<p>Combining</a> Energy Drinks With Alcohol Potentially Dangerous</p>
<p>Energy</a> Drink 'Cocktails' Lead To Increased Injury Risk, Study Shows</p>
<p>Alcohol</a> and Energy Drinks - Alcohol & Drug Education Programs - Student Life</p>
<p>Both my college student kids say this is certainly the latest popular drink combo. So I thought I'd offer it up as yet another piece of info. to share with your HS and college age students.</p>
<p>I'd like more information. </p>
<p>Look at the second article:
[quote]
Students who were male, white, intramural athletes, Greek society members or pledges, or older were significantly more likely to consume alcohol mixed with energy drinks.
[/quote]
[quote]
Compared to current drinkers who did not consume alcohol mixed with energy drinks, students who did drank significantly more during a typical drinking session (5.8 drinks versus 4.5 drinks/typical session). They reported twice as many episodes of weekly drunkenness (1.4 versus 0.73 days/week). The greatest number of drinks in a single episode was 36 percent higher for students who reported drinking energy drinks with their alcohol (8.3 versus 6.1 drinks.)
[/quote]
It also says they are more likely to be hurt or injured while drinking, to drive with someone who is intoxicated, and to take advantage of someone sexually. I'm not convinced that this isn't more a case of correlation than causation. It makes intuitive sense to me that more experienced male drinkers who play sports and are in frats drink more and (thus?) are more likely to make poor, potentially harmful, decisions while drunk.</p>
<p>I don't doubt that the combination could increase the risk of dehydration, but many other common mixers are diuretics as well, such as cranberry juice. They say it could cause heart problems, but they also say that energy drinks alone can cause heart problems. I think someone needs to look at this combination more seriously in order for us to really know what's going on</p>
<p>In my experience, energy drinks are most commonly used with alcohol in the form of shooters, as opposed to full drinks. This probably mitigates much of the possible danger since energy drinks are only being consumed in the order of a couple ounces.</p>
<p>I went to a flagship public back in the day in the South. Maybe you would drink from a keg when you were roasting a pig out in the woods. Otherwise it was strictly hard liquor.
I remember drinking coffee to help keep the good times coming without getting tired/passing out. I also remember driving distances under the influences of alcohol and caffeine in the rural South. I always managed to get my date back okay and never connected it up with the caffeine until now.
I also remember getting my steady back and then sleeping it off in a white dinner jacket on her sorority house lawn. "Is that danas ??" her sorority sisters would ask.
I'm happy to be alive. Somehow, they didn't charge me for the grass stains on my rented white dinner jacket. They must have seen it all before.</p>
<p>Years ago I had a friend who was a drinker. (If I finish a whole glass of wine it's been a wild party for me!) He warned me never to give coffee to a drunk. "It doesn't sober them up, you just end up with a wide-awake drunk." I bet it's the same with energy drinks. The kids are mixing them so they can stay awake longer, party longer, and get drunker. Not a good combination.</p>
<p>I googled the thread title and there were many links to choose from. There are some calling for some hard research as corranged mentioned but plenty to read. Many, many kids are chugging these drinks all day long. I can only imagine what's going on in their systems. To add alcohol to this has to really mess up their bodies. Now somewhere in there they have to settle down and study, yikes.</p>
<p>KIDS?? I have a co-worker (lawyer) who drinks Red Bull and vodka when he is "out" and wants to stay awake!</p>
<p>I'm a bartender right between the campuses of Villanova, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford Colleges. It used to be just the younger crowd that ordered these types of drinks. Now, or so it seems, they're almost universally popular.</p>
<p>The idea, as has already been addressed, is to stay awake longer and party harder. Does it actually do anything? Yes and no. The effect itself is that of sugar and caffeine, a wide-eyed couple of minutes followed by a sugar crash.</p>
<p>Truth is, a lot of the people doing this kind of drinking are trying to stay awake because the DRUGS they are on make them sleepy.</p>