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Caffeine Junkies
Caffeine in its natural form is actually quite bitter. We’re more used to it, though, in things such as coffee, soda, and chocolate where it’s been sweetened. Although caffeine is in many products people consume every day, it’s important to remember that it’s a drug. It can make you more alert and give you a burst of energy, but those effects come at a cost.
Some people are more sensitive to caffeine than others. At Burbank High School school nurse Sjaan Buck sent three kids to the hospital by ambulance last year because of caffeine side effects. One had two doughnuts and two Monster energy drinks for breakfast and he hyperventilated to the point where he couldn’t move, Buck said.
From May 2007 to May 2008, California Poison Control handled more than two dozen energy-drink-related calls from kids, mostly ages 14 and 15. Fifteen teens had to go to the ER with shakiness, tremors, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, or high blood pressure, said Judith Alsop director of poison control’s Sacramento Division.
“It’s a sign of the times,” Buck said. “Kids don’t see rest and healthful eating as a way to have more energy.”
Doctors say caffeine overdoses are on the rise, in teens and young adults. Overdoses can result in anything from dehydration to seizures, according to Dr. Ann Slattery, a clinical toxologist.
Slattery said they used to receive a lot of calls from teenagers who took too many caffeine tablets to stay up. “Now, with the energy drink, we are seeing more interactions where people might be drinking coffee, then an energy drink (and suffer from adverse reactions),”she said in an ABC news article.
Many kids and teens get their caffeine from candy and energy drinks. Companies such as Nestle have picked up on the caffeine craze recently. The company released a Butterfinger Buzz bar for a limited time in early March 2009 that claimed to have as much caffeine as energy drinks.
People can now buy drinks with as much as 500 mg of caffeine, kidshealth.org reported. This amount is extremely risky, especially when combined with other things. It’s important to recognize the dangerous effects of what many deem a harmless drug.
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