The surge in the popularity of energy drinks has brought a new trend of mixing caffeinated beverages with alcohol.
To give a new twist to the drink and stay energetic for hours, people have started to combine energy drinks and alcohol instead of water and fizzy drinks.
Experimenting with the flavours might seem interesting, but combining the two drinks can be a risky task.
What happens when you mix the two beverages
Both alcohol and energy drinks have their distinct characteristics. One is known to make you feel drowsy and the other helps to keep you energetic and awake. When combined, energy drinks can overpower the effect of alcohol and keep you wide awake till late. That will lead to confusion and you might end up drinking more alcohol than usual. Caffeine is a stimulant, but when its effect on your body wears out, you want to have more just like coffee.
What science says
Studies carried out to analyse the effect of mixing alcohol with energy drinks concluded that the cocktail can make people drink more alcohol than usual. The researchers stressed that things can easily go out of hand and turn harmful to health. As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drinkers are three times more likely to binge drink the cocktail than those who do not mix alcohol with energy drinks. Excessive intake of alcohol can lead to alcohol poisoning, which is associated with symptoms like confusion, vomiting, seizures, breathlessness, and low body temperature.
It may affect your heart health
Consuming energy drinks with alcohol can also harm your heart health. That’s because both the drinks have their distinct effect on the blood pressure and when combined, may confuse your internal system. According to a 2018 study, the two beverages can lead to a change in the diameter of the blood vessel to a dangerous level. The vessel dilation was on average 5.1 per cent in diameter before the energy drink and later changed to 2.8 per cent, which could increase the risk of acute impairment in vascular function.
Another 2016 study revealed that the combination can lead to a significant increase in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The drastic change in the blood pressure may be particularly bad for all those already suffering from the problem of high blood pressure.
Fluctuation in the blood pressure on a regular interval can put extra pressure on the heart and may increase the risk of stroke, heart attack and heart disease. Besides, heavy alcohol intake can impact your liver and sleep pattern.
The bottom line
Energy drinks are promoted as a healthy beverage but are often loaded with sugar. If you are watching your weight then this drink mix can sabotage your diet. So, in any case, it is best to avoid mixing the two drinks. You can have them separately with some gaps.
