Abstract
Background: Energy drinks are caffeinated and sugar contained or sugar-free drinks that claim to enhance and boost cognitive and physical ability of the consumer, also, reduce the fatigue after athletic activity. Energy drink promotes the risk of overstimulation of the nervous system, seizure, myocardial arrhythmia, and even death. Energy drinks were found responsible for raises the mean arterial blood pressure level of the body and natriuresis. Acting as diuretic agent in a matter of fact, a single serving of caffeinated energy drink has proven to significantly raise systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Objective: this study to Investigate the Prevalence of hypertension in general population of Riyadh city, Explore the incidence of Toxicity/overdose of Energy Drinks and to determine the correlation of hypertension and prolonged consumption of Energy Drinks. Methods: The population of this study is 6,506,70 people, which are all the general population in Riyadh city in Saudi Arabia. The study was carried out in July - March 2017, in Riyadh province, Saudi Arabia. An electronic questionnaire was created by the research authors in the Arabic language. A pilot study was conducted to confirm the validity and reliability. Results: Out of 1555 participant (1128(72.5%) Females and 427(27.5%) Males), most of them were younger than 40 years old by 1180(75.8%) participant. Most respondents lived in Riyadh by 999 (64.2%), the rest of which 556 (35.8%) lived outside Riyadh. The age of respondents correlates significantly (p<0.001) with Hypertension since 1054 (82.3%) who are less the age of 40 years and those 40 years and above 227 (17.7%) were non-hypertensive. On the other hand, individuals who are less than 40 years old and whom 40 years and above were hypertensive. Conclusion: Routine and good taste are the primary reasons for consuming energy drinks. Fewer levels of hypertension prevalence associated with energy drink users were found, but symptoms and signs of toxic levels are involved in 63.8% of consumers with a headache being the most prominent symptom as withdrawal effect.