Crunk Energy Stix aren’t a drink mix, but they’re meant to be consumed in powder form just like Pixy Stix. Sprinkle on your tongue and…whamo! Well, that’s the intended effect anyway. They are extremely portable and the perfect way to smuggle an energy blast wherever you go.

Crunk hasn’t just produced a caffeinated powder, but they’ve also included the ingredients that would be found in their popular energy drinks such as white willow, ashwagandha, ginkgo biloba, skull cap, milk thistle, green tea, guarana, panax ginseng, and caffeine (100mg). The energy stix are orange flavored and only contain 3g of carbs and 10 calories per sachet so they won’t just give you a sugar rush like their Aunt Pixy.

Hopefully, we’ll get to try Crunk!!! Energy Stix for you and let you know how they work. In the meantime, look for them anywhere Crunk!!! is sold. They retail for $2.99 for a two pack. If you’ve tried them, let us all know what you think!

Source: BevNet.com

Taste

5150 Juice is basically an eye dropper of liquefied caffeine, without any of those fru-fru flavor ingredients. I shouldn’t have to say much more here, because believe it or not, every one of you has tasted 501 Juice. Don’t remember? Think back to the last energy product you consumed that had a bitter after taste. That after taste? It was 5150 Juice.

Now, 5150 Juice is not meant to be drunk on its own, but mixed with a beverage of choice. Power to the people! When mixing a recommended capful of 5150 Juice with your favorite vending machine product, you won’t have to concentrate hard to pick up on the 5150 aftertaste. It’s noticeable, but by no means does it destroy your drink.

Ingredients

Every cap of liquid gives you roughly 100mg of caffeine. Movin’ on

Effect

A capful of 5150 Juice will go to work with respectable intent, much to my delight. I never found out what more than one cap will do, because one was always enough! There’s not much to expect when it comes to crashing.

Verdict

This one’s got my thumbs up. I just love the idea of having a resealable, highly portable, bottle of concentrated caffeine. Keeping one in a jacket pocket is the epitome of being prepared for an energy lover.

So, while you’re here, fun little story for you. I recently got a job, and drug testing was required. When I got to the drug testing lab, I remembered that I had just foolishly used the bathroom about 15 minutes before. This was a horrible situation, because I needed to get the test that day without choice, the lab was about to close, and I had nothing left for the pee cup.

I panicked a little, and then got smart. The 5150 Juice in my jacket vest pocket had about 1/4 left, so I gulped it all down and followed that up with a greedy water fountain session. 25 minutes later, the caffeine worked its magic and I went through with the drug test! You see, it never hurts to have caffeine in your pocket. You’ll never know when it can come in handy.

Reviewed by Dusty Smith

You can get your own 5150 Juice from KingofCaffeine.com

However, it has never been determined whether or not this rhythm disturbance equates to an increased risk of hospitalization because of it. In fact, a recent study shows that drinking caffeine in coffee form actually decreases the risk that someone might be hospitalized because of heart rhythm problems.

Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, CA recently conducted a study in which the coffee drinking habits of 130,054 men and women were assessed along with their medical history. The research showed that those who had 4 or more cups of coffee a day (400mg of caffeine or more) had an 18% lower risk off being hospitalized because of heart rhythm disturbances while those that consumed at least 1-3 cups had a 7% lower risk.

The head researcher, Arthur Klatsky MD, says that while other factors could have been involved here and that this study doesn’t prove that coffee has a protective effect, it does however, show that coffee drinkers are not harming themselves from drinking the caffeine or increasing their risk of hospitalization due to heart rhythm problems.

In any event, this is good news for the caffeine consuming public, especially those that have 400mg or more of caffeine everyday. However, don’t go crazy people. This isn’t a license to throw common sense out the window.

It seems like every year there is a new magic ingredient that is supposed to work miracles. Remember  Retinol,  Q10, or Elastin?  Well now it seems caffeine has joined the ranks of these past skin care product wonders and is expected to be the hot ingredient for 2010.

Garnier recently launch a whole line of products called “Skin Renew” containing caffeine. They have an under eye roll on that’s supposed to make dark circles and puffiness vanish as well as moisturizers and sun screens with added caffeine that claim to even reverse sun damage and have anti skin cancer properties.

Does Caffeine Really Work?

Beauty product companies have added caffeine to products based on a couple of studies that pointed to some potential health benefits of caffeine.

• The University of Washington in Seattle recently conducted a study in which they exposed healthy skin cells and UV damaged skin cells to caffeine. The caffeine caused the damaged cells to die while not hurting the healthy cells. This study was published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. This study didn’t allude to the fact that topically applied caffeine would work any better than ingested caffeine though.
• The second is actually a number of studies that point to caffeine’s anti-inflammatory properties. So the theory is that if caffeine is placed under the eye, then it can help reduce puffiness and dark circle as they are caused by inflammation.

Some of the other skin care giants have come out with caffeinated products as well  so expect to see many of the major players follow suit with their own caffeine enhanced versions. Besides beauty oriented products, sun screen companies have also been rolling out sunscreens with added caffeine so look for this trend to increase too.

A couple of years ago, people thought putting caffeine in soap, shampoo, and lotions was ridiculous, however, now it looks like it will be as common to use caffeine enriched skin care products as it is to drink a cup of coffee. Besides, you’ll be able to actually use your tea bags for drinking now.

Why’s that? Because there are no disputes. No ongoing pivotal investigations that may undermine its sincerity. Correct posture = good. Incorrect posture = bad. Let’s become aware of that every May.

Caffeine. Its status? Undetermined. Un-de-f’ing-termined. We simply Do. Not. Yet. Know where caffeine stands concerning its interaction with our bodies. The case is still open. Disputes are still wildly raging on. Pioneering research is likely in progress as I type this very word. So what happens when we push a Caffeine Awareness Month? One of two things, both of them unacceptable.

Let’s just go with the title, Caffeine Awareness Month. What does this do to us as a people? It simply asks us to become aware of an unsolved debate. It begs of us to take time out of our days during that special month to research the status of both sides of the debate, and maybe formulate a personal opinion. Silly as that sounds, things are actually worse.

Let’s look at what this awareness month really is really pushing in its current state. Caffeine Awareness Month is currently proposed with the intention of asking people to become aware of the negative sides of caffeine. Wake up everyone, for just a second and realize what this is: a formulated weapon for an opposing team that preys on our innocence. How could it possibly be anything different? There are two very real sides to the caffeine debate, we ALL know this. So how could the formulation of an Awareness Month in the middle of the investigation be anything different?

We don’t need to get into the FACT that pro-caffeine arguments are empirically supported with raw data and scholarly publications. We don’t need to get into the FACT that caffeine has undisputed health benefits right alongside its known negative effects. We just need to acknowledge the FACT that the word is not out on caffeine yet, and we CAN NOT support a month that begs of our awareness of this state of affairs. It’s absolutely ludicrous, and downright insulting to our intelligence.

Nothing more needs to be said here. It’s truly that simple. Until we have our facts straight, this writer urges you to look the other way when it comes to supporting the adoption of Caffeine Awareness Month. That is unless you feel cell phone radiation brain cancer and magnetic healing bands deserve their own month, too, because then Caffeine Awareness Month is right down your alley.

Written by Dusty Smith

Caffeineawareness.org has sent letters to the Governors of all 50 States to ask them to make it official in his/her state. So far only Connecticut has taken them up on the offer. Hopefully, the other Governors actually take time to dig into this organization a little before endorsing them and what they “so call” stand for.

I’m all for exploring and debating both sides of the issue when it comes to caffeine, but when an organization makes such sensationalized claims about caffeine and coffee and doesn’t cite any sources to where they’ve attained their facts or furthermore, when they post a video on their site promoting caffeine awareness and the video does nothing but talk about the evils of caffeine and coffee, again unsourced, but at the end of the video there is a two minute commercial for a product called Soyfee which is a soy based coffee alternative, they lose all credibility in my book.

Caffeineawareness.org, don’t pretend to be anti-caffeine for the good of our society when all you’re really trying to do is market products and why not source where you get your information, along with all your caffeine content information which you probably stole from Energy Fiend. Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell, you receive a big jeer from us for endorsing such an organization and anything they would promote, you should actually read things before you sign off on them!

Does anyone else get annoyed at things like The National Caffeine Awareness Month campaign when it is clearly being promoted with ulterior motives?

Coffee is embraced while energy drinks are shunned, banned, and protested. What gives? Something that just stirred the pot for me was the recent news of Top Sail High School in North Carolina, USA opening a student run campus coffee shop where students can get coffee before and after school.

Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a great idea and a way for students to learn about business, economics, making coffee, customer service, cooking etc. but what bugs me is the double standard that this coffee shop represents.

Could you imagine what would have happened if the students wanted to open an energy drink stand before or after school? There would have been public outcry, angry phone calls, and headlines on CNN about schools poisoning their students. However, a coffee shop opening gets commended and will no doubt start a new trend.

As our caffeine database shows, ounce per ounce coffee has more! caffeine. For instance, a fluid ounce of filter coffee has 18mg of caffeine while a fluid ounce of your typical Rockstar or Monster has 10mg of caffeine. Take a look at Starbucks caffeine and you see a fluid ounce of their brew has 22.5mg of caffeine. Yet coffee is accepted and energy drinks are banned.

Some would argue that it’s the other ingredients in energy drinks that makes them bad, but we say if you search, you will find that it is almost always the caffeine content of energy drinks that is criticized. As for sugar, most teens I know would drink their coffee pretty sweet so the sugar would be about equal.

Does anyone else find this coffee and energy drink double standard annoying?

It seems that people who consume Caffeinated beverages have a 40% less risk of getting Glioma which is a type of brain cancer.

In the study published in the journal; Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, the caffeine consumption habits of 300 brain cancer patients were compared with those who were cancer free. Those that had at least five cups of coffee a day showed to have less risk of developing Glioma. That’s over 500mg of caffeine a day!

The men in the study showed more favorable results than that of the women, but it still suggests that caffeine is responsible as decaffeinated beverages made no difference in cancer rates.

In the past a lot of studies concluded that the antioxidents in coffee and tea were the health promoting factors, however, the researchers theorize that in this case the caffeine restricts blood flow to the brain, which prevents cancer cells from getting the high oxygen and nutrient levels they need in order to flourish.

What’s even better is that this study didn’t exclude other caffeinated beverages such as tea and soda so the results took the consumption of these beverages into account as well.

Now when you are hassled about your energy drink addiction, you can tell the haters that you are preventing brain cancer!

Have you ever thought about what is actually going on in your body when you throw back that energy drink or sip that coffee?

How is caffeine broken down and how does it affect your metabolism? How long does caffeine stay active in your system and why do people crave the stuff?

We’ll try to answer those questions and more in the simplest terms possible so you can be an educated consumer when it comes to caffeine metabolism.

Caffeine From the First Sip

Caffeine easy passes through body membranes so from the first sip the caffeine is entering your blood stream through the lining of your mouth, throat, and stomach. It only takes 45 minutes for 99% of the caffeine to be absorbed through these membranes. In humans the half-life for caffeine is anywhere from 2.5 to 4.5 hours in humans which explains why the average energy drink or coffee’s effect lasts about 2 to 3 hours. Things like age, medical conditions, and drug interaction can have an affect on the half-life.

Caffeine in the Blood Stream

While most research on caffeine has been conducted using animals, the data has been converted to show the most likely effect in the human body. As soon as the caffeine enters the body it is metabolized by the liver and broken down into theophylline, theobromine and paraxanthine.

From there these chemicals travel throughout the body where they effect various body functions. The most studied of these is the way caffeine is similar to the molecule adenosine in the brain. The molecules bind to the adenosine receptors in brain cells and block adenosine from binding. This causes elevated levels of adenosine in the blood which is believed to cause feelings of alertness and energy. The compounds also interact with the dopamine system in the brain which influences mood and prevents dopamine’s calming effect.

There also has been research into the way adenosine may play a role in the sleep-wake cycle. Caffeine doesn’t replace the person’s need for sleep, but just covers up drowsiness symptoms.

Theophylline relaxes smooth muscles which has been beneficial to those with asthma and is the reason why after drinking caffeine the person often feels the need to use the bathroom as it is affecting the smooth muscle of the colon.  Theobromine increases the amount of oxygen and nutrients that can be used by the brain and muscles.

There have been many other researched effects of caffeine covered by Energy Fiend, but the above represents the most researched and common.

Caffeine’s Exit from the Body

The caffeine metabolites are then filtered by the kidneys and they exit the body with the urine. Caffeine has been shown to have a diuretic effect on the body which basically causes the body to release more water in the urine. However, new research suggests that this is only in people who have not built up tolerance to the caffeine molecule.

When caffeine has exited the body or has been used by the various cells of the body the person can experience a “crash” which is caused by elevated levels of adenosine and dopamine  finally being able to attach to brain cell receptors, causing feelings of tiredness and fatigue. Prolonged use of caffeine also causes withdrawal symptoms.

I think it’s time for another coffee or energy drink to keep the caffeine metabolism process going don’t you think?

Sources:

Biology Online

Wikipedia

In a new study, caffeine had a stronger effect on guys than it did on girls. In a recent study published in Behavioral Pharmacology boys and girls were given caffeinated soda to drink and then instructed to play a computer game. Boys were able to last longer at the game than the girls. The study focused on teens ages 12-17 years old.

The study controlled factors such boredom, caffeine consumption, and thirst. Researches aren’t sure why teenage boys respond better to caffeine, but it could be linked to the hormones in the bloodstream and how they effect caffeine metabolism.

It is no wonder that energy drinks are much more popular with boys rather than girls and most are marketed to appeal to boys. There’s no data yet that suggests caffeine has the same effect on adult men and women though.

When it comes to teens, well, you can just call caffeine a sexist pig if you want to and girls, you can’t be equal at everything.

Source: Discovery.com