I've noticed latley that there is a trend in mixing energy drink with alcohol. I thought at first that this was just a trend for stupid high schoolers (like myself) at their underage drinking parties. However, when I was at Oktoberfest in Helen, Georgia I noticed that Rockstar Energy had fliers posted up on how to drink a perfect mixture of Rockstar and draft beer. Now, I know that most advertising tries to hide the faults, but isn't mixing alcohol and energy drink dangerous?


I'm currently finishing up Chemistry 1212 at Gordon College and I plan on continuing into Organic Chemistry next semester. I don't know a whole ton about resonance structures and molecules but I do understand the psychoactive effects of both beverages mentioned. Energy drinks, on one side of the spectrum, are accelerants; these cause faster reaction times and a higher stimulation of the region in or around the Medulla Oblongata. Now alcohol, on the far opposite of the spectrum, is a depressant and is highly soluble. This depressant should cause a slowing of muscle reaction, and if consumed with water-based beverages, is absorbed easier into the bloodstream.

I've heard of stories about people at parties who have been drinking or smoking weed and decide to do a line of coke, or meth, or something of the like and end up OD'ing because of the confusion of depressant and accelerant stimulus being sent to the brain. ---Wouldn't the mixture of Rockstar and Alcohol have a similar, if not identical effect on the brain? You body wouldn't know if it should slow down or speed up; thus making some parts run fast while other parts run slow, throwing your motor nerves beyond their physical buffer and resulting in injury or possible death.


I myself am a big fan of energy drinks (Bawls being my favorite); but I am a bit concerned in the message being put out by consuming both of these products simultaneously. I have asked my professor at the College her take on this and she is in full agreement, along with my mother who has her M.S. in Biology. What's you opinion on this?

Lusos
Outstanding post.
I'm sure Greg will chime in
with a good response.
Your observations about stimulants
and depressants are accurate.

I could not pass this one up. Do you have any idea how many people mix eds and alcohol every day? I'm sure it is a huge # though. I mean thousands of people every day drink RB and Vodka or Bull blasters, or Jager bombs. How often do you hear of a problem with this? Alcohol is the problem. People have been hurting others and themselves for hundreds of years drinking alcohol before energy drink were invented. Irish coffee has never be singled out as an evil drink. It is all just pomp and circumstance I say. Just go to a bar and watch how many drink Red Bull and alcohol.

You're right it does kinda spce up the party.

Originally Posted by scum1

I could not pass this one up. Do you have any idea how many people mix eds and alcohol every day? I'm sure it is a huge # though. I mean thousands of people every day drink RB and Vodka or Bull blasters, or Jager bombs. How often do you hear of a problem with this? Alcohol is the problem. People have been hurting others and themselves for hundreds of years drinking alcohol before energy drink were invented. Irish coffee has never be singled out as an evil drink. It is all just pomp and circumstance I say. Just go to a bar and watch how many drink Red Bull and alcohol.

Just because people do it doesn't make it safe. Didn't your mother ever ask you "if everyone was jumping off of a cliff would you want to do it also?"? same principle.
People ride motorcycles everyday without wearing a helmet, people die on motorcycles everyday from not wearing a helmet. I have two close friends (that have been best friends for 25+years) that ride bikes without helmets. one crashed about a year ago, spent more than a month in a coma on the verge of death, will never be the same again as he lost pretty much all memory in his brain from hitting the highway at 60mph. Do you think that the other wears a helmet now?? The answer is NO, he doesn't think that it could happen to him, just the same as the friend didn't think it would happen to him.

Krazy!!!!!

Yeah, the "it will never happen to me" sick ego thoughts.
I was told as a kid that smoking cigarettes was bad for me.
That advice did not sink in as my Mom smoked about a pack
a day. I ended up smoking for just about 20 years.
So I can relate.

Gosh back then a diet Pepsi and a good
red box Marlboro sure tasted good. LOL

But people do stupid stuff everyday. Drive too fast, eat junk food, drink and drive, have unprotected sex ect. I support peoples right to be stupid. And don't come at me with the motorcycle stuff. my friend and neighbor just died a month ago on a motorcycle. He had been riding motorcycles for probably 40 years and always wore a helmet. He had one on when he died. His daughter is my daughters best friend and only 14. I think everyone should wear a helmet still but hey it's not my head. I have yet to see any hard data that says drinking energy drinks and alcohol causes more accidents than drinking alcohol alone. With the scale at which alcohol and energy drinks are consumed all over the world every day I think if there was a problem it would show up. Red bull does not encourage people to drink their drink with alcohol but that does not seem to be having any effect.

The central nervous system is put under a strain when you mix a stimulant with a depressant. However, comparing smoking a joint and doind a big rail of coke as to drinking an RB/Vodka is not comparing apples to apples.

The problem is not inconsuming one or two drinks in a given night. The problem arises after someone drinks 5-6 drinks over the night. A 200 pound male would be drinking approx 450-600 mgs of caffeine along with about 6-7oz of alcohol. That may be fine for him, but what about the 150lb male or the 120 lb female standing toe to toes with him at the bar? The stims will provide an effect that may mask the effects of the alocohol.....and that is when the trouble truly begins.
Motor skils may feel OK but they are not. Cognitive thought is slowed and critical decision making processes are not running at optimum levels as well. Your body is in a conflicted state now.

Okay greg someone ate his Wheates!