I guess you could say I’m a health nut. After years of regularly sipping lattes, cappuccinos, and café au laits (I grew up in the Seattle-area after all), I eliminated my caffeine consumption a few years back, relying on good old-fashioned sleep and exercise for my morning rush.

I must admit, however, that sleep and exercise can be hard commodities to come by, especially during business trips and busy work weeks. So, every once in awhile, I’ve chugged an energy drink to get the body and the mind moving … and boy do they work!

Too well, it seems, particularly for the growing number of teens who have become hooked on the powerful surge they get after downing highly-caffeinated energy drinks, like Red Bull, Full Throttle, and Amp.

In March, four Florida middle school students were rushed to the ER after drinking an energy drink and experiencing sweating and heart palpitations. Last year, a Colorado principal banned the beverages, after a handful of high school students got sick after shooting the drink.

And earlier this year, a study published in The Journal of American College Health, suggested that regular consumption of these super-caffeinated drinks among athletes could be linked to risk-taking behavior like substance abuse, unprotected sex, and aggression. About a third of 12- to 24-year-olds profess to drinking energy drinks on a regular basis.

I’m not a frequent consumer of energy drinks, hence the only risky behavior I ever engage in is maybe burning the midnight oil to meet a deadline or competing in a race on minimal sleep. Energy in a can certainly has its time and place in my life, but maybe for teens and younger kids, it should have no time or place just yet.

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor