Energy drinks like Rip-It and Wild Tiger may be essential fuel for hard-charging U.S. service members, but they’re only exacerbating mental health issues and behavioral issues, according to a new study in Military Medicine.
- The research found that soldiers who consumed at least two energy drinks a day were far more prone to “mental health problems, aggressive behaviors, and fatigue,” with high consumption reported in one out of every six soldiers months after the end of a high-stress deployment.
- Most alarmingly, however, is the assertion that ongoing energy drink consumption and the resulting aggressive behaviors “are associated with being less responsive to evidence-based treatments for PTSD” — a conclusion that suggests soldiers are mortgaging their long-term health for their short-term performance downrange.
- This conclusion was based on a survey of 627 male infantry soldiers, mostly junior enlisted between the ages of 18 and 24, seven months after the end of an unnamed combat deployment in order to gauge long-term impact.
- The problematic behaviors recorded in Military Medicine include extreme irritability (66%), sleep issues (35%), alcohol abuse (29.8%) and depression (9.6%), as well as a higher rate of post-traumatic stress disorder (11.2%), following the end of a deployment.
- It’s important to note that most of these behaviors aren’t a product of the energy drinks themselves, but a long-term impact of an abnormal sleep cycle: “Interestingly, energy drink use was associated with fatigue,” the authors note. “This relationship suggests that energy drink use may potentially exacerbate, rather than alleviate, fatigue.”
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