Message 20329 of 39188 in General Discussion

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> > scientific tests have been made
> 
> Problem is I can't find them and there seems to be no one who can 
> show them. At least I can't find a test which is a direct evidence 
> that combining alcohol and cafeine/red bull is bad. If there is any 
> test then it is something done on rats, very high doses or something 
> like that. Scientific literature doesn't show clearly that mixing 
> cafeine and alcohol is bad. There are always some doctors telling 
> that things can be bad. In theory there can be effects but theories 
> about what happens in in the human body aren't perfect and we don't 
> really know what happens exactly yet. Only tests can show whether 
> something is bad. The cafeine neutralizing the bodies defense system 
> is just a theory, speculation. But what is it based on? I don't 
> understand were all these problems come from. People talking about 
> bad health effects but no one shows some kind of evidence(is it a 
> hoax?). No tables, figures data or anything.

The effects of caffiene (and alcohol for that matter) upon the body are well 
understood and documented.  Medical doctors and biochemists would consider it 
an elementary question, material that is covered in undergraduate education.  
You're citing a lack of data about Red Bull as a reason to be skeptical, but 
one doesn't have to experiement with every product when the active ingredients 
are already well characterized; we're not talking about a new pharmaceutical 
product.  

High amounts of caffeine ingested regularly do increase blood pressure and 
heart rate putting increased stress on the cardiovascular system.  The 
description that Dan gave above is also valid, caffiene targets adrenergic 
receptors which also respond to steroid hormones such as adrenaline.  These 
metabolic pathways are extremely well characterized and documented, this is 
not "only theory".  Caffeine induced stimulation of these recpetors will 
increase one's threshold for fatigue and pain, but also taxes the body 
needlessly.  Caffiene is a way of pushing a button on a biochemical pathway 
that isn't inherently harmful, but shouldn't be pushed too hard or too often.  

The comparison to absinthe doesn't hold up given that the existing medical 
knowledge of that time was a fraction of what it is today.  Warnings about 
caffiene combined with alcohol don't need to be supported by hundreds of rats 
drinking Vodka and Red Bulls when the physiological/biochemical details are 
already well understood.  

That being said, I'm not waving a sign telling people not to mix Red Bull in 
their alcoholic drinks, but it's definitely stressing your body to have more 
than a couple of those.