Supplement reviews without the hype

Wouldn’t it be nice if you had more energy to get through your hectic day? That’s the premise of 5 Hour Energy,  distributed by Living Essentials LLC. A lot of people have asked me about five hour energy so lets see if we can make sense if its right for you.

The product’s website claims that five hour energy has no sugar and no herbal stimulants. Each bottle is 4 oz. As such, this energy drink is one the smallest in quantity on the market. There are actually 3 different types of five hour energy:

1. Original 5 Hour Energy5
2. Extra strength 5 Hour Energy
3. Decaf 5-Hour Energy

Here are the ingredients of each version

Ingredients:

• Niacin (as nicatinimide) 30 mg (150% daily value)
• Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride ) 40 mg (2000 % daily value)
• Folic acid 400 micrograms (100% daily value)
• Vitamin B12 500 micrograms (8333% daily value)
• Sodium 18 mg (less than 1% daily value)

“Energy Blend” 1870 mg. the energy blend contains:

1. Taurine
2. Glucuronolactone
3. Malic acid
4. N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine
5. L Phenylanalyine
6. Caffeine
7. Citicoline

Extra Strength 5 Hour Energy

Ingredients:

• Niacin (as nicatinimide) 40 mg (200% daily value)
• Vitamin B6 (as pyridoxine hydrochloride ) 40 mg (2000 % daily value)
• Folic acid 400 micrograms (100% daily value)
• Vitamin B12 500 micrograms (8333% daily value
• Sodium 18 mg (less than 1% daily value)

“Energy Blend” 2000 mg. the energy blend contains:

1. Taurine
2. Glucuronolactone
3. Malic acid
4. N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine
5. L Phenylanalyine
6. Caffeine
7. Citicoline

Decaf 5 Hour Energy

Ingredients

• Vitamin B6 (as pyridoxine hydrochloride ) 40 mg (2000 % DV)
• Folic acid 400 micrograms (100% daily value)
• Vitamin B12 500 micrograms (8333% daily value
• Sodium 18 mg (less than 1% daily value)

“Energy Blend” 2106 mg.  The energy blend contains

1. Taurine
2. Glucuronolactone
3. Malic acid
4. N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine
5. L Phenylanalyine
6. Caffeine
7. Citicoline

Notice the “decaf 5 hr energy” has caffeine. But how much  does it have? The products website does not say. We are only told that it has the same caffeine as a cup of “premium coffee”. Caffeine content of coffee can vary according to how the coffee was brewed.

Let’s now briefly review some of the ingredients in 5 Hour Energy.

Niacin. Its said that niacin may cause a flushing effect however the  niacin in  5 hr energy is in the form of niacinamide which is unlikely to cause flushing.

Because niacin is found in many foods it is very unlikely that healthy people are deficient.

Vitamin B 6. This vitamin,  found naturally in nuts, beans, vegetables, grains and meat is needed for many things including burning fat and sugars as well as helping with the proper use of amino acids. Older adults and alcoholics may suffer from deficiencies in vitamin B 6. But, it is unlikely that healthy people are deficient in this vitamin.

Those who take too much vitamin B 6 may experience numbness or pain in the arms and legs and even difficulty walking due to this vitamins disruption of nerve impulses. These symptoms go away after vitamin B 6 supplementation has stopped. These effects do not normally occur when vitamin B 6 is consumed in food.

Folic acid. This B vitamin is found in fruits and vegetables and is also one of the better known ingredients in prenatal vitamins. Some medical professionals have recommend folic acid to lower heart disease but growing evidence does not support this practice.

Here are 3 facts about folic acid you dont know

Vitamin B 12. This vitamin is found in meat, fish and poultry. Energy drinks often contain this vitamin B 12 because  people often believe it gives them energy.But, it does not provide energy the way caffeine does. If you wondered if this vitamin helps weight loss, read my vitamin B12 weight loss review

Fact:  Healthy people store many years worth of vitamin B 12, making deficiencies rare.

Tarurine. This is an amino acid found in eggs, meat and dairy products. Humans can also make taurine from vitamin B 6. Some research finds taurine and caffeine can improve verbal skills and mental reasoning. Not much is known about long term use of high amounts of supplemental taurine.  Not all energy drinks contain taurine so read the label if this of interest to you.

Glucuronolactone is found in energy drinks, often alongside other ingredients like caffeine, taurine etc. There doesn’t seem to be any research that this compound alone has any effect on energy levels. Likewise, no study appears to exist showing that this compound by itself improves exercise performance.

Malic acid is sometimes found in anti-aging skin creams because it is an alpha –hydroxy acid.  Malic acid helps remove dead skin cells and may temporarily plump up the skin, making wrinkles less noticeable (temporarily). I was unable to find any research that malic acid improved exercise performance or overall energy levels.

Tyrosine. This amino acid has been shown in a few studies to improve alertness in people and this is why it’s often found in energy drinks. 5-Hour Energy does not indicate how much tyrosine it contains. Tyrosine is a non-essential amino acid because we can make it from the amino acid phenlanalyine, which 5-Hour Energy also contains.

Caffeine. In the world of energy drinks, caffeine is king.  This is the main energy boosting compound in 5-Hour Energy and all other energy drinks.

Citicoline is a is related to choline and is made during the production of other brain chemicals. Citicoline has been studied with some success in persons with senility where it might improve speaking ability and memory in older adults with dementia. This may be the reason its found in this energy drink, the reasoning is that if it works in older, senile people it may also do the same thing in healthy people. The issue is that nobody is sure if this happens. Side effects from long term use are also not well known.

What about the “Crash”?

The 5 Hour Energy website defines a “crash” as the drop in energy levels that occurs after drinking a sugar-containing energy drink. To prove that 5-Hour Energy does not reduce energy levels, the website shows a graph indicating the results of a “clinical study” that compares 5-Hour Energy to two other “competing products”.

It is hard to determine how good this study is because:

No reference to where the study is published is listed. This means the study may not be peer-reviewed.

1. We are not told if the study was double blind/placebo controlled.
2. We are not told how “energy levels” were measured.
3. We are not told how many people were in the study.
4. We are not told the names of the “competing products”

My “Experiment” with Five Hour Energy

I tried 5 Hour Energy for the first time just before I posted this blog. I drank one bottle of the lemon lime flavor at and noted the time (2PM) to see how quickly I might notice any effects.

The product didn’t taste as bad as I thought and was much less tangy than Red Bull.

After about 5 minutes I felt an odd feeling in my stomach. I could also feel my heart beating a little which normally does not happen at rest. Overall, these feelings were not significant.

Over the course of 5 hours, I took note of my energy level to see if I felt any different or better than normal.

I did not notice any flushing feeling from the niacin. Other than feeling a little “out of kilter” – just feeling “different / not right” – I did not notice any added benefit to 5-Hour Energy.

Ironically,  the product made me feel like I was not 100%. I didn’t feel bad. But, I didn’t feel the same either. That’s a subjective feeling  and others may feel differently.

I did not measure my heart rate or blood pressure during my “experiment”.

My Thoughts

1. The main active ingredients in 5 hr Energy drinks appear to be caffeine, taurine and tyrosine.
2. Despite the name 5-Hour Energy, the website does not provide any peer-reviewed evidence to prove that the product boosts energy levels by 5 hours.

Have you used 5 Hour Energy? What happened?

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