Stop drinking energy drinks •Doctor warns people with hypertension, diabetes

Have you heard, people living with hypertension and diabetics are advised for their own health to avoid the highly addictive energy drink. Hear our in-house doctor as he expiates more on this.

DR Agnes Eguagie, a physician at the National Hospital, Abuja, on Friday, advised people with hypertension and diabetes to avoid energy drinks because of their caffeine content.

Eguagie, of the Department of Medicine, gave the advice in an interview he granted recently

 Atempt by the manufacturers to boost people’s energy alertness by combining the properties of certain compounds that we know that this can actually help.

“They contain caffeine. Caffeine makes people alert. They contain glucose, which is supposed to give you energy, they contain some B vitamins, then some may contain one or two amino acids.

“But the problem with these drugs is that combining all these things together is not actually really helpful.


“They have very high levels of caffeine in them and caffeine in itself has its own problems.  Apart from the fact that it makes you alert, it actually gives some people nervousness and tremor.

“For patients who are  hypertensive,  the high level of caffeine will cause the blood vessels to constrict and the blood pressure to shoot up; you can come down with a stoke.

“For those that have hypertension and diabetes, they don’t know, because there is a lot of glucose in it.

“These are not usually advisable, because as I said, the high amount of caffeine in it is actually quite detrimental.  So, generally, I would not advise patients to take it,” she said.

The doctor added that energy drinks taken in excess could also cause heartburn, insomnia, ulcer and increase  blood pressure.

Now you have heard, do you agree with the erudite doctor? let hear your thoughts