Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Mixing Energy Drinks and Alcohol Reacts "Like Cocaine" in the Bra

Consuming energy drinks mixed with alcohol could have the same effect on adolescents as taking cocaine, according to a new study from a Purdue University.
     Researchers at Purdue University, Indiana, looked into the effects of highly caffeinated energy drinks and highly caffeinated alcohol in adolescent mice.   The energy drinks can contain about 10 times the caffeine as regular soda and are often marketed to young people – but little is known about their health effects, especially when mixed with alcohol.
     The team, led by Richard van Rijn, an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology, found that the mice given high-caffeine energy drinks were not any more likely than the control group to drink more alcohol as adults.   However when the mice drank caffeine mixed with alcohol, they behaved in a similar way and showed and neurochemical signs similar to mice given cocaine.   Mice were used in lieu of human adolescents as changes in mouse brains due to drugs have shown to correlate closely to humans in many drug studies.
 “It seems the two substances together push them over a limit that causes changes in their behavior and changes the neurochemistry in their brains,” van Rijn said.   “We’re clearly seeing effects of the combined drinks that we would not see if drinking one or the other.”   It was also found that the mice who had drank more caffeinated alcohol in adolescence were less sensitive to the “pleasurable” effects of cocaine.   “Their brains have been changed in such a way that they are more likely to abuse natural or pleasurable substances as adults,” van Rijn concluded.


Here are some figures with the amount of caffeine per fluid ounce in many of the energy drinks that are available today. 

Eneregy Drink Brand Caffeine
/fl. oz. 
Eneregy Drink Brand Caffeine
/fl. oz. 
5-Hour Energy 104.0 Semtex 9.5
Street King (drink) 35.7 Shark Stimulation 9.5
Cocaine (drink) 33.1 Pussy 9.5
Beaver Buzz 15.7 Glacéau VitaminEnergy 9.4
Lipovitan 14.8 SoBe Adrenaline Rush 9.2
Rip It 12.8 AMP Energy 9.2
Crunk Energy Drink 12.5 Bacchus-F 9.1
Kore 11.8 Full Throttle 9.0
RELOAD 11.8 Tab Energy 9.0
Hell Energy 10.8 AMP Energy 8.9
Hype Energy 10.8 Red Rooster 8.9
Duff 10.0 Blue Charge 8.9
Monster Regular (Green) 10.0 Emerge Stimulation Drink 8.9
NOS 10.0 8.6
Rockstar  10.0 Enviga 8.3
XS Energy Drink 9.9 Bawls 6.7
Relentless 9.6 Jolt Cola 6.0
Red Bull 9.6 Club-Mate 6.0
Bomb Energy Drink 9.6 Mountain Dew MDX 5.9
Burn 9.6 Coca-Cola Blāk 5.8
Euro Shopper Energy Drink 9.6 Sparks (contains 6% ABV) 5.4
Kruidvat Power Booster 9.6 Mountain Dew Energy 5.3
Mother 9.5 Lucozade Sport  4.7
Irn-Bru 32 9.5 Mountain Dew 4.5