Energy Drinks and Alcohol. Wide-Awake Drunk!
Keeping it together.
The combination of the stimulant (caffeine) and depressant (alcohol) becomes an internal battle for your nervous system to process. The mixed messages play havoc with your nervous system, giving you that bullet proof feeling which hides the level of drunkenness you 'should' feel.
The impaired judgement these drinks cause (because you feel great...so now you've drunk more) puts you at a greater risk of serious injuries, not only to yourself, but others.
Your decision making skills are also impaired and can lead to you making choices that under any other circumstance you wouldn't even consider.
Natural Ingredients.
Don't be fooled; guarana is the equivalent of caffeine, and other additives such as taurine, amino acids, ginseng etc are better off taken in a vitamin supplement with a regulated dose for consistency. Adding it to these drinks does not make it a healthy choice, it adds to the masking effect of helping your body to cope while you're partying hard to give you a greater crash when you come down.
As for some drinks stating they are sugar free so you don't crash coming off the sugar rush that is just trickery advertising.
In any case caffeine/guarana has a diuretic effect and dehydration can make a hangover absolute hell, with symptoms such as diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, headache, increased heart rate, and muscle cramping being more severe.
Health Risks
Besides the risk of choking on your own vomit in your sleep, the stimulating effects of caffeine on top of caffeine can increase your heart rate and blood pressure and may cause palpitations and as mentioned earlier cause dehydration and also severely mess with your sleep cycle.
These drinks and particularly energy drinks are responsible for many emergency ward dramas and even deaths. And many more unproven instances, where the person has had some underlying health problem they weren't aware of and has died (possibly) as a result of these drinks.
So heads up people and drink wisely or better still, steer clear altogether and be a good friend for those who can't be told!
Rehydration tips
- Oral Rehydration Solution Vs Water
Why Oral Rehydration Solutions are more effective than water or soft drinks/fizzy drinks.
