Not just alcohol, cardiologist warns, one popular drink that will make you more vulnerable to heart attacks

Conventional wisdom dictates that if you want to improve your heart health, you have to avoid alcohol. However, a cardiologist recently warned that alcohol is not the only drink that can do a number on your heart. In a chat with Today.com. Dr. James Stone, a cardiologist at the South Heart Clinic in Harlingen, Texas, explained how not just alcohol, but energy drinks are also your heart’s number one enemy.

He warned that a standard 8.4-ounce can of an energy beverage generally provides around 80 milligrams of caffeine, as reported by the American Beverage Association, the trade organization representing the beverage industry.

Experts suggest that the primary concern is not the caffeine itself but the habit of consuming multiple stimulating ingredients together in a single drink. The combined effect of these compounds may place extra strain on the body, especially when consumed frequently or in large quantities.


Stone insisted that caffeine is great as long as people don’t consume more than 400 milligrams per day. But in that case, it will be wiser to just drink black coffee rather than energy drinks.

Energy drinks are saturated with not just caffeine and sugar but with stimulants such as taurine, guarana, and L-carnitine. These stimulants can affect the nervous system negatively and even cause irregular heart rhythms if taken in excess. This makes energy drinks more dangerous for heart patients in particular, he warned. When combined, these ingredients can cause irregular heart rhythms that ultimately cause a sudden cardiac arrest and even death. People with heart diseases take beta blockers to slow down their heart rates, but having energy drinks would completely ruin this purpose. He explained how even healthy people get palpitations after having energy drinks.

He concluded that energy drinks could be rather addictive as they tend to be rather sweet. “It’s sweet, it tastes good. They’re borderline almost addicting, and they keep you up, and they give you a rush. It’s this unnecessary evil we don’t need to get ourselves into," he said.