Energy Drinks and Cardiac Arrest: What the Reports Show

Read Time:7 Minute, 22 Second You saw the headline. Energy drinks, cardiac arrest, eleven times. And you have a can in your bag right now. Before you panic, or shrug it off, it helps to know what that number is. It is not “energy drinks make cardiac arrest eleven times more likely.” Nobody has shown that. Here is what was actually found, and what to do with it. What the energy drinks and cardiac arrest study actually found A medical student at the University of Virginia, Sai Samayamanthula, searched a U.S. government database. It collects reports of suspected bad reactions to foods and supplements. The team looked at 28,345 reports from people aged 13 and older, sent in between 2017 and 2025. Of those, 854 involved energy drinks or supplements with caffeine or other stimulants. The other 27,491 involved things like soft drinks, smoothies, vitamins, protein bars and meal shakes. Then they compared how often each heart problem showed up in the two piles.

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