Do power drinks cause heart attacks?!
Question:
Do power drinks, such as Gatorade and Powerade, have any influence on heart attacks.
I have heard that power drinks make the ventricle of the heart pump faster, so when the heart pumps too fast, you have a heart attack.
Do power drinks really help cause heart attacks?
Answers:
A heart attack is caused when the blood vessels of the heart can not feed the heart muscle or the the muscle is not being oxygenated. Gatorade and Powerade I believe are low in caffeine if they have any at all. They have electrolytes in them like Sodium and Potassium. So if you overload or are taking a supplement of these you could get yourself in trouble. They use Potassium Chloride in very high amounts as part of the Lethal Injection. It stops the heart from contracting. As far as causing a heart attack it would be very rare. I don't think there is any factual evidence to support that these drinks can cause a heart attack.
Other Answers:
power drinks are used for when you are going to run a lot and your heart is going to be pumping fast. Some people drink them even if they aren't going to exercise or run or anything and it gets your heart pumping really fast and you aren't even doing anything hard like running a lot and it's bad for you. you are over working your heart when your body isn't even working hardly at all.
From what I have read in the recent medical papers it depends on your genes. The caffeine levels can cause alarm if you have genes that act negatively to caffeine. If your genes are not effected by caffeine then over-use is still a concern that should be discussed with your doctor. The bad point is that without a very expensive DNA test you can't tell which set of genes you have. So, bottom line everything in moderation is best.
Source(s):
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11713660/ and various AP wire reports
Answers: