Energy drinks boost your blood pressure. Energy drinks make all sorts of claims about how they bring your energy up when your levels get low, but new research has found they may be boosting your blood pressure as well. “Researchers found that energy drinks can raise blood pressure to potentially unhealthy levels. The effect was far more prominent in young adults who did not consume caffeine regularly. The research team gave a can of a commercially available energy drink to 25 healthy volunteers, whose ages ranged from 19 to 40. On a different day, the participants drank the same amount of a placebo drink. The researchers measured the participants’ heart rate and blood pressure before and after the drinks. The participants experienced a more marked rise in blood pressure after consuming the energy drink than after drinking the placebo. The participants’ average systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) increased by 3 percent more after they drank an energy drink, compared with the placebo drink.” While that amount might not seem like much, the researchers point out that even a small increase can be dangerous in some. “At a population level, an increase of three or four points on a systolic blood pressure reading could mean a significant increase in deaths from stroke. Scientists do not know whether it is the caffeine, taurine or other ingredients found in energy drinks — or a combination of ingredients — that adversely affects the heart.” (

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