One of the most common ingredients in energy drinks is the amino acid “TAURINE”. Taurine has been touted to do a number of positive things for the body including:
- Maintain proper hydration
- Provide support for vision
- Immune system support
- Prevent heart disease
- Help with diabetes control
- Improve exercise performance
Side effects of Taurine include potentially: nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, headaches and abdominal pains.
A recent study was just reported that implicated taurine in the growth of leukemic blood cancer cells in the bone marrow. This study does not imply that taurine causes leukemia, but rather, if a leukemic patient uses energy drinks with taurine as a component, this may speed up the growth of the leukemia.
About 1/3 of Americans consume energy drinks. The high caffeine intake may certainly exacerbate heart rhythm issues for those people that are prone to rapid or irregular heart beats. Now add taurine to the list of potential issues with energy drinks for those people that have leukemia.
In my days, an “energy drink” was “Yoo-Hoo”. This is still available and was originally developed in Garfield, New Jersey in 1928. Yoo Hoo was not very popular from then until the late 1950’s when the great and funny baseball player, Yogi Berra was asked to provide his opinion and he loved it. This turned into an advertising campaign that made Yoo Hoo very popular for decades. And one of the most popular songs in 1959? Get ready for that Shark Bite!
