[caption id="attachment_4431" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Energy drink"]
[/caption]Energy drinks and booze have that similar relationship as alcohol and cigarettes, according to new research while at the same time energy drinks themselves contain alcohol. Just in time for the holidays comes this information: that those who drink a lot of energy drinks are likely to drink too much alcohol as well, so that adage of not drinking and driving might be shown in many ways this holiday season.Four Loko has been banned from college campuses because it contains up to 12 percent alcohol. There had been several incidents where young people had become seriously ill or died from consuming them.
Sean Barrett, associate professor of psychology and psychiatry at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, haslooked at this patternof drinking alcohol and energy drinks and found some interesting results.
“What we found was that energy drinks basically doubled the amount that people reported drinking,” he says. “So if they had an average of four drinks when they weren’t mixing with energy drinks, they would have around eight if they were. That’s actually a pretty profound increase, but it’s consistent with our other research where we see an increase in alcohol consumption related to the use of other stimulant drugs, like tobacco.”
Energy drinks are also, in general,bad for one's health, according to research as well. A number of research studies has substantiated the caffeine in them can increase hypertension, cause heart palpitations, insomnia and headaches, so they warn people not to consume more than 2 cans per day. Even that amount, however, remains an unhealthy issue because of the sugar involved.
Bartlett gives this warning, that might be of concern during the holidays when people might overindulge, "When people drink with energy drinks, they tend to drink in a more hazardous way.”
So caution means watching how much you drink, or those loved ones, do of energy drinks that might impact alcohol use, with the combination creating potential problems.
