Energy drinks are popular with young men, especially young men in the military, and they may be contributing to mental health problems:
What the authors found was that over the course of the month leading up to the survey, more than 75 percent of soldiers consumed energy drinks. More surprising, however, was that 16 percent “of soldiers in this study reported continuing to consume two or more energy drinks per day in the post-deployment period,” the authors wrote.
High energy drink use, which was classified as consuming two or more drinks per day, was significantly associated with those survey respondents who reported mental health problems, anger-related behaviors and fatigue, the authors found.
Those consuming less than one energy drink per week reported these symptoms at a significantly lower rate.
Also of note is that energy drink use in this Army infantry sample was five times higher than previous studies that analyzed consuming patterns of airmen and the general population’s youth.
The original study is available online.
Medical researchers almost always get cause and effect reversed. Social scientists always do. The rule is that crazy people do stupid stuff.
It couldn’t possibly be that people who are exhausted and sleep deprived drink more energy drinks, could it?
And soldiers couldn’t possibly be described as ever being exhausted and sleep deprived, could they? Not to mention aggressive.
Repeat after me: “Correlation does not equal causation…”.
This is a mantra that the people doing these “studies” need to have tattooed onto their foreheads, so that they can be reminded every time they look in a mirror.
“High energy drink use, which was classified as consuming two or more drinks per day, was significantly associated with those survey respondents who reported mental health problems, anger-related behaviors and fatigue“.
Huh. Go figure–Combat is stressful, causes anger-management issues, mental health problems, and wears people the fuck out. Big shock, that–Now, I wonder what else correlates with that? Wearing a goddamn uniform, maybe? Eating MREs? Being away from home and hearth? Getting shot at by mean people, who are trying to kill you?
This is another meaningless study produced by meaningless people, and is worth precisely what they are–Zero value added.
Didn’t they have a control group to compare with?