Originally Posted by Douglas9

Green tea extract and Yerba mate are just a few of the all natural ingredients in my company's energy drink which is equal to one cup of coffee. My company also has coffee infused with coconut oil and trace minerals to raise the alkaline levels and make it less acidic.

Originally Posted by knobcrk

Try this yourself, drink a rockstar about 3 days in a row. It's almost guaranteed that you will get involuntary muscle twitches.

It's obvious they are bad for you. I can't believe people still don't know that. They aren't meant to be consumed like bottled water. They are the equivalent of about 8 cups of coffe mixed with speed. They were invented in Japan, but their bottles are about a third the size of rockstar or monster or Redbull. They're meant as shots not drinks.

Originally Posted by PotatoChip

Almost everything you said is wrong.

8 cups of coffee? A Rockstar has 160mg of caffeine. The average 8oz cup of coffee has 80-90mg. So unless my math is way off, 8*80=640, which is nowhere near 160.

Invented in Japan? Wrong. They have taurine drinks such as Livita, invented in 1962, but it is not caffeinated and has a completely different formula.

And who drinks them like bottled water? The cans themselves state to limit intake to three cans a day in order to keep caffeine below 500mg a day, a limit easily exceeded by three large Starbucks coffees, yet they give no warning.

And finally, maybe you personally get muscle twitches. Maybe you have a caffeine sensitivity. I have drank a Monster three days in a row on many occasions with no adverse affect. Now, I usually drink about one per week.

That said, don't post baseless BS that can't be backed up by any facts.

Oh, and stop drinking beer! It causes infidelity!!

Originally Posted by Doug Masters

Guys, I didn't mean to start the urination olympics with this thread. My point was that 3 friends damn near died and common between them was Red Bull. It got my attention. That is all.

Originally Posted by cardiomd

For the vast majority of people they are safe to use occasionally, meaning no immediate harm would come of the use, but I would say they are far from "good for you." They are extremely low pH (very bad for teeth), high in sugar, and the huge doses of taurine and niacin, although your body can process them, are not good for your overall health. Ironically most are relatively low in caffeine compared to a large coffee, but some of them do have significant amounts.

If daily Rockstars could cause heart attacks in normal people there would be a LOT more heart attacks - I have patients that consume quite amazing amounts of these drinks. Likely those vulnerable to the effect, or were going to have a heart attack anyway, the drug could accelerate this or bring out bad effects such as arrhythmias, particularly in high doses. If you have a family history of heart disease or are sensitive to the effects I'd just avoid it.

In fact I advise my patients to avoid the whole craze, which IMO is mostly marketing hype toward a macho demographic.

Originally Posted by cardiomd

For the vast majority of people they are safe to use occasionally, meaning no immediate harm would come of the use, but I would say they are far from "good for you." They are extremely low pH (very bad for teeth), high in sugar, and the huge doses of taurine and niacin, although your body can process them, are not good for your overall health. Ironically most are relatively low in caffeine compared to a large coffee, but some of them do have significant amounts.

If daily Rockstars could cause heart attacks in normal people there would be a LOT more heart attacks - I have patients that consume quite amazing amounts of these drinks. Likely those vulnerable to the effect, or were going to have a heart attack anyway, the drug could accelerate this or bring out bad effects such as arrhythmias, particularly in high doses. If you have a family history of heart disease or are sensitive to the effects I'd just avoid it.

In fact I advise my patients to avoid the whole craze, which IMO is mostly marketing hype toward a macho demographic.

Originally Posted by Leslie Chow

One of my best friends is a pathologist. He says he'd rather drink gasoline than Red Bull....something about Red Bull basicaly turning into formaldyhide in the body. He also says he once read a journal article in which it was stated that Starbucks decaf has more caffeine than an equal cup of a regular caffeinated brand, such as Folgers.