[font face=Serif][font size=5]Poison control data show energy drinks and young kids don’t mix[/font]

[font size=4]American Heart Association Meeting Report Abstract 14841[/font]

November 16, 2014 Categories: Scientific Conferences & Meetings

[font size=3]Study Highlights:

• More than 40 percent of reports to the National Poison Data System for “energy drink exposure” in a three-year span involved children under age 6.
• The effects of energy drinks in the reported cases included abnormal heart rhythms and seizures.
• Researchers call for better labeling of energy drink’s high caffeine content and subsequent health consequences.

Embargoed until 8 a.m. CT/9 a.m. ET, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2014
This release is featured in a news conference at 8 a.m. CT on Sunday, Nov. 16, 2014.

CHICAGO, Nov. 16, 2014 — More than 40 percent of reports about energy drinks to U.S. poison control centers involved children younger than 6 with some suffering serious cardiac and neurological symptoms, according to a new study presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2014.

This disproportionate representation of children is concerning given the number of reports of serious cardiac and neurological symptoms, said Steven Lipshultz, M.D., the study’s senior author and professor and chair of pediatrics at Wayne State University and pediatrician-in-chief at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit.

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