Energy Drinks and Diving

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Shaka Doug

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Location
Kihei, Maui, Hawaii 96753, middle of the 808!
# of dives
Hi All,

I'm wondering if any of you would like to share your experienices of diving while using energy drinks. (Like Red Bull, Monster, 5 Hour Energy, Rockstar, Full Throttle, etc.) I've been hearing increasing bad press on these kinds of drinks and I'm wondering how it effects us Scuba Divers. Are we at increased risk for anything by consuming them in moderate to large quantities?

I used to drink a lot of cokes and mountain dews for the cafffeine but have since changed my ways. I hear that energy drinks are in widespread use in our college kids as they cram and party with the stuff 24 / 7 and a lot of them are ending up in hospitals with heart palpitations. I read warning labels on one can yesterday that said minimize your consumption to a max of 3 a day and tonight I saw an ad on TV that indicated you had to be over 18 to purchase them! What's going on?? I'm not sure I would want to drink down a bunch of that stuff and drop to 100 feet or so! Anybody have any input?

Thanks!
 
Most work because of the caffeine and sugar content. Caffeine is a diuretic so would tend to dehydrate you a bit more than another type of drink, that alone keeps me from wanting to test that type of drink. (We keep running into dehydration as a contributing factor in DCS cases)
 
I'm not sure what is so dangerous about energy drinks, it goes beyond just caffeine because a cup of coffee has more than these drinks. It's probably a mixture of caffeine, sugar, and all the other "stimulants" in the drinks. They also often get mixed with alcohol, giving a double whammy.

I have no idea if the depth could directly make them more dangerous, but I know if I had to suffer medical issues, the last place I'd want to be is 100 feet underwater. It's probably relatively safe in the big picture to dive after an energy drink, but it just seems pointless. Why take a risk, even a minimal one, with no real reward?
 
TC:
Most work because of the caffeine and sugar content. Caffeine is a diuretic so would tend to dehydrate you a bit more than another type of drink, that alone keeps me from wanting to test that type of drink. (We keep running into dehydration as a contributing factor in DCS cases)
But if it was only the caffeine I wouldn't be particularly worried considering I'm sure plenty of people have coffee the morning of a dive, which has more caffeine.
 
The ingredients in these drinks varies. I have only looked at Red Bull.

Red Bull has about 1/2 the caffeine as a typical cup of American coffee, and less sugar than a candy bar. From that perspective, I hardly see Red Bull as an "energy drink." It's a marketing scam.

Red Bull does, however, also containe taurine. This drug has been demonstrated to modestly increase heart rate, especially when combined with caffeine. I'm not sure how Red Bull can believe that a racing heart equals more energy.

I do not believe that the taurine/caffeine combination has been studied in the scuba environment. Common sense has me thinking that anything that makes my heart race can't be good at depth.

I'll stick with a cup of coffee with a good breakfast, and maybe a candy bar between dives if I'm cold or tired.
 
The ingredients in these drinks varies. I have only looked at Red Bull.

Red Bull has about 1/2 the caffeine as a typical cup of American coffee, and less sugar than a candy bar. From that perspective, I hardly see Red Bull as an "energy drink." It's a marketing scam.

Red Bull does, however, also containe taurine. This drug has been demonstrated to modestly increase heart rate, especially when combined with caffeine. I'm not sure how Red Bull can believe that a racing heart equals more energy.

I do not believe that the taurine/caffeine combination has been studied in the scuba environment. Common sense has me thinking that anything that makes my heart race can't be good at depth.

I'll stick with a cup of coffee with a good breakfast, and maybe a candy bar between dives if I'm cold or tired.
I'll say they do. In addition to the ingredients that DocHarry mentions, the Red Bull here has cocaine it.

Traces of cocaine found in Red Bull in HK
Agence France-Presse in Hong Kong
Updated on Jun 02, 2009
Hong Kong officials have found traces of cocaine in cans of Red Bull, a few days after Taiwanese authorities confiscated close to 18,000 cases of the popular energy drink.

Officials at the Centre for Food Safety said a laboratory analysis found tiny amounts of the illegal drug in samples of "Red Bull Cola", "Red Bull Sugar-free" and Red Bull Energy Drink", a spokesman said.

The drink has now been taken off the shelves of major supermarkets, the spokesman said in a statement issued late on Monday. He added the amount of cocaine found in the drinks posed little health danger.

The traces were between 0.1 and 0.3 micrograms of the illegal drug per litre, the statement said.

Hong Kong's commissioner for narcotics, Sally Wong, said the government was now taking legal advice on any possible legal liability for importers and retailers.

"Cocaine is a dangerous drug... The possession and dealing in the drug is a criminal offence," she said in the statement.

The revelation comes after Taiwan authorities said Saturday they had confiscated nearly 18,000 cases of Red Bull imported from Austria after finding it contained traces of the drug.

Taiwanese authorities ordered the drinks to be removed from shelves pending further investigation.

A Red Bull spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Red Bull, whose advertising slogan is "Red Bull gives you wings" was founded by Austrian toothpaste salesman Dietrich Mateschitz in the 1980s.

It has since become one of the dominant players in the global energy drinks market.
I find it keeps me extremely attentive to my gas supply, (I check it every 30 seconds or so), creates a fairly urgent need to use the toilet, and makes me gnaw through the bite-grip of my regulator mouthpiece. Other than that, I haven't noticed anything. :cool2:
 
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Red bull is also linked to several deaths where heartbeat has increased and caused overload, infact i believe Red bull maybe banned in several European countries due to this reason, so for me i would definatley avoid it when diving
 
Red Bull tastes like cough syrup anyway...why'd you want to drink it?
 
RB does not contain Taurine anymore, this ingredient was substituted by Arginine in 2008 (due to the bans in France, Denmark and Norway).

It should be noted, that while RB does keep you awake, if you are tired or sleepy, RB doesn't improve your attention/reflexes/alertness. (there was a paper about that somewhere)
 
Thanks everyone for the info so far. Some interesting comments have been made. Cocaine in RB? Wow, how could that get in there? No more Taurine? I'll have to check that out here in Hawaii. Perhaps different canning facilities/countries use different ingredients?

I don't care for the taste of RB and those others much anyway so I don't think I'll be worrying about it on a personal basis but some of my clients are consumers and some drink the stuff like water. I'm wondering if I should watch them closer or counsel them on using it while diving. It might be something DAN has looked into (or should look into in the future) as the rate of consumption of these drinks is soaring through the roof and is only expected to grow even more.

Has anyone heard of any diving related accidents involving high consumption of energy drinks. I would certainly like to know if it's ever been linked as a contributing factor in DCS or U/W heart attacks.

Thanks again!
 

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