The BFF is peppy, ready to take on the town. But you’re feeling the exact opposite. In fact, some might consider you a real drag. A 50 hour work week has definitely taken its toll on your sanity.
A big yawn escapes your mouth as you saddle up next to your friend at the bar. “I’m not going to get through this night,” you exhaustedly utter to yourself.
You need a boost. Badly.
As a result, you order the most potent concoction you can think of. “I’ll have a vodka Red Bull,” you tell the bartender. “Coming right up,” he smiles.
What you don’t know is that you’ve just made a huge mistake. And that mistake is dangerous to both your health and your mental well-being.
Energy drinks are currently some of the most popular beverages known to man. In fact, statistics show that the sale of energy drinks has climbed by 60 percent. That translates to over 12.5 billion dollars in sales. And sales are expected to reach 21.5 billion dollars by the year 2017.
Energy drinks alone are dangerous. Add alcohol to the mix and you’ve just created a risky teeter totter. This is why experts are warning consumers that simple drinks like vodka Red Bull may create the perfect storm of health misfortune.
This danger all begins with a subtle game of hide and go seek. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the combination of alcohol and energy drinks creates a masking effect. In short, it makes you feel sober when you’re really not. So you have no idea just how drunk you are.
This is why those who mix alcohol and energy drinks are more likely to binge drink-three times more likely to be exact. That’s because caffeine hypes the desire for alcohol. It makes you feel better, which makes you want more. So you keep drinking.
This puts you in a number of statistical categories that could change life as you know it. Studies show that combining alcohol and energy drinks elevates one’s risk of drinking and driving. This issue is so relevant that some experts are calling it a public health concern.
Unfortunately, you will be clueless to the situation. According to Time, researchers say that the effects of caffeine can make a person look and feel more sober than they actually are. This can increase the risk of a person making the decision to drive by four times. In other words, you’ve just put yourself at risk of getting a DUI.
That is if anyone knows you’re really drunk. Even more concerning, police officers may not be able to tell that a driver is drunk. So they might not perform tests to determine just how much you’ve had to drink.
In addition, those who partake in these concoctions are twice as likely to ride with someone who is drunk. This puts the person who has consumed alcohol/energy drink combinations at a higher risk of being involved in an accident without even knowing it.
And that’s not all. Energy drinks combined with alcohol come with terrifying sexual statistics. For example, those who partake in these combinations have an elevated risk of being sexually taken advantage of. They’re twice as likely to find themselves in this type of situation.
But it doesn’t stop there. They’re also twice as likely to take advantage of another person. This puts others at risk of being used and abused.
Studies also show that teens who consume these mixes may suffer lifelong consequences. In fact, researchers have linked traumatic brain injury to teens who have consumed energy drinks combined with alcohol. “Researchers…found that teens who reported sustaining a TBI (traumatic brain injury) within the past year were at least twice as likely to have consumed energy drinks mixed with alcohol than teens who reported sustaining a TBI more than a year previously,” reports Science Daily.
In addition, doctors say that energy drinks in general may interfere with a teen’s recovery from a TBI. "Energy drinks, such a Red Bull and Rockstar, contain high levels of caffeine and change the chemical state of the body, which can prevent people from getting back on track after a TBI," Dr. Michael Cusimano, a neurosurgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital, told Science Daily. "Brain injuries among adolescents are particularly concerning because their brains are still developing."
Further, this concerning combination may fuel teen alcohol dependency issues. A recent study conducted through Dartmouth College concluded that teens between the ages of 15 and 17 who have consumed alcohol/energy drink mixes were four times more likely to have an issue with alcohol when compared to teens who don’t mix energy drinks with alcohol.
The study was unique in that most research has been focused around undergraduate college students as opposed to younger teens. Researchers determined that nearly 10 percent of adolescents studied had tried an energy drink/alcoholic mix. These teens had an increased likelihood of binge drinking and of meeting criteria qualifying them as having an alcohol use disorder.
In addition, the combination in general can be deadly. “From the health perspective, you have the stimulant that is increasing your heart rate and blood pressure, which can affect your body,” Theresa Osteen, Lyster Army Health Clinic Preventive Medicine Services registered dietitian told the U.S. Army.
This means that your body can find itself caught up in a vicious cycle. You’ll feel hyped when both caffeine and alcohol are in your system. But once one wears off, the effects of the other become apparent.
Osteen said that one of the concerns involved is simple dehydration. When stimulants dehydrate the body, this can make it more difficult to filter alcohol out of the system. Add a hot club or bar to the mix and you’ve got a toxic combination.