DR. WALLACE: I like the taste of energy drinks, especially when I feel tired or after I’ve gone through a vigorous workout. I like to exercise hard five to six days per week, but I try to make sure I take at least one day off a week to help my body recover from the big chunks of energy I regularly burn up. When I finish a tough workout and feel fatigued, I tend to gulp down two or three cans of these energy drinks in a row sometimes. My girlfriend always says that I “chug” them down one after another.
Recently I’ve noticed after drinking the second one I feel my heart beat faster, fast enough for me to notice it. Is this normal? — Workout Fanatic, via email
WORKOUT FANATIC: The caffeine in energy drinks is the likely substance that causes you to feel your racing heartbeat. Frequently, energy drinks have high levels of caffeine added to sugars and legal stimulants such as guarana, taurine, kola nut, ginkgo and yerba mate.
The effects are generally considered mild; however, people who take certain medications or have a specific type of heart condition could be at increased risk.
Since you are experiencing a “racing” or noticeably increased heartbeat, I suggest you check with your doctor immediately. Please follow up with this and hold off on drinking any more energy drinks in the meantime. If your doctor clears you, there will be plenty of time to drink what she or he feels is a safe number of caffeinated drinks, and if not, the sooner you stop these drinks the better for your overall health.
I’M ALWAYS SO SLEEPY AND TIRED
DR. WALLACE: I think I’m a normal 14-year-old, since I get good grades in school and have a loving family at home where we all get along just fine. My only worry seems to be that I feel that I’m just so tired all the time and this makes me want to sleep a lot, it seems like I never get caught up enough to feel refreshed and properly rested.
Once I’m at school, I have low morning energy and it’s hard to stay awake for the first hour or so. Eventually this feeling wears off and I can resume my day normally, but my mornings are really, really tough! And now in summertime I sleep in every day like a hibernating bear!
Is there something wrong with me or am I just a typical teenage sleepyhead? So far, I haven’t told anyone about this because it’s embarrassing, and I don’t want people to think I’m lazy. — Tired Teen, via email
TIRED TEEN: There might be a problem if you are sleeping more than 12 hours per day each day for over a week, as this could be a sign of depression. This might not specifically apply to your situation, but I feel I’d be remiss if I didn’t point this out to you.
In any case, do discuss your situation in detail with your parents. They love you and want the best for you, so please open up and give them all of the details just the same way you have done so here with your email. Your parents can make an appointment to see your family doctor and discuss your symptoms if they feel it may help you.
As summer has just started, you might need to get on a schedule so you have things to do during the daytime that will encourage you not to sleep in every morning. I feel the first key to finding a remedy to your situation is to involve others to help you with these struggles. Your parents and your family doctor would be a great place to start. Don’t be embarrassed at all, we human beings all face various and sometimes random physical challenges during our lifetimes; fortunately, most of them come and go.
Think now about how great it will feel to find a solution to your fatigue instead of keeping this to yourself and continuing to suffer. Please talk to your parents about your situation today.
Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected] To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
