MONDAY, Nov. 2, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Energy drinks can be literally heart-stopping for young adults, a new study says.
Caffeinated energy drinks and stimulant supplements are consistently linked with cases of cardiac arrest and heart attack reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), researchers are slated to report in Chicago Saturday at a meeting of the American Heart Association (AHA).
Further, nearly half (45%) of reports linking these products to heart health emergencies involved young adults 18 to 34, researchers found.
“These products are marketed as everyday pick-me-ups and sold next to soda and bottled water, so most people assume they carry no real risk,” researcher Sai Samayamanthula, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, said in a news release.
“For many healthy people, if these products are consumed occasionally, the risk is probably small,” he said. “However, individuals who consume energy drinks or other stimulant-containing supplements regularly can quickly exceed the recommended daily limit for caffeine, so it’s important for people to know that there may be a risk of cardiovascular harm with these products.”
Sales of energy drinks have more than doubled during the past decade, reaching more than $20 billion in 2024, researchers said in background notes.
Energy drinks are loaded with caffeine, and anecdotal reports have linked them to irregular heart rhythm or cardiac arrest, researchers said.
A scientific statement issued earlier this year by the AHA said consuming up to 400 milligrams of caffeine per day — about four 8-ounce cups of black coffee — is generally safe for most adults.
But some energy drinks contain as much as three times more caffeine per fluid ounce than black coffee, and some pre-workout supplements have more than 12 times as much caffeine, researchers said.
For the new study, researchers analyzed more than 28,000 adverse event reports to the FDA between 2017 and 2025 from energy drinks and stimulant supplements among people 13 and older.
Comparing energy drinks and supplements against products that don’t contain caffeine or other stimulants, researchers found that:
Cardiac arrest is about 11 times more common with energy drinks.
Heart attacks are 4.5 times more common.
Abnormal heart rhythms are 4 times more common.
An elevated heart rate is nearly 3 times more common.
Chest pain is 2.7 times more common.
Fainting occurs twice as often.
“Our findings support the case for more systematic safety monitoring of caffeine- and stimulant-containing products," Samayamanthula said. "In addition, healthcare professionals should remember to ask their younger patients who have palpitations, chest pain or fainting spells if they recently or regularly consume these products.”
Other stimulant additives found in the drinks included methylxanthines (theobromine, guarana, yerba mate, green tea/coffee extracts) and sympathomimetics (synephrine, yohimbine, ephedra, DMAA, higenamine), researchers said.
Researchers couldn’t say why young adults appeared to have more cases of heart problems related to energy drinks.
It could be that young adults imbibe the drinks differently than older people, or drink them at times that could increase their heart risk — for example, before intense exercise or mixing them with alcohol or drugs, researchers said.
“This study raises concerns that products with very high amounts of caffeine may be harmful to the cardiovascular system,” Dr. Gregory Marcus said. He is chair of the 2026 AHA scientific statement on caffeine and cardiovascular disease and associate chief of the Cardiology for Research program at the University of California-San Francisco Health.
“Although there are biological reasons why that connection could be possible, the study does not prove that caffeine products cause these events, because other factors may have influenced the results found in this analysis,” he continued in a news release.
“More research is needed to understand whether these stimulant products are truly responsible for the reported heart-related events,” concluded Marcus, who was not involved in the new study.
Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
More information
Harvard Medical School has more about energy drinks and health.
SOURCE: American Heart Association, news release, Nov. 2, 2026
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