I see these at every gas station checkout and wonder if they are worth ingesting? Do they really give you energy? Similar to Red Bull or coffee? (tho I don’t think they have caffeine). I would kill to have one day where I wasn’t dragging my sorry ass except after my a.m. coffee. Do they work?
FWIW my brother had to escort convoys over in Iraq, sometimes they’d make him pull double shifts back-to-back with no sleep. While they didn’t keep him up for the full 5 hours he did say that it helped out to keep him feeling awake for at least an hour or two longer than usual and most guys he knew had a few on them. Not sure if it was a placebo or not but if it can provide an extra boost to some alread stressed, fatigued guys in the military then it could probably help out the average Joe.
OP, you’re tired every day? Get more sleep. I don’t get the whole coffee/energy drink thing that apparently is the only thing keeping people going. I get no more than 7 hours of sleep a night when I’m working, and wake up okay without caffeine 90%+ of the time. Do you people sleep at all?
The average Joe is a guy in the military.
There are some that have caffeine, and some that don’t. The ones that have caffeine do work, and the ones that don’t only give you a niacin flush, IME.
I’ve used them a couple of times. I like them. I felt like the commercial said I would, alert without being jittery.
I’ve been drinking the 5 hour energy shot brand supplements instead of coffee for the past couple of months. I think they work pretty well. The bottle claims they have about as much caffeine as a regular cup of coffee. That kind of throws up a red flag - why not just come out and say how much is really in there?
I like them though. 5 Hr Energy also have a version without any caffeine, but I haven’t tried it yet.
Sometimes after drinking a whole bottle at once it’ll make me feel a little uneasy, I usually drink half at a time.
I noticed that, too. Different blends of coffee had different amounts of caffeine, so they’re clearly trying to dance around that issue.
They won’t say how much caffeine is in there. According to the guys who have spent far too much time cataloguing the caffeine counts of over 400 drinks, there’s probably about 60-100 mg in 5-Hour.
They probably have plenty of time. Testing all those drinks probably keeps them up all night, they gotta have something to do.
One of my favorite sites.
Speaking of niacin flush, I got myself one of those and thought I was dying…
I had tried the 5-hour energy drinks, and they seemed to work as well as a bottle of your favorite caffeinated fizzy beverage. That didn’t do what I needed it to, I needed something stronger. Or at least I felt I did… This came from trying to self treat undiagnosed narcolepsy caffeine was actually little help to me.
I picked up one of those energy SPRAYS, you know the ones that say, spray one or two sprays under your tongue and hold it there for thirty seconds? The sublingual route for caffeine ingestion that these supply did seem to work faster, but after being frustrated that I STILL was falling asleep talking to customers I uncapped the bottle and poured about a tablespoon under my tongue.
This, in retrospect, was a bad bad idea…
About two minutes after ingesting the liquid (which tasted slightly worse than death) I felt like all the blood rushed to my face (the aforementioned niacin flush), my heart started racing and I pretty much felt like I was going to die. I started shaking like a leaf and had to go to the bathroom to vomit several times, leaving me with a headache too. I drank a large quantity of water and ate in the hopes of diluting the caffeine and chemicals raging through my system. I probably should have called the doctor, but I was too embarrassed at the time.
I felt better about 5 hours later…
But it woke you up, didn’t it?
They are overloaded in B vitamins. They also have some caffeine. I take them daily, because I absorb B vits poorly. They have done a good job of upping my B12 - my doc has stopped giving me the injections, he says the B12 levels are normal now and the insurance will not pay. But they have also upped my B6 to levels considered to be too high, so I have to balance what I take.
I find that the niacin can make me dizzy, so I sip mine and make it last a while.
I was intrigued - I often don’t get quite enough sleep, having two kids. But usually I can function in the mornings - it’s 3 p.m. that gets me. Since siesta is not really part of our culture, you do what you have to to get through.
But since I’m nursing, I can’t use the 5 hour energy - it has dangerous levels of B vitamins (particularly the niacin, IIRC) for nursing moms.
I’ll have to stick with a cup of tea or a Starbucks run for now.
I have them from time to time when it’s crucial that I’m awake an extra 5+ hours and alert to make important decisions. They work quite well really and don’t make me feel sick or wired. I chase with another drink usually since they don’t taste all that great.
This is just me. These shots will effect everyone differently. Best bet would just be to try them out and see how you like 'em. Maybe even just try 1/4 or 1/2 and see how you feel, then move up from there. I’ve never taken more than 1 at a time since 1 always does the trick.
I use WalMart brand NoDoz. $5 for a bottle of a hundred 250mg pills.
I usually take three at a time.
Here are the ingredients from the official Fie Hour Energy site.
You have to realize vitamins do NOT give you energy. They are catalysts that are needed to provide a reaction. Think of it as a spark. Let’s say you’re going to light an oven, if you use a match or a blow torch it doesn’t matter. Either will provide the spark to light the oven. Using more fire or less isn’t going to matter in getting that oven lit. And once the oven is lit, you don’t need to continue to provide the flame.
Lack of vitamin B complex can make you listless. But once you get the proper amount any more is just flushed out of your system. It’s like if you are thirsty and you drink a glass of water, you’re no longer thirsty. Drinking 5 more glasses of water won’t hurt you, but once you’re no longer thirsty it doesn’t help. The extra gets flushed away. (this assumes you’re not totally dehyrated in the first place)
Well, thanks for the information. Maybe I’ll buy one and try just a few sips at first. I do take vitamin B supplements sometimes and that seems to help (but I wouldn’t take vitamin B AND anything full of vitamin B, too.) I probably do need more sleep, but this isn’t likely. I would love to lay my head down and sleep soundly for 6, 7, 8 hours. I either have insomnia or more likely just doze off for an hour, wake up, and then sleep off and on fitfully for a few hours until I have to get up and chug coffee . You sound sleepers out there have no idea how lucky you are.
Is drinking too much of these dangerous? And by “too much”, I mean 4 in 4 days.
I’m looking at the back of the Mana Potion, the one based on the World of Warcraft games, and it says it has 400 mcg of vitamin B12, or 6667% percent of the daily value. Will drinking 4 of these over 4 days kill me?
Not directly related, but I decided to start taking those one-a-day pills, and it seems to be helping keep me up and awake, on the whole.