A man who was drinking up to 10 energy drinks a day has shared an image of how it affected his tongue – in a bid to warn others from getting addicted to the stuff.
Dan Royals, an Australian who lives in Asia, posted a photo to a Facebook group showing the photo of his tongue, where sections of it seemed to be scraped away.
Royals explained to HuffPost UK that he believes there are high dosages of chemicals in the energy drinks in Asia, which aren’t always labelled. “The doctor asked what my diet was like [after seeing my tongue], and he pinpointed it to be from the soda base and high vitamin B levels in the drink,” he said. “The particular drink I was drinking had B3, B6 and B12 in very high doses.”
Royals also had a bit of a Google and realised how dangerous they could be if he was drinking up to 10 of them a day – although he usually had around five to six.
Since he’s stopped having the drinks, his tongue has started to heal. “They are addictive and without them, you feel weak and fragile,” he said. “Even now, a week later, I still feel weak not having them – everything takes more energy to do when I’m not having these daily.”
Previous research has shown greater susceptibility of dental tissues to erosion when when people are drinking high amounts of energy drinks – but the drinks can impact the body in other ways, too.
“If you’ve had too much, in the short term, your heart rate is likely to increase which can make you feel irritable, anxious, light-headed and give you palpitations,” Dr Luke Powles, associate clinical director at Bupa UK previously told HuffPost UK.
“The stimulant effect can also cause headaches and make it difficult for you to fall asleep.”
Too much caffeine can also cause high blood pressure in some people, which can put strain on the kidneys and, in rare cases, convulsions and death could occur, said Dr Nitin Shori, a registered GP.
There have been multiple past reports of people having fatal heart attacks and strokes in relation to high consumption of caffeine, including from energy drinks.