"Deaths linked to energy drinks" has become a sad and all too frequent headline in recent years. The rise in energy drink use in the sporting world has been exponential as few products have inserted themselves into athlete's lives the way that caffeine-laden energy drinks have over the last 30 years. What began as a novel way to party through the night has become a mainstay of athletic preparation for a large portion of active adolescents and young adults who are seeking some magical performance edge. On the surface, this sounds reasonable until we consider that energy drinks have a number of crucial flaws. The simple fact is that energy drinks fail to provide their implied value for most consumers, and they contain one or multiple ingredients that may place athletes in peril for adverse outcomes, including death. It is time for the sports medicine community to take a stronger stand on the use of energy drinks if we are to be true to our mission to safeguard the health and well-being of our athletic population.
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