Cardiac Function Evaluation of Healthy Young Adults by Consuming Energy Drinks

Abstract

Energy drink (ED) is a beverage that mainly contains some form of legal stimulants which are supposed to give consumers a short term boost in energy. It is a type of beverage containing caffeine as main stimulant, which is marketed as providing both mental and physical stimulation. With ED becoming a worldwide phenomenon, the short- and longterm effects of these beverages must be evaluated more closely in order to fully comprehend the psychological impact of these products. The market and degree of consumption of ED is increasing every year, but only few have global knowledge of their ingredients and actual physiological and psychological effects. Although ED have been sold worldwide for more than a decade, only a few published studies have examined their effects on health and well-being. The effects of ED consumption on physiological and psychological are more or less investigated but the effects of ED consumption on heart activity or cardiac function aren't well studied. The main aim of this study is to evaluate cardiac function of healthy young adults by consuming ED analyzing different cardiac signals. The modeling of cardiac signals with consuming ED is the partial objective of this study.The electrical activity of the heart over a period of time can be represented by the properties of Electrocardiogram (ECG) wave. Photo Plethysmogram (PPG) is the tactilearterial palpation of the heartbeat which is also known as pulse. ECG and PPG signals are used in this study as cardiac signals which are recorded by biopac accessories from healthy human subjects. ECG is recorded using electrode lead set connected to MP36 data acquisition unit. PPG (pulse) is also recorded using pulse transducer connected to the same MP36 data acquisition unit. ECG and PPG are recorded at both before and after the consumption of ED. The Laser Doppler Flowmetry (LDF) recording is also done for results verification for certain subjects. The consumption of ED affects heart activity that is determined in this study using electrocardiographic and photo plethysmographic parameters. The ECG parameters analysis show significant reduction in their corresponding amplitude as well as heart rate due to having ED. The amplitude of R wave of ECG increases little bit that may give short-term boost of energy. A notable decrement in peak to peak amplitude of PPG as well as pulse rate is observed due to having ED. The spectrum or frequency components for ECG as well as PPG signal decreases with a significant rate from the instant of having ED. That is, the spectrum parameters of cardiac activity decrease due to the consumption of energy drinks. The spectrum analysis of LDF signal also results similar type of decrement in their spectrum parameters for same type of energy drinks consumption. This LDF signal analysis validates our main experimental results. These results reflect adverse impacts of energy drinks consumption on cardiac activity. ECG is the main cardiac signal which represents complete cardiac function which is the measurement of bio-electric potential produced by rhythmical cardiac activities (contraction and relaxation) of the cardiac muscle. Different cardiac functions can be easily identified by ECG that's why ECG modeling is the most important with the consumption of energy drinks. Different techniques have been developed in the past for modeling of ECG. An ECG model is proposed in this study using peak amplitude based Gaussian function with some modifications in both before and after having ED. This model is best suited with practical ECG parameters. Using this ECG model it is possible to find out cardiac parameters which are needed for the evaluation of cardiac function with having ED. In this research, we have find out cardiac parameters using our ECG model and compared with real ECG parameters. The comparison results less error between real ECG and model ECG in the evaluation of cardiac function with consuming ED. Thus this ECG model is effective to evaluate cardiac function with the consumption of ED