Doctors alert of the risk of mixing energy drinks and alcohol
19/09/2013
Consuming energy drinks mixed with alcohol, a common practice among young people, can have severe consequences. A team of doctors and researchers at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Sabadell Hospital (Parc Taulí Health Corporation) describe in a letter to the research journal Medicina Clínica how these types of cocktails can produce acute intoxication, even when consumed in moderation.
In the article they expose examples of acute intoxication caused by these drinks and registered by the Emergency Unit of the Hospital de Sabadell. In one of the cases, a 19-year-old patient reached the hospital with nausea, vomiting, and trembling eyelids, arms and hands, after having drunk two cans of energy drinks mixed with vodka.
The patient had consumed 160 milligrams of caffeine and 2 grams of taurine, the main active ingredients of energy drinks. Caffeine stimulates the central nervous and cardiac system, facilitating the release of catecholamines, such as adrenaline and dopamine, and stimulates vasodilation, while taurine increases cardiac contractility. These types of drinks also contain inositol, which boosts the effects of caffeine and taurine. And alcohol increases the risk of adverse reactions.
That is why researchers emphasise on that fact that energy drinks are counter indicated for people with heart problems, arterial hypertension, neurological disorders, pregnant women, people 16 and under, and diabetics.
According to the lead author of the paper, Dr Maria Luisa Iglesias, "energy drinks taken with alcoholic beverages are an inexpensive and popular choice among young people, since it does not give them hangovers and they can party on into the morning. Before consuming these drinks however, it is important to know what adverse reactions they can cause, the counter indications, personal history and harmful associations, such as alcohol”.
Maria Luisa Iglesias is researcher at the Department of Psychology and Legal Medicine at the UAB and Director of the Emergency Unit at Sabadell Hospital - Parc Taulí Health Corporation.