The Durham (NC) Herald Sun reported recently that heat-related middle and high school football deaths spiked in 2006. Scientists are scratching their heads. HockeyCat is not surprised by the statistics.

All of us involved in hockey are aware of the use of stimulants to enhance performance. Sudafed has been a banned substance by many International governing bodies for years. Another very popular stimulant is caffeine.

When I was a kid Mountain Dew had the most caffeine (in the US – Canada has a law against caffeine in non brown sodas or something like that). Now, we have Red Bull, Surge, Vault and the rest of them promising enough caffeine to give you heart palpitations. Add a little sugar, okay a lot of sugar, and you have the perfect recipe for disaster.

Some hockey players are also using this stuff to get a boost, but the problem in sports like Hockey and Football is that this boost could kill you at its worst and is temporary at best. The sugar and caffeine rush will cause you to crash and burn. It will also act as a diuretic, which means you will sweat more, urinate more and ultimately have more trouble keeping hydrated.

A dehydrated player is more prone to making mistakes, running out of gas and add a little caffeine and you can count on some stupid penalties to boot. Some boost.

It will take scientists a few years to find that Energy drinks are killing our kids, but they will. In the meantime, resist the urge to give your kids or yourself a false boost with a so-called energy drink and stick with water, Powerade and Gatorade.

These so-called energy drinks are ticking time bomb that increase risks to youth athletes in all sports.

Read the UNC Press Release Regarding Heat-Related Deaths Here

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 8:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.