BEWARE!!! Alcohol and Energy Drinks A Dangerous Combo, Study Says

Researchers have published a study that shows college students combining caffeinated drinks with booze don’t realize how intoxicated they really are.

In a study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, researchers at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan have concluded that mixing alcohol and energy drinks poses a serious public health risk, especially among college students. "We found that college students tended to drink more heavily, become more intoxicated, and have more negative drinking consequences on days they used both energy drinks and alcohol, compared to days they only used alcohol," said Megan Patrick, a research assistant professor and co-author of the study.

According to the study, students who either drank alcohol and energy drinks on the same day or who combined the two at the same time wound up spending more time drinking – thus consuming more alcohol – than they would have without the caffeinated drinks. The result of spending more hours drinking raised users' blood alcohol levels to higher peaks. But because of the stimulant effects of the energy drinks, the users reported that they felt less drunk than they actually were. "This can have serious potential health impacts, for example if people don't realize how intoxicated they actually are and decide to drive home," Patrick said.

But a similar study conducted by the Department of Community Health at the Boston University School of Public Health found that it wasn’t necessarily the combination of alcohol and caffeine that posed a risk, but the profile of the drinkers themselves that led to negative consequences. "It appears that the consumption of caffeinated alcoholic beverages has a direct effect on increasing risk by masking intoxication and making it easier for youth to consume more alcohol,” said Dr. Michael Siegel, one of the authors of the Boston University’s study. “It also appears that consumption of alcohol with caffeine may itself be a marker for youth who engage in riskier behavior.”

Are Alcoholic Energy Drinks Bad For Your Health? 

One Editorial Says Research Could Be Downplaying The Effects

Four Loko, one of 2010’s most popular alcoholic energy drinks may be without caffeine now, but people can still make vodka Red Bull, Jager bombs (Jagermeister and Red bull), and Crunk Juice (cognac and Red Bull), among other things. In a recent editorial in BMJ, Peter Miller, a professor of psychology, writes that research into the health effects of these drinks hasn’t done enough to consider the “real world levels of consumption,” and that the effects could be downplayed because of industry-funded studies.   

Are Energy Drink Companies Downplaying Health Effects? 

“Epidemiological studies show that drinkers who consume energy drinks are more likely to record a higher breath alcohol concentration than those who do not,” Miller wrote in the article. “They are also more likely to report drinking more alcohol, engaging in aggressive acts, being injured; symptoms of alcohol dependence; having driven while drunk or been a passenger in a car with an alcohol impaired driver; and having taken sexual advantage of, or having been taken advantage of by another person.”

Energy drinks, alone, have been shown to disturb heart rhythm and increase blood pressure. When consumed with alcohol, it’s believed that drinkers are less likely to feel drunk, and therefore, they will continue to drink. However, most studies on the subject focus more on the aftereffects and less on the actual effects on the person as they drink.

One 2011 study asked participants, who were split into four groups — energy drink, energy/alcohol drink, alcohol drink, and placebo drink — to rate how they felt with regards to stimulation, sedation, impairment, and levels of intoxication, found that energy drinks altered the participants’ reactions to the alcohol, when compared to those who had only alcohol. The participants were also measured on how quickly they were able to suppress and execute actions after drinking.

“A consumer of alcohol, with or without the energy drink, acts impulsively compared to when they had not consumed alcohol,” Cecile Marczinski, assistant professor of psychology at Northern Kentucky University and author of the study said in a statement. “However, the consumer of the alcohol/energy drink felt more stimulated compared to an alcohol-alone consumer. Therefore, consumption of an energy drink combined with alcohol sets up a risky scenario for the drinker due to this enhanced feeling of stimulation and high impulsivity levels.”   

Marczinski’s study, however, is one of the few that concludes that alcohol and energy drinks are a dangerous combination. Many researchers who have researched the health effects of alcoholic energy drinks were funded by energy drink makers, such as Red Bull, Miller says. And when they report at conferences, they aren’t always required to disclose conflicts of interest, leading to a biased report. 

At the 2012 Australian Professional Society on Alcohol and Drugs Conference, four of the five researchers that reported on the correlation between alcohol and energy drinks said there was no evidence to suggest that both drinks together caused more drinking or harm. They were also the four sponsored by Red Bull. The sole researcher who didn’t have a conflict of interest, although agreeing that there wasn’t a significant difference in using the two together, also admitted that there just wasn’t enough evidence to conclusively answer the key questions yet.

Miller says that all of the researchers’ most notable study limitations were that none of them had a substantial amount of research into the effects of real world levels of alcohol intoxication — about 0.1mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood — when consumed with energy drinks (about two to five drinks).  

“It is critical that the public can be confident in the findings of research on these products,” Miller concluded. “Conference organizers and journal editors should require researchers working on energy drinks to declare whether they have received research funding [or other conflicts of interest].”