Clinical Trials Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Feb 26, 2017; 9(2): 162-166
Published online Feb 26, 2017. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v9.i2.162
Consumption of energy beverage is associated with attenuation of arterial endothelial flow-mediated dilatation
John P Higgins, Benjamin Yang, Nikki E Herrin, Santi Yarlagadda, George T Le, Brandon L Ortiz, Asif Ali, Stephen C Infanger
John P Higgins, Nikki E Herrin, Santi Yarlagadda, Brandon L Ortiz, Asif Ali, Department of Internal Medicine, McGovern Medical School, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Benjamin Yang, George T Le, Stephen C Infanger, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Author contributions: Higgins JP, Yang B, Herrin NE, Yarlagadda S, Le GT, Ortiz BL, Ali A and Infanger SC contributed equally to this work, to the design and research, to data analysis, and writing of the paper.
Supported by McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 7000 Fannin St #1200, Houston, TX 77030, University of Texas, No. 130744.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors has received fees for serving as a speaker, advisory board member, or owns stocks or patents.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at john.p.higgins@uth.tmc.edu. Participants consent was not obtained but the presented data are anonymized and risk of identification is low.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: John P Higgins, MD, MBA, MPhil, FACC, FACP, FAHA, FACSM, FSGC, FASNC, Associate Professor of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, LBJ General Hospital, 5656 Kelley St, UT Annex-Room 104, Houston, TX 77030, United States. john.p.higgins@uth.tmc.edu
Telephone: +1-713-5006549 Fax: +1-713-5005912
Received: July 1, 2016
Peer-review started: July 3, 2016
First decision: August 5, 2016
Revised: November 16, 2016
Accepted: November 20, 2016
Article in press: November 22, 2016
Published online: February 26, 2017
Processing time: 237 Days and 10.6 Hours
Abstract
AIM

To investigate whether consumption of an energy drink will acutely impair endothelial function in young healthy adults.

METHODS

Energy drinks are being consumed more and more worldwide, and have been associated with some deaths in adolescents and young adults, especially when consumed while exercising. After fasting and not smoking for at least 8 h prior, eleven medical students (9 males) received an electrocardiogram, blood pressure and pulse check, and underwent baseline testing (BL) of endothelial function using the technique of endothelium-dependent flow mediated dilatation (FMD) with high-resolution ultrasound (according to recommended guidelines of the University of Wisconsin Atherosclerosis Imaging Research Program Core Laboratory). The subjects then drank an energy beverage (EB), a 24-oz can of Monster Energy, and the above was repeated at 90 min after consumption. The relative FMD (%) was calculated as the ratio between the average post-cuff release and the baseline diameter. Each image was checked for quality control, and each artery diameter was measured from the media to media points by two experts, 3 measurements at the QRS complex, repeated on 3 separate beats, and then all were averaged.

RESULTS

Subjects characteristics averages (given with standard deviations) include: Age 24.5 ± 1.5 years, sex 9 male and 2 female, weight 71.0 ± 9.1 kg, height 176.4 ± 6.0 cm, BMI 22.8 ± 2.7 kg/m2. The hemodynamics were as follows, BL vs EB group respectively (mean ± SD): Heart rate 65.2 ± 11.3 vs 68.2 ± 11.8 beats per minute, systolic blood pressure 114.0 ± 10.4 mmHg vs 114.1 ± 10.4 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure 68.8 ± 9.3 mmHg vs 70.6 ± 7.1 mmHg; all were not significantly different. However after drinking the EB, a significantly attenuated peak FMD response was measured (mean ± SD): BL group 5.9% ± 4.6% vs EB group 1.9% ± 2.1%; P = 0.03). Given the increased consumption of energy beverages associated with exercise in young adults, more research is needed.

CONCLUSION

Energy beverage consumption has a negative impact on arterial endothelial function in young healthy adults.

Keywords: Energy drinks; Endothelial function; Exercise; Flow mediated dilatation; Blood pressure

Core tip: Energy drinks are being consumed worldwide, and are gaining in popularity, especially amongst youth. We studied the acute effects that one energy drink has on endothelial function, a measure of vascular health. We found that consumption of a single 24-oz can of Monster Energy resulted in attenuation of brachial artery endothelium-dependent flow mediated dilatation in 11 healthy volunteers.