Could Energy Drinks Cause Serious Heart Problems?

Hold on a second, make sure you've got something to brace yourself.

You good? You holding on tight? Maybe you'll want to sit down.

A new study has revealed that energy drinks might not be the best thing for your health after all.

I don't know that anyone ever thought that drinking a can of Monster or Red Bull or Rockstar was beneficial to health; I mean, they're great if you like the flavor or need to get a quick rush going, but I would assume we all know they're not exactly part of a balanced meal, right?

Turns out, according to a pilot study at the Mayo Clinic, it might be worse than you thought. Instead of merely raising the caffeine levels in the blood, it might actually increase the release of stress hormones:

The researchers found that bodily levels of norepinephrine increased 30.9 percent with placebo and 73.9 percent with the real energy drink, which suggests consumption of energy drinks causes a measureable surge of stress hormones after 30 minutes. Blood pressure also showed a measurable comparative increase, increasing about 1.0 percent for the placebo drink, and 6.4 percent for the energy drink. With increases to both stress hormones and blood pressure, the researchers express concern that “these acute hemodynamic and adrenergic changes may predispose to increased cardiovascular risk.”

You can click the link above for a more detailed and scientific account of the study, but if you'd like something in laymen's terms, check out this article here.