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- Hacker News
- >A considerable body of research suggests that incidents like these aren’t just chance or circumstance. Mixing alcohol and energy drinks was linked to higher rates of binge drinking, sexual abuse and drunk driving, according to a study conducted among U.S. college students.
This sounds like it could be correlation? People who are more prone to risk-taking are more likely to mix caffeine and alcohol? Although, in that case, they could be considered a vulnerable population, which a ban would serve to protect. So I guess it makes sense either way.
by andai - feels like it wouldn't change behavior all that much just choice of the drug
- When I see headlines and stories like this, a male voice with a Mid-Atlantic accent pipes up in my head: "9 out of 10 doctors recommend Pall Mall cigarettes - they help guard against throat scratch!"by _doctor_love
- Does this also apply to the non-alcoholic sparkling apple/grape/pear/...-juices mixed with vodka?
Vodka-Kidibul in Belgium is quite nice.
I don't know the brands in other parts of the world, but I see references to Welch in US...
When I look at the diving pictures, I don't think I ever dived from that height, for locations that were'nt regularly used for diving, this entails risk on its own.
Sometimes you see a bridge over a steep mini canyon and people diving.
If shortly before you dive, you see people diving (even if you never dived there before) it is much safer to dive there than if you don't see people diving, even if you have personally dived there before:
conditions under the water can change, submerged objects may have been thrown in locally, or rolled over a river bed from a different location, and if conditions under the water didn't change, the water level can simply lower and present new danger that way.
regardless of energy drinks, alcohol can obviously cloud your safety judgment.
by DoctorOetker - That's okay, I'll still keep drinking that garbage.by Lammy
- Not sure how things work on the backend but we're missing "alcohol" or "vodka" in the headline on HN, as it is on the page.by seanicus
- I never again want to work on a team full of people who drink a lot of energy drinks.
I'm not going to pretend I'm a saint and I only ever sip mineral water or kombucha (although I do like both), but that stuff sends people crazy in a long term way I've not seen before. I'd rather people were slightly tipsy after a lunch in the local pub than on that stuff.
by PaulRobinson - Different than coffee?by xnx
- there seems to be 3 different issues in this article:
- mixing alcohol and energy drinks (health-wise, e.g. arrhythmia)
- mixing alcohol and energy drinks (psychologically, e.g. increased risky behavior)
- age restriction on energy drinks to prevent kids from drinking them
i am not positive how i feel on the first two. i could be convinced that the third is reasonable for some age group, though i think it would be silly to ban it for all under-21s.
- long live 4 locoby ge96
- Vodka Red Bull always seemed crazy to me. Caffeine lasts like 6 hours so I drink one at 2 am, what the hell am I doing! Granted people do cocaine so maybe it’s inconsequential.
Drinking some coffee at 6 and 10 though before a night out, good move. Where I am, the nights can go to 4 or 6 easily.
by randysalami - My understanding is that part of the problem with mixing caffine with alcohol is that it can prevent someone from passing out; which is the body's defense mechanism against alcohol poisoning.
From that perspective I think that an argument could be made that restricting caffinated alcohol is regulating substances with known health risks.
Full disclosure: I like vodka Redbulls. So I'm not saying this like I'm someone who is moral panicking.
by harimau777 - Opposition to energy drinks seems like a moral panic to me. Like I don't see anyone calling for bans on coffee and Irish coffee.
- I have had personal health experiences related to them and quit them over twenty years ago before any of this hype.by nephihaha
- Well, are either of those sold in cans and marketed to children?by crtasm
- I could believe the UK might try to ban selling coffee to under 21s too at the current rate, honestly. There's probably at least one study about stunting growth with coffee?by nemomarx
- It absolutely is. Gambling made legal overnight, exploding into a mega industry? Nah take a look at this scary Red Bull!by Lord-Jobo
- Seems like a good a place as any to ask this - anyone else feel no effect from either coffee or energy drinks? I can go from 4-5 cups of coffee per day at work (coffee machine) to 0 cups in the weekend and feel no different. Had bouts of doing 4-6 red bulls (or similar energy drinks) per evening into the wee hours as a youngster and still fell asleep at the keyboard - felt no different than drinking water or lemonade.
Maybe related, I ran for an hour a day for a year but never came close to feeling anything like a "runner's high".
Anyone else have similar experiences?
by Kon5ole - lol. sounds like it’s time to get diagnosed.
- The runner's high I've experienced comes after completing a long, hard race and finally getting to rest after pushing myself beyond what training was like.by nickspacek
- Same. I've been told I'm a "high metabolizer". I can drink a cup of coffee/tea/soda before bed and pass out. No noticable effect.
It's weird that you mention the runner's high, too. I've run 6 miles 3x a week for months on end (PR of 8.5 miles), and I have no idea what other runners are talking about. I've never put the two together before.
by jazzyb - I'd get runner's high sometimes. If you got it, you'd know it. Personally, I only recall it happening for me at end of treadmill and erg and dumbbells session, not on any of the many runs on streets/waterfront/tracks.
The afterglow isn't confused with feeling good about completing exercise, or accomplishment/confidence. Example of confidence: when on a track, I'd run until I felt like I was out of steam, then sprint the last half-lap, just to know I could do that. (Don't try this if your heart isn't currently conditioned for it.)
I've given up caffeine, and hardly ever miss it.
One problem is caffeine for me seems to shift energy around, not create it. It might make me more energetic right now, but then headachey and ugh later. Also creates a dependence: "I feel like crap; I must need more caffeine".
Can also interfere with sleep many hours later, and sleep is super-important. It upsets GI a bit. And personally it seems to magnify some emotions, and, when caffeinated, I will somehow always find a cause of something that needs someone to fight for it (it's uncanny).
I care enough without chemically boosting things. And I'm fortunate to naturally be energetic and sharp without caffeine.
I don't drink even decaf anymore, because it still has too much.
IIRC, detoxing from caffeeine cold-turkey takes a couple weeks. Or zero-caffeine herbal/fruit teas can help with the warm mug of hot liquids ritual substitute. And exercise, hydration, nutrition, and good sleep.
by neilv - I must be strange because I feel no effect from coffee until I drink too much which is when my heart beats too fast for too long and I feel anxious
Energy drinks on the other hand ? The taste sucks but they do work and give me what I guess most people get from coffee ? They make me sharp and pumped up
by cassepipe - I have ADHD and noticed an INVERSE effect of caffeine for years, it would mostly just make me tired. That was before being properly medicated with a stimulant. After that, caffeine works the same as anyone else. It’s very weird.
In the internet age, I’ve learned this is pretty common for people with adhd.
I have 6 or so years experience with serious running, and experienced a runners high exactly 1 time.
by Lord-Jobo - I really don't know why people go so nuts over energy drinks. People casually chug coffee like crazy and then act like you're drinking nuclear waste when you drink a monster, and then you look at the ingredients list and it's like
- Water - Sugar - Vitamin B - Caffeine
and the caffeine is basically equivalent to one cup of coffee.
by superdisk - A can of Monster is actually closer to two typical cups of coffee (usually a bit under 100mg vs 160mg). Though that doesn't change the point being made; nobody would blink at "I drink two cups of coffee most mornings". The various B vitamins also help avoid the jitters that caffeine can cause.by delecti
- Red Bull is a triumph of marketing over... well, everything else. It's not just, from TFA:
it goes back well before that. It comes in a small can so it must be more potent than everyone else's sugary fizz, it costs more than everyone else's sugary fizz so it must be better, it tastes like ass so there must be some health or energy benefit to it, and taurine is about to be banned because it's so... so... well something, so get it now. Its success has been the subject of numerous studies by psychologists and behavioral economists.For more than a decade, Red Bull paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for university professors to conduct research that has been favorable to the energy drink industryThe reason why drinks mixing caffeine and alcohol have often been banned is that, in studies not funded by Red Bull, there's a clear connection between that and higher car accident and sexual assault rates.
- >> then you look at the ingredients list and it's like >> - Water - Sugar - Vitamin B - Caffeine
I'm drinking a sugar-free Monster at the moment. The list is way longer than that. It also contains citric acid, erythritol, taurine, sodium citrate, natural & artificial flavors, L-carnitine L-tartrate, sucralose, sorbic acid, benzoic acid, ester gum, acesulfame potassium, inositol.
- Monster has roughly the same amount of caffeine per volume as black coffee but their standard size is 16oz which is a huge cup of undiluted coffee.by Retric
- I drink black coffee, no sugar
I'm not "going nuts" over energy drinks, but the key ingredient is not caffeine, it is sugar
The evidence has been mounting for decades, sugary drinks are devastating public health
by worik