Energy drinks are a growing trend for those looking for an energy boost. Some use it as a morning pick-me-up. Others use it to push themselves at the gym a little harder. No matter the reason, energy drinks are being consumed more than ever, but does that mean that they are a pain friendly choice? And, when it comes to pain patients, how do energy drinks affect you and impact your pain condition?

Energy drinks: By the numbers

This fairly new product is starting to get more attention from the scientific community as a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that emergency room visits involving energy drinks doubled from 2007 to 2011. This is partly due to the fact that the energy drink industry had a 60% market growth during this time, but it does show a trend that some energy drinks can have serious health consequences.

How do energy drinks affect you?

Let’s break down the ingredients most commonly found in energy drinks and dive into what they do in the body in order to determine an energy drink’s impact on health.

Caffeine

Caffeine is one of the most widely used drugs on the planet and stimulates a person’s central nervous system. It is a part of most people’s daily life and it is a generally accepted guideline that a consumption of 400 mg of caffeine a day is considered safe.

Even in safe limits, though, there are extra (and tricky) considerations. Some fibromyalgia sufferers, for instance, find that even small doses of caffeine can cause a pain flare-up, or can adversely impact sleep to the point of causing more pain the next day. Some migraine or headache sufferers also report that caffeine can cause pain. On the other hand, some migraine sufferers actually find that caffeine can help alleviate head pain symptoms, and some fibromyalgia sufferers find the same.

Your body and your pain are specific to you. When it comes to caffeine, keep a pain and food diary to track what you eat and associated symptoms so you can start to figure out what helps and what hurts. It is also a good idea to consult your doctor if you are taking prescription drugs as caffeine is known to interact poorly with many other medications.

That concerns safe levels of caffeine consumption, however. Energy drinks contain large amounts of caffeine and, depending on the drink, can have reported amounts of anywhere from 50 – 250 mg of caffeine per can. This is the main reason why energy drinks produce a performance boost, increase memory, and make the user more alert.

High caffeine consumption comes with quite a few downsides, though. Regular caffeine intake can cause high blood pressure, risk of heart attack (even in younger adults), increase risk for gout attacks, decrease bone density, increase anxiety, and lead to insomnia, just to name a few.

Sugar

Sugar is a simple carbohydrate that our body breaks down and uses as energy to fuel our cells. Generally, an eight-ounce energy drink has somewhere between 21g and 34g of sugar that can come in the form of sucrose, glucose, or high fructose corn syrup. The American Heart Association suggests that adult women should only consume 25g and men 37.5g of sugar at most per day, so it is easy to see how drastic a single energy drink can be.

Sugar does provide some benefits like an instant energy boost, but mostly it can hurt your body. It can cause increased inflammation in joints, it can decrease the immune response, it can cause a pain flare-up, and it also has some nasty effects on the tooth and gums. It also can cause a sugar crash, which will leave you tired and cranky. Sugar is one thing that you should always make sure you are consuming in moderation.

Even if the energy drink contains a sugar substitute instead of actual sugar, there simply hasn’t been enough research done on the more popular sugar substitutes to know how they impact the body.

Guarana

Guarana is a South American plant compound found in most energy drinks that has a large amount of natural caffeine – approximately 40g per 1g of guarana. What does that mean exactly? It means that drink companies are not required to report that added caffeine to the total of an energy drink, which means that it is likely that your favorite drink has much more caffeine than you realized.

Taurine

Taurine is a common amino acid that supports numerous bodily functions including brain development and regulating water and in minerals in the blood. While there is some preliminary evidence that it helps prevent and treat cardiovascular disease, further studies are still required. As it is, diets in the U.S. are generally fairly rich in taurine so it is unknown whether more of this compound has any other additional benefits.

These are common ingredients in energy drinks, but there are many more depending on the brand you choose. So, how do energy drinks affect you, especially if you have a chronic pain condition? Generally, not well. Based on their ingredients (and the amounts of those ingredients), it is always better and healthier to find an alternative to energy drinks especially if you have chronic pain.

What are some better alternatives to energy drinks?          

The large amounts of sugar and caffeine make this “dietary supplement” a poor choice for a healthy lifestyle. Instead of grabbing an energy drink the next time you are in a slump, try one of these tasty alternatives to get you energized and back in the game.

• Smoothies are always an excellent choice. Specifically, vegetable smoothies that include spinach, kale, or parsley. You can also add a touch of ginger to help boost your energy levels and even reduce pain. Throw in some fruits or honey to create different combinations so you never get bored.
• Green tea has many health benefits that beat out energy drinks. Not only does it boost your metabolism, but it also has been reported to have positive effects on the heart and brain. It does usually contain caffeine, but only 25 – 40mg. That’s just enough to get your body making cortisol, an important hormone in keeping up energy levels.
• Chocolate milk provides a great balance between carbohydrates and protein, plus it gives you calcium. Grab a small glass of it for a healthy treat that is a perfect post-work out recovery drink.
• Coconut water is a good option as it has fewer calories and more potassium than most energy drinks. It also has many other essential nutrients such as magnesium, phosphorus, and calcium. This drink is rich and refreshing while still being great for your body.
• Good ol’ fashioned water. Water is very important for a healthy body as it supplies the muscles with nutrients and is crucial in every metabolic reaction. When you are dehydrated, your metabolism slows down and you start to feel sluggish. Downing some water can be just the trick to pep you back up again. Added bonus: add some fresh fruit to your water to get some added vitamins and minerals even more energy!

How do you get your motor running when your energy is low? How do energy drinks affect you?

Sugar is one of the most common food additives that adds no nutrient, but lots of calories. On top of that, eating too much sugar can also lead to and increase weight gain and many conditions like diabetes and heart disease. The American Heart Association suggests that adult women should only consume 25g and men 37.5g of sugar at most per day. That is a scary number if you consider that the average U.S. adult averages close to 90g of sugar a day! For those who are considering sugar and chronic pain, that number may be even lower because sugar can lead to more inflammation in the body. Let’s find out how sugar operates in the body and why it is so important to give up sugar as much as possible.

Sugar and chronic pain: How does it work?

It’s time for science! When natural sugar (glucose) is eaten, it permeates the walls of your intestines, which tells the pancreas to secrete insulin. Insulin in turn takes the sugar from your blood and moves it into your cells to be used as an energy source. Your body produces leptin to signal to the brain that it is full and you stop eating. Simple, right?

Well, what happens when you consume large quantities of added sugar (sucrose and fructose) in the amounts that is contained in most canned sodas?

First, your liver tries to convert this compound into usable energy, which has the side effect of producing bad cholesterol and putting your liver into overdrive. Then, your body is flooded with insulin in response to the high amount of sugar in the blood stream. A classic sugar rush ensues and your brain tries to regulate it by dumping serotonin into your blood stream that leads to that nasty sugar crash. You’ve been there—we’ve all been there. However, that high production of insulin also blocks production of leptin, the hormone that informs your brain that you have eaten enough. Because of this, you keep eating without even realizing all the calories you just consumed.

What are the effects of sugar? 

Sugar, the wonderfully sweet granulated bliss that makes your tongue happy isn’t so good for your body. Refined sugars have been blamed for everything from inflammation to belly bloat and weight gain.

A sweet tooth is something most people have to contend with every day, but there are a few benefits that sugar provides the body:

• Provides instant energy: Sometimes you just need an extra boost to get you through that Monday morning meeting
• Raises blood pressure: While not great for most of us, downing some sugar can stop you from negative effects if you’re suffering from low blood pressure
• Provides a short-term cure for depressed mood: Sugar gives you a sugar “high.” This is most certainly not a solution for depression, but it could help with a depressed mood or bad day

Negative side effects

With the good comes the bad. In the case of sugar, there are a lot more negative side effects to its consumption:

• Increases inflammation: All of that sugar has the painful side effect of increasing inflammation. This can lead to some serious issues as your liver gets overworked and it can really do a number on your joint and heart health. For pain patients, in particular, this is a huge effect that sugar can have that should be closely protected against. Sugar and chronic pain do not go well together.
• Decreases immune response: Animal studies have shown that a lot of sugar can suppress the immune system as yeast and bacteria feed off of it.
• Accelerates aging: Sugar can attach to proteins and slowly deteriorate the elasticity found in body tissue. This can lead to faster aging in the arteries and organs.
• Causes tooth decay and gum disease: As we all know, sugar can have a nasty effect on your mouth. Take a look at a classic experiment where a tooth left is left in a glass of coke.
• Increases stress: Sugar highs can mimic the stress response by raising blood sugar levels, which in turn promotes the body to pump out adrenaline and epinephrine for what the body thinks is much needed energy. While usually these hormones are beneficial, they can also make you feel more irritable and anxious.

What does research say about sugar and chronic pain?

Naturally occurring sugars, the sweet stuff found in fruits and vegetables, pose minimal harm. An increasing body of research has pinned an ugly head on refined sugar, included in baked goods, candy, and ice cream. Health experts recommend reducing your intake or eliminating it all together.

Sugar is addictive

Of course, we’re not entirely at fault for craving sugar like a drug; some research has found the sweet stuff leads to addiction.

Sugar releases dopamine and natural opioids in the brain, the same chemicals found in highly addictive painkillers. A 2008 study published in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews found that under certain circumstances, rats can gain a dependence on sugar, although the scientific jury is still hung on the matter.

Humans’ sugar dependence has a biological purpose. In our hunting and gathering days, people knew that if a food they tasted was sweet, it was ripe and not poisonous. However, sugar has changed over the years. Today, people eat not only refined, granulated sugar, but also high-fructose corn syrup, a processed sugar that’s found in nearly all processed foods.

Sugary drinks, including soda, fruit juice–which, if you check most labels, doesn’t actually have much juice–and sports drinks, are a major contributor to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. All of these can increase your risks of chronic pain and flare-ups.

Sugar and weight gain

An increasing body of research says sugar causes as much weight gain, if not more, as dietary fats.

In 2011, New England Journal of Medicine published a 20-year review of nearly 121,000 men and women that analyzed their weight gain. Sugar-sweetened beverages ranked third among the five top causes of weight gain, behind potatoes and potato chips. Another study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that people who replaced sugary drinks with non-caloric beverages saw an average weight loss of anywhere from 2% to 2.5%.

Sugar has no nutritional value, and eating it makes your blood sugar spike. This can put you at increased risk of diabetes, as your body produces more insulin to process the sweet stuff. Elevated blood sugar can also lead to inflammation. This exacerbates chronic pain and can lead to a host of other health conditions.

Should I give up sugar altogether then?

With so many adverse effects to consider, maybe it is time to start giving up sugar. So, should you give it up? The short answer is no.

It’s not a good idea to go cold turkey on your sugar habit, especially from a mental health perspective. It can also lead to some bad withdrawal symptoms including headaches, hunger cravings, and depression.

The classic food pyramid put sugar and sweets at the very top. However, with the new MyPlate Guidelines, added sugar and sweets are not suggested as any part of a balanced diet. Some sugar is a natural part of the diet and can be a great source of energy (especially when enjoyed from whole food sources, such as fruit), but it most certainly isn’t meant for large-scale consumption. It can also be difficult to cut sugar out completely as almost all prepackaged food comes with added sugar.

Knowing this, giving up sugar completely is not possible or healthy. In life, remember that most things are not bad, in moderation. However, there are some ways to remove most added sugars from your diet.

How can I reduce my sugar intake? 

If you want to give up sugar, or the majority of it, from your diet, let’s get SMART. SMART goals can guide you when making a behavior change.

Here are some valuable, SMART tips on how to give up sugar:

• Cleaning out your kitchen is usually a great first step. Removing temptation, especially when you are hungry, can be critical to kicking your sugar habit.
• Always check out the food labels. Sugar sneaks into almost everything nowadays, so keep an eye out and opt for brands and products with less added sugar!
• Try planning your meals out beforehand—when you’re not stressed, tired, or hungry. It can be surprising how fast that sugar content can add up if you aren’t paying attention.
• Avoid sugary drinks. Sodas are a huge culprit of sugar overdose and can easily fill your daily healthy limit of sugar in a single can.
• Exercise daily. Adding 20 minutes of physical activity into your day can increase your energy levels and reduce the need for a sugar boost.
• Avoid sugar alternatives and substitutes! While you won’t get the calories, you will still have the psychological desire for sugar. It is best to taper off and kick the craving all together. Once you start reducing the amount of sugar you eat, you’ll find that your body needs less to fulfill that sweet tooth!

What are your thoughts on sugar and chronic pain? Do you notice flare-ups when you eat more sugar? 

Halloween brings out the ghouls and goblins, but for those with chronic pain, the holiday brings about difficulties of a different kind. You may be wondering how you’re going to escort the kids around trick-or-treating. Maybe you’re dreading all the ups and downs required to answer the door. To make Halloween a little easier to manage, here are some ways to handle pain. We’ve also included tips for how to manage sugar as a chronic pain patient after the holiday passes.

Plan well in advance

Planning the candy you will have available, as well as choosing decorations and costumes well in advance will help ensure Halloween is both fun and stress-free.

Sitting down and making a list gives you plenty of time to make Halloween successful and memorable. Planning everything out and then chipping away at all those items will help reduce stress because you’ll know everything is taken care of.

Stores typically begin stocking goodies and costumes well over a month in advance, so take advantage of the early bird timing and thin crowds. Just try to avoid diving into that candy too early!

Buy plenty of treats so you don’t run out on Halloween night and end up needing to buy more. Empty all of it into a big bowl to minimize movement associated with preparation, and keep the bowl by the door to make it easier for you. You might also consider putting the bowl on the front porch, perhaps in front of scary-fun decorations so you participate in the holiday without causing yourself pain or stress.

Give leftover candies away at work or to friends. That way, you don’t find yourself with too much temptation on hand! We’ve also included more tips for how to create a healthier diet with sugar later in this post.

Ask a friend or relative to help out with escorting kids trick-or-treating

Perhaps you might take the kids out for 20 minutes or half an hour, or however long you feel comfortable, but knowing your limits is important for keeping Halloween enjoyable.

Getting out of the house, walking around, and seeing all the kids dressed up in fun costumes might put a smile on your face. You could always try, but it would be good to have a friend or relative on hand who can pick up for you if you start to feel tired or experience pain.

If you do go out trick-or-treating, make sure to wear comfortable shoes with adequate support and take a bottle of water along for the road. Staying hydrated is important for staying healthy and keeping your body humming along.

Party smart—and healthy

Halloween parties are another area replete with temptation. If you thought keeping away from the bowl of candy temptation by your front door was hard enough, staying away from the table full of cream-cheese filled appetizers and oh-so cute desserts that contain a week’s worth of calories and sugar can seem like a whole other endeavor.

To stay healthy at parties, eat a meal full of healthy, satisfying fats, like those from fish, before going. Walking into the party fully satisfied will help limit temptation.

Once you pass the chocolate and sugar gauntlet, enter alcohol, another inflammatory agent that can exacerbate chronic pain symptoms. While everyone is laughing and having fun at parties, it seems natural to imbibe in a glass of wine or a mixed drink. In these circumstances, it’s good to know your body and what it can handle. Perhaps you can drink one, or even two drinks, and feel fine.

Or maybe, drinking causes inflammation and results in you not feeling well the next day. When faced with temptation, think about how the drink will make you feel. If it will make you feel sick, try to avoid imbibing, instead drinking something fun and healthy, like cranberry juice with seltzer water.

Also consider the time that you feel capable of spending at parties. It’s easy to overextend yourself while fulfilling social obligations. But don’t feel like you have to stay all night, or even attend at all. By knowing your limits and staying true to yourself, you can make it through the party season with as little pain as possible.

Don’t worry

Stress is sometimes a natural side effect of anything festive. Halloween and other holidays bring with them the need to prepare and plan. It’s easy to get overwhelmed in the details and lose sight of the bigger picture. For Halloween, the bigger picture is that this is supposed to be a fun holiday!

Don’t worry about having the best candy in the neighborhood, the most interesting costume, or the most festive decorations. The most memorable part of Halloween can be laughing with your family and friends, enjoying this spooktacular time of year, the crispness of fall, and seeing everybody else’s fun costumes.

Keep an eye on what really matters and let the rest go. It’s a sure-fired way to enjoy the fun without letting stress ruin your laughter or good time.

Minimize indulging in candy

Halloween marks the unofficial start to the holiday season, that fun time of year full of lights, decorations, parties, and temptation.

There’s probably no more difficult time to stick to a diet than during the holidays. Particularly on Halloween, when those bite-sized pieces of candy bar goodness peer out at you, seeming to whisper, “Just one, just one.”

But, as you probably know by now, there is no such thing as just one! One leads to another, which leads to another. It’s just a bite, the devil on your shoulder rationalizes. Unfortunately, candy is full of sugar, which causes inflammation and exacerbates most chronic pain conditions.

To avoid binging on candy, keep healthy sweets on hand, such as fruit and dates. If you do indulge, try to keep it to a minimum. After the holiday, focus on minimizing sugar consumptions.

Should you quit sugar after Halloween?

Eliminating sugar completely from your diet can be a challenging task that includes a complete dietary overhaul, but there are benefits to actively working to reduce your sugar intake, especially for chronic pain patients. After Halloween’s parties and candy bars might just be the best time to do it.

Relieve inflammation 

For many chronic pain patients, inflammation is the largest source of pain. Whether located in the joints or elsewhere in the body, chronic inflammation can result in pain that is refractory and resists treatment.

Several studies published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition have indicated that processed sugar can significantly increase inflammation in the body. This increased inflammation hinders proper cell function. It also makes it more difficult for the body to function and handle chronic pain.

While increased chronic pain might be enough to convince you to start thinking about how to quit sugar, consider this: there is clear evidence that sugar is just as addictive as cocaine.

Mental health benefits 

James DiNicolantonio, a cardiovascular research scientist at St. Luke’s Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, conducted an analysis of multiple studies and concluded that not only is sugar more dangerous than salt when it comes to heart disease, but it is also as addictive as cocaine. DiNicolantonio drew a clear distinction between refined sugars and those that occur in fruit.

The process of ingesting higher levels of refined sugar is gradual but predictable. He noted:

“When you look at animal studies comparing sugar to cocaine even when you get the rats hooked on IV cocaine, once you introduce sugar, almost all of them switch to the sugar. You get this intense release of dopamine upon acute ingestion of sugar. After you chronically consume it, those dopamine receptors start becoming down-regulated — there’s less of them, and they’re less responsive. That can lead to ADHD-like symptoms … but it can also lead to a mild state of depression because we know that dopamine is that reward neurotransmitter.”

DiNicolantonio’s analysis is confirmed by multiple other studies indicating that consumption of sugar brings about neurological changes that mimic similar changes that occur in the brain when drugs are introduced. Researchers have noted a surge of dopamine production in the brain when drugs are introduced. They have recently seen the exact same response when sugar is consumed.

Similarly, withdrawal symptoms from lack of sugar are neurologically the same as withdrawal symptoms that occur in the brain when laboratory rats are undergoing opioid withdrawal. Laboratory rats that demonstrated addictive-like behaviors with regard to sugar also had a behavior that corresponded to similar drug-addicted behaviors: escalation of intake. This escalated intake led to larger meals in between doses of sugar. This can lead to other issues, such as obesity and diabetes, in the laboratory mice.

Sugar and aging

Sugar changes not only your body and your brain chemistry. It can also alter your DNA. Sugary soft drinks (and perhaps excessive sugar in other forms) have been linked to increased aging in cells. In a study from the University of California, San Francisco, researchers found the 350 mL of soda a day caused almost five years of aging in cells. This was measured by the length of telomeres, protective caps, on the end of each chromosome. In people who drank the most soda, the telomeres were much shorter than in those who drank less.

Professor Elissa Epel, of the University of California, San Francisco noted that diseases themselves may be caused not only by sugar but also by sugar’s effect on the aging process:

“Regular consumption of sugar-sweetened sodas might influence disease development, not only by straining the body’s metabolic control of sugars but also through accelerated cellular ageing of tissues.”

How to reduce sugar intake

Because of all of these effects of sugar on the brain and the body, for some people, including some chronic pain patients, the answer to “Should you give up sugar?” is very simple. Yes, they should give up sugar. For others, the answer may be a little more complicated.

People in the U.S. currently consume 100 to 150 pounds of sugar per year. This level of consumption is unsustainable in terms of obesity, diabetes, heart conditions, and chronic pain. There are easy, painless steps to take to reduce your sugar consumption without cutting it off completely. Here’s how to quit sugar at the amount that’s most appropriate for you.

1. Skip the soda

Soda is one of the biggest culprits when it comes to sugar. One 20-ounce serving has 44 grams of sugar. In one beverage you will have exceeded the recommended daily limits of 37.5 grams of sugar for men and 25 grams for women.

2. Read labels

Sugar is hidden everywhere. Get used to reading ingredients, looking for anything like sugar, glucose, or fructose. These are all types of sugars that add up.

3. Re-frame what “sweet” means

Instead of having a sugary dessert after every meal, reach for a piece of seasonal fruit. Eating fruit in season means it is loaded with natural sugars and will be especially delicious.

4. Avoid sugar alternatives

Artificial sweeteners and natural alternatives like stevia and honey are all still sweeteners. When you are trying to cut down on sugar, simply swapping sugar for a substitute may not be the best. That said, if you do consume sweeteners, sticking to honey as the least-processed alternative can be a great idea.

5. Ask your doctor how to quit sugar

Even for positive changes like limiting sugar intake, a conversation with your doctor is always a great idea. She may be able to give you more suggestions or direct you to local resources to help support the change.

If you need something sweet at the end of the day, or a sugar craving hits, reach for:

• Berries: High in fiber but lower in sugar than many other fruits, berries can satisfy your cravings for something sweet without a corresponding spike in blood sugar levels.
• Dark chocolate: Dark chocolate has anti-inflammatory properties but is lower in sugar than its milky cousin.
• Dark chocolate covered almonds: Dark chocolate covered almonds add protein to the mix, with almonds bringing even more anti-inflammatory properties to the snack.

How much sugar do you consume daily? Are you thinking of giving it up after Halloween?