Collegiate Times

It's that time of year again, and students are finding themselves up late and crammed indoors, where they tediously prepare for finals.

Lack of sleep and dwindling motivation to attack endless piles of notes leave many in search of a way to improve their concentration and stay awake. As the end of the year approaches, many will find solace in canned energy drinks, coffee and some will resort to the common attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medication, Adderall.

One recently marketed product, 5 Hour Energy, claims that "tired is in your head" and boasts that one two-ounce bottle will provide "smooth energy" without the inevitable "crash" associated with other sugary energy drinks. Adderall isn't as easily available, but it remains inevitably linked in the lore of test preparation. Do popular energy drinks work as well as they are supposed to, and is it really worth the effort to get your hands on a few pills of Adderall?

Pioneers in the ever-growing energy drink industry, such as Red Bull and even Mountain Dew, have paved the way for new companies to emerge, touting constantly improving formulas. Five Hour Energy is among the latest of these products to hit the market, and its Web site seems to provide an impeccable scientific explanation behind how each ingredient's role in human metabolism. Its sugarless formula comes in a ready-to-drink two ounce bottle that claims to be an answer to consumers' search for the perfect energy supplement. Its Web site and television commercials are quite enticing, and its effort to embrace science as a foundation to back its formula is definitely a smart marketing strategy.

Aside from a caffeine content equivalent to "a cup of the leading premium coffee," it also contains 8,333 percent of the daily value of vitamin B12, 2,000 percent of the daily value for vitamin B6, and large amounts of other B vitamins. B vitamins play vital roles in energy metabolism and are crucial for red blood cell and DNA production, proper nerve function, and even in play a role in preventing birth defects. Aside from these vitamins, 5 Hour Energy also includes two of 20 amino acids, tyrosine and phenylalanine, which the company claims "elevate mood, improves mental performance and increases mental alertness." As one reads the list of ingredients and learns that many are huge contributors to energy production and cognitive function in the human body, it seems apparent that a product such as 5 Hour Energy may actually work. What the company fails to mention is that each of the ingredients are in fact plentiful and readily available in the average American diet.

More often than not, B vitamins and amino acids are consumed in sufficient amounts in average diets that consist of a combination of grains, vegetables and a variety of animal products. Supplementing the diet with seemingly excessive doses of B vitamins will probably not benefit the average person, and very few Americans are deficient of these vitamins. Likewise, amino acids are abundant, especially in animal products, which are considered "complete proteins," those that contain all 20 amino acids. So what about the excessive amounts found in energy drinks like 5 Hour Energy?

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