainly not lower in concentration than an energy drink though tea is.
Coca Cola was originally a health and energy drink and contains caffeine, as do about all colas today. Does that still count?
I don't give one shit about modern energy drinks, it's just shittier reinventions of an age old idea. Why people even would want to buy that overpriced heavily commercialized garbage IDK?
We, as well as the Mayo Clinic group, are perfectly aware that there is no clear and definitive evidence that energy drinks indeed cause life-threatening arrhythmias and that more data are necessary, but we would be remiss if we were not sounding the alarm.”
Soooo... No science here. What's the "alarm" being raised then? What is the urgent warning based on?
Fewer than 5% of this population of cardiac arrest survivors "had consumed an energy drink some time before" it happened, and therefore we sound the alarm about energy drinks, apparently.
Today one could be forgiven for thinking that the massive energy drink company lobbyists descended on lemmy news to 'invalidate with zero proof' a simple warning put out by the Mayo Clinic and associates.
I mean nobody made a rule forbidding anyone from drinking the overpriced shite.