Hugo Rodier, M.D.
Hugo Rodier, MD. Medical director of Pioneer Clinic, Draper, Utah; adjunct professor in the Family Practice Program of Social Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine; nationwide talk show host on integrative health; author and researcher.
High energy drinks
Our rushed lifestyles are fueling significant health problems. On the run, we eat poorly, get inadequate R&R and suffer from chronic adrenal exhaustion. Our health care system is in chaos, trying to apply pharmaceutical and surgical solutions that are great for acute problems, to the chronic problems caused by our manic running around. Obviously, nobody gets better, which suits certain segments of the health care system just fine.
Before we condemn such self-defeating state of affairs, we would do well to look in the mirror. Are we resorting to “natural quick-fix solutions” ourselves, the so-called “natural industry?” Instead of encouraging our clients/patients to examine their over-stretched lives, change their diets and find inner-peace, are we only interested in selling them a product that “naturally” increases their over-stretched energy debit? I would have to answer that the answer is yes: the natural industry has again boarded the “fashionable product of the month, or year.” And that is the high-energy drinks that are now flooding the market.
These drinks, which seldom have more than high sugar, caffeine and herbs like Ma-huang/ephedra, are being touted as the solution to our exhaustion and fatigue. Despite clear evidence that this approach has potential risks, is harmful in the long run, and it may create an addiction to these products (which suits the marketers just fine,) these high energy drinks are being pushed to a gullible and unsuspecting public.
These drinks are merely “whipping a dead horse.” They only borrow energy from our future, which only postpones the inevitable crash. They function by whipping our exhausted adrenal glands, the glands of stress to briefly give us that boost of energy to push harder, just a bit longer. True, momentarily we get such a boost, but at a very high prize.
|
