Stoners on Chocolate Bars

Anne and I share our office with some fabulously lovely persons (and two cats). Yesterday, two of said awesome dudes consumed one square of an energy bar they got free at a street market. Said chocolately-like bar is called Red Rush. It’s active ingredients are caffeine (160mg for the bar, about one really big cup of coffee); taurine (a normal metabolite of amino acid cysteine that helps with detox processing in the liver); D-Glucoronolactone (again a normal metabolite of glucose) and guarana (a South American, coffee-like bean that manufacturers use to pack in LOADS of caffeine, in an unregulated way. Anyways).

The combo of caffeine, D-gluc and taurine is found in many energy drinks and some studies have found it to increase athletic performance. For an overview of the three, check this page from the European Commission. Highlights of the report include: “There is a lack of scientific evidence to support the safety of taurine present in beverages at concentrations that may result in intakes several-fold higher than that usually obtained from the rest of the diet.” AND “While there is no indication from the available data that there is any risk to health from consumption of high amounts of glucuronolactone, there is a lack of scientific evidence to support the safety of glucuronolactone present in beverages at concentrations that may result in intakes as much as two orders of magnitude greater than that obtained from the rest of the diet.”

But I digress. Knowing my interest in all things medical, these two boys came over to my desk to report on their experience with the bar (actually in hindsight, they were probably high and you know how high people are). I should note that both boys had at least one, if not two cups of of coffee today, which likely compounded the effects of eating the bar.  Within five minutes, they both felt hot flashes and an increase in heart rate. They said their eyes were glassy, irritated and they had reduced depth perception (”...it’s like you and the brick wall are in the same plane...."). One mentioned it was a feeling similar to a medication he’d taken that mimicked psychosis - at least in the visual field “...I feel like I could jump that far right now...”.  Both were sweating on the upper lip and forearm. They both promptly left and went for a bike ride.