A 26-year-old woman who drank up 20 to cans of Red Bull a day for four years damaged her liver so badly that doctors assumed she had to be an alcoholic.
Mary Allwood had no idea how bad Red Bull was for her health until she was finally rushed to the hospital last November.
After complaining of a severe pain in her side, an MRI scan showed that Allwood’s liver was already twice the size it should be.
According to The Daily Mail, Allwood had been consuming the sugar equivalent of 17 Mars bars and the caffeine equivalent of about 16 cups of coffee every single day.
“I needed it and I didn't care at the time what damage it was doing to me,” Allwood later revealed. “If I didn't get my fix I would be miserable and grumpy and it just wasn't an option - I would make sure I got it.”
In fact, the damage done to Allwood’s liver was so severe that doctors were convinced she was an alcoholic, until she opened up about her addiction to energy drinks.
Because the sugar content in energy drinks like Red Bull is so high, the body may deposit fat into the liver, which causes scarring over time.
The hospital scare turned out to be the wake-up call Allwood desperately needed, and soon she decided to replace her Red Bull diet with water.
Although she experienced serious withdrawal symptoms for about a month, Allwood says she’s finally kicked the habit to the curb.
Now that she’s started losing weight and her liver is back to normal, Allwood hopes her story can serve as a warning to others about the dangers of consuming too many energy drinks.
“Now I think the rules should be changed and it should be treated in a similar way to cigarettes, with the blank packaging,” she said.
