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Show AggieLife Page 10 Monday, Jan. 11, 2010 The buzz on energy drinks When it is time to look for that job, that career-type job, check with The UTAH Statesman Job Finder first. Just go to www A-Bay-USU.com and look for the job finder widget, right thre on the right. Start clicking and start the search. Good luck! • • • • Entertainment - Auditions • • 41. ; • .J:4 .L. Covey Center for the Arts Provo, Utah 425 W, Center Street ENERGY DRINKS ARE gaining popularity among college students. A I2-ounce drink can contain 400 milligrams of caffeine. Friday, January 15, 2010 PETE P. SMITHSUTH photo Sign in: 3:00 pm Open Auditions: 4:00 — 6:00 pm Call Backs: 7:00 pm By ALISON OSTLER staff writer Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center Salt Lake City, Utah 138 West 300 South Saturday, January 16, 2010 Sign in: 9:00 am Open Auditions: 10:00 am — 12:00 pm Call Backs: 1:00 pm Lagoon Amusement Park Farmington, Utah 375 N. Lagoon Drive Saturday, January 23, 2010 Sign in: 9:00 am Open Auditions: 10:00 am — 12:00 pm Call Backs: 1:00 pm (801) 451-8059 For more information: Iagoonpark.com /entertainment It's an offer almost too irresistible to pass up: a drink that promises a quick fix to help keep you energized throughout the day — or if needed, to keep you up all night. Energy drinks, such as Monster, Rockstar, Red Bull, AMP and AriZona, which claim to give their drinkers a boost in energy, concentration and physical performance, are a hit among college students and have become a staple for some late-night test crammers and partygoers. It's a $6.6-billion -dollar industry and growing at a rapid rate. But are energy drinks safe to drink? "The worst thing about energy drinks is the amount of sugar and caffeine in them," Robert Corneia, MD in Utah county, said. A 12-ounce drink can contain 400 milligrams of caffeine. And as a Johns Hopkins University study showed, as much caffeine as 14 cans of Coca-Cola. The caffeine is why some drinkers experience the much-coveted buzz: the euphoric, wide-awake feeling that can last several hours. But that caffeine buzz doesn't come without the risk. Caffeine can cause short-term side effects, such as raised blood pressure, headaches, anxiety, tremors and insomnia, and the long-term can be worse. "Over time, it can lead to anxiety, depression and substance abuse," Corneia said. Energy drinks can pose a potentially deadly threat when mixed with alcoholic Your textbook prices have dropped! • ID 2720 was: $69.65 now: $60 used even lowe USUsWUtahState University beverages. Studies have shown that when energy drinks and alcohol are mixed together — energy drinks being a stimulant and alcohol a depressant — it increases drinkers' awareness, causing them not to realize how drunk they really are. This can lead to alcohol poisoning or accidents. The biggest problem with energy drinks, Corneia said, is that the companies use false advertising to promote their products. "They say, 'Drink this and you'll be good at, let's say, volleyball,' for instance," he said. "And that simply isn't true." Another problem is that people are substituting good sleep and nutrition for energy drinks. "People think they can get by with less exercise, less sleep, unhealthy eating habits and get by with just drinking it, and over time it's going to hurt them," Corneia said. However, not all opinions on energy drinks are negative. Braden Parker, recent biochemistry and biology graduate from USU and now a medical student at New York Medical College, had concerns about the health effects of energy drinks, which led him to do research on the subject. "I think there is a lot of negative hype about energy drinks that aren't really true," Parker said. He said the regular consumption of high amounts of caffeine found in energy drinks shouldn't be a concern unless a person drinks more than the recommended one to two drinks per day. "Honestly, from researching caffeine, I haven't seen too many down sides to drinking it," Parker said. "A lot of people think the caffeine found in energy drinks can cause heart problems, but from my research, I've found that they may exacerbate heart problems that are already existing, but can't create new problems." New findings have shown that, besides temporarily boosting physical performance, there are positive effects from caffeine. "Studies have shown that caffeine helps memory and that it can also prevent diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's," Parker said. The verdict? As with any drink containing a stimulant drug, it must be taken responsibly. Consumers should check the drink's facts and read the labels before buying it, especially since the amount of caffeine and sugar varies with each type of drink. Be careful about drinking them, Parker said, but don't completely toss away the idea of drinking energy drinks before knowing the facts. "There are just as many good things as there are bad," Parker said. "You just can't take the negative things and take them with a grain of salt. You have to take the bad with the good." Corneia recommends an alternative to energy drinks: "Eat a good diet, get lots of rest and drinks of water. You'll do better long term, and you will be able to stay away from the risks associated with caffeinated beverages." — alison.ostler@aggiemausu.edu Decade: Ten years in review continued from page 9 damage, stranded citizens, looting and violence continued to appear in the news along with death tolls — nearly 2,000 with over 700 missing — in the weeks that followed. Other news included the death of Catholic Pope John Paul II and the installation of his successor, current Pope Bendict XVI, as well as the revelation that former FBI agent W. Mark Felt was Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's informant known as "Deep Throat" during the Watergate Scandal. You were Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2006, a nod to the explosion of usercreated content on the World Wide Web and the growth and progress of start-ups, such as YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, Linux and others. Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, was killed after a stingray pierced him in the chest during filming. North Korea conducted its first nuclear test. In 2007, tragedy rocked the nation again in the form of the deadly shootings at Virginia Tech. Gunman Seng-Hui Cho killed 32 people, then himself. People of Virginia, as well as others across the country, mourned as the events prior to the massacre unfolded — witnesses told their stories and the wounded recovered. In entertainment, 2007 was marked by the release of the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series and by the 14-week strike by the Writer's Guild of America. Writers protested against the unfair compensation in contrast to a product's profits resulted in an eventual deal with producers, but not before putting many Americans' favorite television shows on hold, delaying the release of films, which toned down the Golden Globes to a straightforward series of announcement rather than an elaborate, celebrity-who's-who affair. The strike continued into February 2008, but was eclipsed by coverage of actor Heath Ledger's untimely death Jan. 22. He later received a posthumous Oscar for his role as the Joker in "The Dark Knight". The 3G network debuted. Michael Phelps won a record IN 2003, ELIZABETH SMART was kidnapped from her home in Salt Lake City. She was found nine months after her disappearance. photo courtesy MCT eight gold medals in the Beijing Summer Olympics. Eliot Spitzer resigned as governor of New York, amid a prostitution scandal, perpetuating a recent string of politicians getting caught with their pants down — figuratively or otherwise. However, the clear favorite for top news in 2008 was the presidential election, handing the presidency to Sen. Barack Obama over candidate Sen. John McCain. In 2009, Sonia Sotomayer was appointed the first hispanic Supreme Court judge, pop legend Michael Jackson died, as did Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and a commercial pilot safely landed his damaged plane on the Hudson River in New York in what would become known as the "Miracle on the Hudson." Swine flu and a roller-coaster economy dominated the news time and again throughout the year. — chelsey.gensel@aggiemail.usu.edu |