Coronary events temporally associated with energy drink consumption predominantly affected young men, involved heterogeneous mechanisms, and were associated with potentially severe outcomes, but frequent coexisting risk factors and limited causal evidence preclude definitive attribution of these events to energy drinks.
The pooled cohort of energy drink-associated coronary events consisted entirely of young men.
Most patients had a strictly defined myocardial infarction or acute coronary syndrome, and most presented with STEMI.
The underlying coronary mechanisms were heterogeneous, with coronary thrombosis the most commonly documented.
Most patients had additional exposures or physiological stressors besides energy drink consumption.
Left ventricular function was impaired at presentation in over half of evaluable patients.
Clinical outcomes were potentially severe, including cardiac arrest and death.
Causality assessment using an adapted WHO-UMC framework classified most cases as only possibly related to energy drink consumption.
The evidence does not establish that energy drinks independently cause coronary events, and prospective controlled studies are needed.
This study looked at heart attacks and related coronary problems that happened after people drank energy drinks. The researchers described two new cases of heart attack in young men and combined them with 29 cases already published in medical journals, for 31 patients in total. All were men, with an average age of about 26. Nearly all had a heart attack or acute coronary syndrome, and most had the more serious ST-elevation type of heart attack. The causes inside the arteries varied. Some patients had blood clots, some had arteries that spasmed, and a few had tears in the artery wall. Over half of the patients with heart function measurements had reduced pumping function at presentation. Six patients had a cardiac arrest and two died. About 7 in 10 patients had other possible contributors, such as other substances or physical stressors, so it was hard to say energy drinks were responsible. When the researchers rated how likely energy drinks were the cause, only 5 cases were rated probable or likely, most were rated possible, and 3 were rated unlikely. This research suggests that heart attacks can happen shortly after energy drink consumption in young people, but it does not show that energy drinks cause them. Because the study is a collection of case reports without a comparison group, it cannot measure how risky energy drinks are. The authors say that carefully designed prospective studies with control groups are needed to answer that question.
Kayikcioglu M, Kaynak Z, Yağmur B, Demir E, Tetik Vardarlı A, Bayraktaroğlu S, et al.. (2026). Energy Drink Consumption and Premature Coronary Events: Two Case Reports and a Systematic Patient-Level Review of 31 Published and Newly Reported Patients.. Turk Kardiyoloji Dernegi arsivi : Turk Kardiyoloji Derneginin yayin organidir. https://doi.org/10.5543/tkda.2026.44773