Pounding too many energy drinks could wreck your liver — just as much as too many beers.
A 50-year-old construction worker developed acute hepatitis, likely from gulping up to five energy drinks a day for three weeks, according to a BMJ Case Report released Tuesday.
Although the man had chronic hepatitis C, his doctors blamed the beverage boosters for his liver failure. Chronic hep C typically produces no symptoms, and the patient’s sudden onset abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, jaundice and dark urine correlated with his energy drink habit. Plus, the symptoms resolved once he stopped.
This is the second reported case linking an energy drink binge with liver failure. An otherwise healthy 22-year-old woman with no history of hep C was also diagnosed with acute hepatitis in 2011. She had downed 10 cans of the stimulant a day for two weeks.
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