So, the scientific jury is still out on exactly how dangerous it might be for your heart to mix alcohol and caffeine. What’s more, “the long-term effects of the combination on cardiac health not known.” “The lack of knowledge there thus argues for increased caution,” he says. Ultimately, the research on how this combo affects your heart is somewhat mixed and limited, Fritz says. But if you’re drinking enough alcohol or caffeine to already experience ill effects on your heart, adding the other can just make it worse. Basically, the effects of drinking alcohol and caffeine together shouldn’t be greater than the sum of the two combined. Stoner, Ph.D., a research consultant at the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute at the University of Washington, tells SELF there does not appear to be a synergistic effect here, meaning there’s no special, mysterious interaction between alcohol and caffeine that exponentially increases the effects of the other. But that doesn’t mean mixing caffeine and alcohol results in doubly strong heart effects than consuming one of them alone. When you consume both alcohol and caffeine, the joint impact on your heart might be what you’d expect from the duo: Your heart rate and blood pressure could increase more when you have them both than when you have just one or the other, depending on the amount you consume. Does that mean drinking the two together could spell extra trouble for your cardiovascular system? Possibly. Much like caffeine, alcohol is associated with a temporary increase in heart rate and blood pressure. As part of a voluntary product reformulation in 2010, we removed these ingredients.”) (Four Loko currently states on their website: “Four Loko does not contain caffeine, taurine or guarana. Sales of those products came to a screeching halt. In 2010, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released warnings to Four Loko’s parent company and to companies selling similar offerings, explaining that the agency had never sanctioned the mix of alcohol and caffeine in their beverages. Soon enough, reports swirled of alarming hospitalizations reportedly linked to the products, especially among underage teens drinking dangerous amounts of the stuff. Everyone was trying to be very drunk, yet also, defiantly, very awake. You might remember that whole controversy around Four Loko, the beverage line behind those infamous caffeinated alcoholic drinks that sparked a craze in the early aughts. Pull up to a bar on any given night and you might hear people order a combination of alcohol and caffeine to keep the fun going, whether that’s in the form of rum and soda, whiskey and coffee, vodka and an energy drink, or some other concoction meant to deliver the perfect double-buzz.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |