Can Caffeinated Energy Drinks Cause Erectile Dysfunction?

The beverage aisle in your local grocery store is so dominated by energy drinks that it's difficult to imagine Red Bull, the granddaddy of them all in most people's minds, reached the United States only in 1997. As of 2019, Red Bull owned about 38 percent of the global energy drink market, which is expected to hit $58.35 billion in 2022 and grow to $76.6 billion in 2026.

But the popularity of these types of beverages periodically sparks a panic about their potential health threats, including whether energy drinks can cause ED.

Parents and authorities worry that energy drinks contain wildly inappropriate amounts of caffeine—which is kind of funny. We don't usually think of it this way, but caffeine is the most ubiquitous, widely consumed drug in the world. It's estimated that 90 percent of American adults use caffeine regularly, according to research published by the National Institutes of Health.

If you overuse it, caffeine can cause health concerns. It can affect systems that are vital to proper erectile function, including the cardiovascular system, blood flow and the nervous system—again, if you overuse it, and overusing for you is not the same as overusing for someone else.

"Getting amped up on energy drinks, if you have this rush of adrenaline, that's going to affect the blood vessels that go to the penis, perhaps," said Amy Pearlman, M.D., the director of men's health at the Carver College of Medicine at University of Iowa Health Care. "So when people are amped up and excited and anxious, that's going to cause vasoconstriction."

Too much caffeine can affect your heart rate and blood pressure, and it can even cause arrhythmia. But when discussing energy drinks and erectile function, it's important to focus on the nervous system.

"Caffeine stimulates your sympathetic nervous system, your 'fight-or-flight' response," said Justin Dubin, M.D., a urologist and men's health specialist with Memorial Healthcare System in South Florida. "And while the fight-or-flight response is important for ejaculation, you need to be relaxed in order to get an erection. The parasympathetics are really the thing that helps you with erections. So, I think, if you're extremely caffeinated to the point where you're wired and your heart rate's going fast, you're potentially going to have some struggle, some issue with ED in that moment."

An interesting aspect of the concern over how much caffeine energy drinks contain—especially in terms of how energy drinks might affect erectile function—is that they're actually not that bad, at least, not all of them.

"A Red Bull has 80 milligrams of caffeine, but a Dunkin' Donuts medium coffee has 178 milligrams, so it's two times more. That puts it in perspective," said Dubin, who hosts a medical advice podcast called "Man Up: A Doctor's Guide to Men's Health." "But then you have things like Bang Energy drink, which has 315 milligrams of caffeine. But that's not even that much higher [than coffee], because if you get a 16-ounce Starbucks Caffè Americano, that's 225 milligrams. That's like three Red Bulls. So the idea that there's so much caffeine in these drinks, I know people who are drinking seven cups of coffee a day."

So when we ask about energy drinks potentially causing or contributing to erectile dysfunction, maybe we need to turn to their other potential drawback: sugar.

It's well known that a long-term poor diet can lead to issues such as diabetes and obesity, both of which are strongly linked to ED.

"I think a lot of the problems we have today with people struggling to lose weight is because we have these liquids with high calories," Dubin said. "You're eating healthy, but then you go and buy a frappuccino or you have energy drinks that have 300 calories and you have five of them a day, you're going to gain weight because of the sugar. You're going to put yourself at risk for diabetes, and as we know, diabetes and obesity are things that can contribute to ED."

But buyer beware: Be cautious if you think energy drinks that use artificial sweeteners are any better.

"We think of energy drinks with artificial sweeteners as being healthier, just like we would with diet soda," Pearlman said. "But artificial sweeteners are way sweeter than normal sugar. So what happens is it resets the threshold for what people think is sweet. So they tend to overeat on things like chocolate cake because it doesn't taste sweet anymore. Artificial sweeteners are used in animals to fatten them up, and yet we use them as a dietary product."

Of course, energy drink makers are quick to inform consumers that they pack their beverages with other health-promoting ingredients, such as vitamin B, guarana and Red Bull's famous taurine. That's an amino acid your body already produces.

But it seems unlikely any of these ingredients are present in sufficient enough quantities to affect erectile function, or much of anything else.

"You have L-carnitine, which is an amino acid that's added to drinks to help promote muscle and performance as well," Dubin said. "And that has been shown to have side effects of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. But again, I think you'd have to do ungodly amounts of energy drinks to have negative effects, and the caffeine would get you first."

Perhaps the main takeaway on energy drinks—or any other food or beverage—is that too much is, well, too much. And that amount is going to be different for different people.

Also, be aware that the purported positive effects of energy drinks are dubious at best, while their caloric and caffeine content are well documented.

"I wouldn't necessarily say that energy drinks are bad. It's just paying attention to one's body," Pearlman said. "If someone drinks two energy drinks and they're super-amped up and they're not able to perform, then clearly that's too much for them. I don't know that there's been any research done specifically on energy drinks, but we know what sugar and inflammation do to an erection, and they make it worse."

Can energy drinks cause ED? They can certainly contribute to it. Perhaps the best way to frame an answer is with a truth that applies almost everywhere: Everything in moderation.

If you're concerned that your beverage choices—and maybe your diet in general—might be leading to weight gain and its attendant risk factors, get a medical opinion. The first step is a consultation with a healthcare professional, and video visits have become a viable option for most people. Visit Giddy telehealth to get connected.