Energy Drinks, Sports Supplements, ADD?

On Friday I had an opportunity to spend an hour catching up with Mike T Nelson (Check out this site: Extreme Human Performance). Mike is an “internet friend” that I got to know in part through my writing at TMuscle.  Mike has been a great resource over the years because he continues to stay neck deep in the performance research and understand the limitations and applications (or lack thereof) of various studies.

What’s up Mike!

Mike is doing his dissertation work at the University of Minnesota, in part, on the performance effects of a very commonly used energy drink. I was hoping to get Mike’s thoughts on energy drinks in general:

• Do they do what they claim to do?
• Are there any concerns with younger kids drinking them?
• Is there a connection between energy drink consumption and ADD symptoms? (I have my own theory on this)

Is it because you’ve spent the majority of your life simultaneously balancing watching tv, listening to music, and text messaging with your lap top in front of you?

Instead, Mike and I, as we usually do, tangentially discussed energy drinks, a couple other sports supplements (including the best supplement for hockey players that most players still aren’t familiar with), limitations in research application, the role of the placebo effect, and the performance implications of mental state association. Click the link below to download the call!

Click here to listen >> Mike T Nelson Call

I’m interested to hear your thoughts on young kids drinking energy drinks. As I mentioned in the call, because of the hassles associated with doing research on adolescent subjects, and because of the complications in monitoring long-term outcomes, there really isn’t any research in this area. But what do you think? Post your comments below!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld