Energy Drinks Are Deadly for Young People

‘We’ve all been there. Making a late-night trip to the gas station to pick up that miracle elixir—Red Bull, Monster, 5-Hour Energy—guaranteed to help you stay awake and reach your deadline. At the time, the reward seems worth the effort. But have you considered the potential cost?
That’s the question a South Carolina family is facing after recently losing their 16-year-old son. Davis Cripe collapsed in class after drinking an energy drink, a large Mountain Dew and a latte, and later died. The local county coroner, Gary Watts, said his heart was unable to cope with the amount of caffeine. “These drinks, this amount of caffeine, how it’s ingested, can have dire consequences and that’s what happened in this case,” Watts told CBS news.
Cripe is not the first teen to fall victim to the ill effects of energy drinks. From 2005 to 2011, reported the Washington Post, trips to the emergency room due to energy drink-related issues rose from 1,494 to 20,783. A concerning number of these visits involved children under 6.’
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