A lot of us rely on that extra caffeine boost during the day and turn to a quick fix like a 5-Hour Energy Drink, but the FDA and the New York Attorney General’s office is investigating claims the shot of caffeine lead to 13 deaths and 33 hospitalizations over the last four years.
The energy drink company said there is no proven link between the drinks and the deaths and the product contains as much caffeine as the leading premium coffee.
A USC Director of the Section of Toxicology says if you drink multiple bottles of the 5-hour Energy you’d be taking in about 30-40 cups of coffee.
A local marathon runner who is also a local nurse, Georgie Stoops, depends on the 5-Hour Energy drink usually half way through her marathons.
“I have her set up for mile 12 with her little baggy with what she is suppose to give me and inside there is a 5-Hour Energy,” said Stoops.
Stoops is also a big coffee drinker and knows her limits, but with the 5-Hour Energy drink she learned the hard way how much was too much.
“When I took the two on the Route 66 Marathon race about four years ago, I was so sick, it made me vomit; to me it felt like I had vitamin toxicity,” said Stoops. “My system just couldn’t handle that much.”
She drank one at the 12th mile and another at the 18th mile.
“For me that is too much even for someone who drinks caffeine on a daily basis several times a day, in that time span that’s too much.”
The directions on the bottle state not to take more than two bottles in less than 24 hours. The CEO and founder of the company, Manoj Bhargava said the caffeine inside the bottle is not harmful.
"It's overblown,” said Bhargava. “When it's in small quantities … It's like this -- water is good, but if you have too much you drown.”
