Not recommended for children

Monster, Rock Star, Red Bull.

Energy drinks, no matter what the brand, are all the rage these days, but one local mom wants storeowners to stop selling the drinks to kids.

Corinne Young, a mother of two boys - one nine year old and one 19 year old, said she knows stores are within their right to sell the caffeinated drinks, but she feels they have a moral obligation to keep the beverages away from children.

"My nine-year-old is hyperactive," she explained her concerns. "I saw a group of kids one day drinking the energy drinks and asked them where they got it and one of the little guys said he was on his third one. He might have been 80 pounds."

Ms. Young was concerned about stores selling so many drinks to the kids and after getting the name of the store from the child, she called the business and was told it wasn't their problem.

She doesn't feel the response was adequate.

"These drinks are recommended for adults," she pointed out. "Caffeine is a drug. It's not recommended for children. I'm concerned for my child. He's hyperactive and I don't want him drinking that. He wouldn't anyway, but I want to make sure he doesn't have access to it."

The mother said she sometimes drinks the energy drinks and knows what it does to her body - her heart races and her energy abounds - and can't imagine what that same dose of caffeine and sugar would do to a child.

She knows of at least one shop that won't sell the drinks to anyone under 16 and wishes more stores would adopt that policy.

Ms. Young doesn't think a store would sell two or three cups of coffee to a child, so wonders why they'd sell the cold equivalent to kids. She said if more people realized how much caffeine was in the beverage, they'd be as outraged as she is.

Darryl Fitzgerald, a local pharmacist, agrees the general public needs more education on energy drinks and said he certainly wouldn't recommend them for children.

Most of the popular beverages, he pointed, contain moderate to high amounts of caffeine and many of them contain more caffeine than a person is led to believe.

"People think they're only drinking the amount of caffeine on the label, but most also contain guarana, which is a herbal form of caffeine," he said. "A select few may also contain ma huang, a herbal form of ephedra."

Mr. Fitzgerald noted all caffeinated beverages whether it's coffee, pop, sports drinks or energy drinks are safe when drank in moderation, however, problems can arise if they are abused. If someone needs to drive a long distance and wants to remain alert, he noted, an energy drink would probably restore wakefulness and one drink is safe, but when people start drinking two, four, six and eight a day, they're asking for trouble.

"Caffeine is a mental and physical stimulant," he said. "It increases alertness, however, it can also increase blood pressure, heart rate, it can cause palpitations, and certain medication can interact with it. Children think they are safe, but they don't realize there's the caffeine equivalent to two-thirds to one cup of coffee in a Red Bull. A Monster drink contains the equivalent of about two cups of coffee and kids are coming in and drinking two, three, or four Monster drinks a day. They're drinking coffee in a flavour format."

Too much caffeine, according to Mr. Fitzgerald, can change moods, increase alertness, and some people become more agitated and aggressive. And, when the caffeine starts wearing off, he pointed out, people go through withdrawal, which can cause jitters, shakes and moodiness.

Research shows the half-life of caffeine-the time required for the body to eliminate one-half of the total amount of caffeine consumed at a given time-varies widely among individuals. In healthy adults, caffeine's half-life is approximately three to four hours, but in children it can take much longer to wear off.

"Caffeine is the only legal stimulant that we have," the pharmacist noted. "You can buy it anywhere. I don't think children should be drinking it in large amounts. They should think of the long-term consequences of what they're doing. Not only is it costing them a lot of money, but caffeine is also quite addictive, so they're brewing themselves for a potential addiction."

Long-term overuse and abuse of caffeine in any form, Mr. Fitzgerald said, can result in nervousness, anxiety, insomnia, headaches, stomach problems, muscle twitches, heart palpitations, and heart murmurs.

He'd like parents to become more educated on what their children are drinking and wishes energy drink companies would stop directing their advertisements at children.

"Red Bull does quite a good job of advertising their product," he explained. "Their advertisements are very misleading. The commercial is aimed at children. Whenever there's a commercial in a cartoon format you're targeting the most impressionable faction of our society. That's wrong."

He said there's lot of information out there on energy drinks and everyone needs to weigh the pros and cons before popping a top.

The owners of two local convenience stores - Beyond Convenience and N&N Convenience - were contacted for comment, but could not be reached before press time last Thursday.