Caffeine: Sleeplessness ''just the start''
30/09/2008
Energy drinks have ten times more caffeine than regular soft drinks, a recent study has discovered.
Scientists at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland said that sleeplessness caused by the drinks is just the first possible symptom of high-caffeine drinks.
Other problems caused by the consistent use of energy drinks, the study noted, included anxiety, nervousness, rapid heartbeat, tremors, restlessness and insomnia, in a market worth $5.4 billion (£3 billion) in the US alone.
Professor Roland Griffiths of the university''s behavioural biology unit said of the lack of health warnings: "If you are going to use a drug, you should know what it is, what it does and how to use it effectively.
"If you don''t label that, you don''t know that."
Earlier this month, MillerCoors was forced to withdraw its Sparks Red energy drink as the mixture of caffeine and alcohol was branded a "recipe for disaster" by Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut attorney general.
