By Aaron Vehling
The drug is highly addictive. Its overdose and withdrawal  induces hallucinations and heart arrhythmia and resembles schizophrenia.

Ninety percent of American adults use it daily and their children are signing up in full-force to carry the tradition onward.

That drug is caffeine. Whether you are throwing back a few energy drinks, eating a candy bar, chewing on some energy breath mints, or drinking what you think is just a healthy can of juice, it is there.

Rick Moldenhauer, a treatment services consultant with the Minnesota Department of Human Services, presented these and more, often startling, statistics in his presentation on energy drinks and related beverage mixes at Maranatha Church in Forest Lake on Thursday, Feb. 5. The event was sponsored by the Community Partnership with Youth and Families.

“We live in a hyper-stimulating, hyperactive world,” Moldenhauer told his audience of professionals, including local law enforcement and educators.

In front of him on a card table were a dozen or more examples of caffeine-laced soda and energy drinks, all with names suggesting a certain “revved-up” lifestyle that is aimed at adolescents and young adults.
Adjacent to those were chewing gum, breath mints, and candy bars and even lollipops, all modified to provide an extra powerhouse kick of energy. All featured colorful, attractive packaging, with one can even resembling a battery.

Ubiquitous energy source
Those energy drinks, sold pretty much everywhere you can buy a can or bottle of conventional soda or real food, come packed with a punch ripe for abuse, Moldenhauer said.

They typically consist of the following: high levels of high fructose corn syrup, a synthetic sugar substitute found in a diverse array of food and beverage products and is known to induce diabetes-like symptoms in people who get too much of it; scores of B-complex vitamins for added energy boosts; and sometimes astonishing levels of caffeine.

One 20-ounce bottle of Coca-Cola has 57 milligrams (mg) of caffeine. A 12-ounce cup of brewed coffee has 200mg.
But one of the energy drinks Moldenhauer discussed, the aptly named NOS (to reflect the high-performance qualities that nitrous oxide boosters give motor vehicles), comes packed with 1,125mg of caffeine in one can.

The potential for overdose exists because of confusing, federally mandated nutrition labels, Moldenhauer said.
“They reflect a serving size and not the whole bottle,” he said. “This is misleading.”
The nutrition label on NOS suggests a caffeine content of 375mg, Moldenhauer said, but that is for one serving. One bottle actually contains three servings.

Overstimulation
So what happens if someone slams a six-pack of an energy drink? Not only are they “wired for sound,” as Moldenhauer said, but they are treading into life-threatening territory.

They can get caffeine intoxication or even overdose. This results in a state of central nervous system overstimulation that leads to restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, flushing of the face, increased urination, gastrointestinal disturbance, muscle twitching, irregular heart beat and a rambling flow of thought and speech.

But it gets worse, Moldenhauer said. He has seen caffeine overdose victims come into the emergency room looking as if they had schizophrenia or were methamphetamine users.
When an ER patient has overdosed on a narcotic, Moldenhauer said, doctors have a powerful antidote to bring people out of their molasses haze.

“For caffeine, there is none,”  he said.

But worry not, he said, for you cannot overdose on coffee. The caffeine content is not high enough.
Aside from more pronounced instances of massive caffeine consumption, even small, steady doses can life-altering effects.

Children who consume a steadfast supply of high fructose corn syrup- and caffeine-based foods and beverages are more likely to be disruptive in class and thus diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, Moldenhauer said.

Caffeine and alcohol
There is a time-tested remedy that Moldenhauer said is utter myth: giving coffee to a drunk person to “sober them up.”

“Caffeine,” he said, “does not sober you up.”

Mixes of alcohol with energy drinks, such as vodka and Red Bull and Jagerbombs (a mix of Jagermeister and Red Bull) does not create the cancelling-out effect that is mythologized amongst those mixes connoisseurs, Moldenhauer said.

What entails is a situation where the caffeine overrides the depressive symptoms of alcohol temporarily. The drinker then drinks more alcohol to feel drunker, thinking they are not drunk.
Once the caffeine wears off, the alcohol comes back in full force, creating a scenario of elevated inebriation.

“At first, the person does not believe they are drunk,” Moldenhauer said. “And this can get dangerous when the person thinks they are OK to drive.”

But then when the caffeine wears off, it is similar to the delayed effect of pounding beers, he said.

The caffeine’s stimulant effect can also postpone the depressed breathing symptom of alcohol abuse. So once the caffeine wears off, the drinker is hit with shallow breathing.

What can parents do to keep their children from falling prey to an energy drink that packs 12 cans of Coke’s worth of caffeine in one 2.2-ounce bottle?

For Melissa Vrudny of the Community Partnership, education is key.

Vrudny has two adolescent sons herself and said she sat down with them at dinner and discussed the effects of energy drinks.

“Parents should learn as much as they can about energy drinks,” she said. “Not only about what the ingredients are, but also the devastating effects.”

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