11 replies to this topic

[maineman]

A young man (22) was working long hours at his new post college job. In his "free" time he was working out 4-6 hours a day in the gym and doing karate. He was eating health food store food only and pumping up with "fitness" drinks, the kind that are on sale everywhere with "vitamins" "anti-oxidants" "natural stimulants" etc. He was quite buff. He came home from work and put a bullet in his head 2 days ago. I've known him since he was a kid, did his yearly physicals, also his folks. Just got off the phone with the parents. Interestingly he had displayed no signs of bipolar disase. Just his fitness "perfection". This is purely sad and there is no "moral" but I would avoid those fitness drinks. Especially the "energy" kind, like Red Bull and its cousins. In the last 3 years I've had 2 other guys go "off" from this stuff. One had a complete psychotic (albeit short lived) break after a 4 day business trip and lots of "energy" drinks. The other one collapsed from exhaustion at home and we had to "put him to sleep" for a few days. Take a minute and go hug your wife/husband/kids and tell them that you love them right now. Life is unpredictable. mm

[esther231]

Heart breaking. I had no clue they were a problem.

[Tor]

Staggering story, truly sad, and amazed to hear the drinks were the cause. Is this proven as a link??

[maineman]

It would be naive to think it was the drinks alone, but given this kid's "perfection" nature in all he did, high school sports, job, and his working out in his free time, he was "running on empty". Turning to power drinks may have been too much for him. We will never know if he was simmering underlying schizophrenia.... the peak age is around 17 to 25 years old, or whether he was early bipolar - possible all his overachieving was youthful manic-phase and he may have been trying to keep it going with his power drinks while the mania was cycling down to a depressive phase... sadyly he's dead and there's no way to find out. All I know is that the excessive use of caffeinated drinks and pseudo caffeinated "health"drinks must have led to increased racing of his brain and an inablility to cope. mm

[Rogerdodger]

My grandson's dad "overdosed" on those energy drinks last month. He worked all week and then got up at 3am to drive across state. So he thought several of those drinks would get him "energized". He thought he was dying. My grandson was with him in the middle of nowhere. Nearly scared the kid to death. He had to call an ambulance and eventually have his wife drive him back home. He's OK now. You can push your body too much. If you are tired, there may be a reason...like maybe your body needs some rest.

Edited by Rogerdodger, 05 September 2007 - 10:14 PM.

[stocks]

Why is the importance of sleep ignored? Even by the profession.

Dog-tired doctors pose a health risk

Although most people are aware of their impaired function after going without one or two nights of sleep, the most common form of "sleep loss" is shortening of sleep hours. Everyone encounters some nights of reduced sleep length but when this persists and there is no or little recovery sleep, problems occur. Recent research has highlighted that shortening sleep to four or even six hours per night over a two-week period is associated with increased lapses in attention due to "microsleeps". More worrying is that individuals who have restricted sleep seem to have an inability to monitor their own deterioration in performance, resulting in overconfidence in their ability to undertake tasks. So a sleep-restricted person may behave in the same way as a person who has had too much alcohol to drink, both underestimating their impairment and thinking they are fit to drive a car or some other responsible task, like complicated medical surgery.

Indeed, the hospital workplace is one setting where the risk of sleep loss has increasingly attracted attention from medical researchers. Professor Charles Czeisler and his team from Harvard University have recently published a series of landmark papers in The New England Journal of Medicine and other leading medical journals. These papers have provided direct evidence that working extended shifts in the hospital intensive care unit results in more errors, especially medication orders. Shorter split shifts with time allowed for napping resulted in fewer errors. In a nationwide US survey of 2737 interns, the Harvard group found extended shifts were linked to a greater rate of needlestick injuries and near-miss or actual driving accidents.

How does this relate to the hospital workplace in Australia? Although, in general, work-hour regimes are kinder here than in US hospitals, 15 per cent of all doctors in Australia report working more than 80 hours per week.

http://www.smh.com.a...8066939918.html

[maineman]

What is your point? Some doctors don't get enough sleep? Do any other people get enough sleep? Do doctors who get 8 hours of sleep make better diagnoses than doctors who sleep for 7 hours a sleep? What are you trying to say? And how does that relate to this poor child? mm

[stocks]

What is your point?
Some doctors don't get enough sleep?
Do any other people get enough sleep? Do doctors who get 8 hours of sleep make better diagnoses than doctors who sleep for 7 hours a sleep?

What are you trying to say? And how does that relate to this poor child?

mm

Sleep is devalued. It is not emphasied as a health priority as it should be.
Why take an energy drink? Why not just get adequate sleep?
Some people deprive themselves of sleep so that can exercise. That is self-defeating.
I was impressed when my doc asked me if I was getting adequate sleep.

I'm sure you're aware that inadequate sleep impairs cognitive performance.
Also sure you're aware that sleep disturbance is a hallmark symptom of depression and
that 1/2-2/3 of suicides are depression related.

[OEXCHAOS]

I wonder how many parents are sleep-deprived?

[EntropyModel]

Mainman has a very good point about avoiding 'energy drinks', this could be a real problem in the making.

Coincidently, I have run across so similar warning signs in a couple of friends in the last 2 weeks.
I have be trying a suppliment called Acetyl-L-carnitine, mainly for possible exercise
recovery properties. But it being widely tested and used as a 'mood enhancer' -

http://www.raysaheli...lcarnitine.html

I then found out a good friend of our who is bipolar and off his meds due to kidney problems, takes red bull and other 'energy drinks' to help mood, because they contain amongst other things L-Canitine, usually about 250mg...I was sort of shocked to hear it was in regular drinks.

Not a big sample, but the 3 of us took for last last 2 weeks, about 500mg. My wife anecdotally feels great with it, she has a family history of bipolar. However, I who have never ever had any form of depression, can honestly say I felt out of my head. I had to reduce to 100mg to feel myself. Then much to our surprize, our other friend called to say she'd had panic attack and felt 'out of her head' since taking it.

I think its definitely worrying. If people are drinking alot of this stuff like red bull, and if they drink alot of it..throwing in alot of stimulants like caffeine... some sleep deprivation & stress...well, its a recipe for trouble.


Mark.

Edited by entropy, 06 September 2007 - 07:20 PM.