Dangerous mix: Energy drinks and alcohol

THEY might give you wings — but mixing energy drinks with alcohol can leave a person flying too high, according to research.

People are far more likely to suffer injuries, require medical attention, or get into trouble over sex after downing the cocktails than if they stick to drinks without the added energy kick, say scientists.

Energy drinks such as Red Bull contain high levels of stimulants such as caffeine, taurine and ginseng.

Researchers in the US conducted a web-based survey of 4,271 college students from 10 US universities who were questioned about their alcohol habits.

Of those who had drunk alcohol in the previous 30 days, 24% said they had consumed energy drink cocktails.

Compared with students who did not mix alcohol with energy drinks, they were twice as likely to be hurt, twice as likely to require medical attention, and twice as likely to travel with a drunk driver.

They were also more than twice as likely to take sexual advantage of someone else or be taken advantage of sexually themselves.

In a typical drinkingsession, they drank up to 36% more than the other students, and reported twice as many episodes of weekly drunkenness.

Dr Mary Claire O’Brien, from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Centre in New Carolina, said: “We knew anecdotally — from speaking with students, and researching blogs and websites — that college students mix energy drinks and alcohol in order to drink more, and to drink longer.

“But we were surprised that the risk of serious and potentially deadly consequences is so much higher for those who mixed energy drinks with alcohol, even when we adjusted for the amount of alcohol.”

Mixing caffeine with alcohol was like “getting into a car and stepping on the accelerator and the brake at the same time”, said Dr O’Brien.

“Students whose motor skills, visual reaction times, and judgment are impaired by alcohol may not perceive that they are intoxicated as readily when they’re also ingesting a stimulant. Only the symptoms of drunkenness are reduced — but not the drunkenness. They can’t tell if they’re drunk; they can’t tell if someone else is drunk. So they get hurt, or they hurt someone else.”

Dr O’Brien called for an investigation into the health risks of energy drink cocktails, and for that information to be made available to consumers.

The findings were reported yesterday at the meeting of the American Public Health Association in Washington DC.