For some time now there has been a trend towards combining alcohol with energy drinks. Combining energy drinks reduces the subjective experience of being intoxicated, meaning a person can drink more without feeling sick. A review of 13 studies found people who add energy drinks to alcohol have a higher risk of injury from car accidents and fights, compared to those who only drank alcohol.
By mixing alcohol with energy drinks, not only are you likely to end up drinking more and having a higher concentration of alcohol and acetaldehyde to deal with the next morning, you are more likely to engage in risky behaviours.
The issue might not be the kind of alcohol you're consuming - but the volume you're drinking. Source: Sydney Beer Festival. High levels of alcohol and acetaldehyde in the body are a more logical explanation for feeling sick and experiencing a hangover than mixing drinks.
It would seem that, due to self-preservation, people would rather blame mixing drinks for feeling sick while out, or for a nasty hangover the next day, than admit alcohol has an insidious effect on the brain that leads to overindulgence.
But the perfect counterbalanced randomised controlled trial of mixing drinks has not been conducted, so people can still hang on to these deeply entrenched beliefs should they wish to do so.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Unlock the liquor cabinet Put your red wine in the fridge this summer. With its germ-killing powers, does wine or beer fight tummy bugs?
Sign out. The Cook Up recipes. Korean at home. Beer, wine or cocktail? You'll want to stick to one and not try all three. Getty Images Source: Getty Images. So after a few drinks you are more likely to mix drinks and consume alcohol at a faster rate. So, if you start drinking a beverage with high alcohol content such as wine or spirits , when you change to drinking a beverage with a lower alcohol content such as beer , you are more likely to consume more of the latter beverage and do so at a faster rate.
This is supported by research that found as people consumed more alcohol, they increasingly underestimated the amount they had consumed. It could also increase the rate of alcohol you consume if you move from a beverage with a low alcohol content to one with a higher alcohol content. For some time now there has been a trend towards combining alcohol with energy drinks. Combining energy drinks reduces the subjective experience of being intoxicated, meaning a person can drink more without feeling sick.
A review of 13 studies found people who add energy drinks to alcohol have a higher risk of injury from car accidents and fights, compared to those who only drank alcohol. By mixing alcohol with energy drinks, not only are you likely to end up drinking more and having a higher concentration of alcohol and acetaldehyde to deal with the next morning, you are more likely to engage in risky behaviours.
Read more: Energy drink binge leaves teens with more than a hangover. High levels of alcohol and acetaldehyde in the body are a more logical explanation for feeling sick and experiencing a hangover than mixing drinks. Perhaps those who mix their drinks are more likely to choose a dark-coloured drink containing higher levels of these substances simply by virtue of their wider drinking range, but again it isn't the mixing in itself that causes the problem.
No scientist seems to have done the perfect counter-balanced study where people are randomly assigned to drink beer followed by wine or wine followed by beer. Beer is only between a third and half the strength of wine, so starting on it leads to less intoxication if followed by the stronger stuff.
But if a person starts on wine or spirits, then their judgement may be impaired enough to drink more heavily later. At low levels people overestimate the amount of alcohol in our blood , but after a few drinks they start to underestimate it. So, the existing evidence suggests that hangovers can't be blamed on mixing drinks. It's probably down to the high congener count of the booze, or over-drinking. As for hangover cures, scientists have looked into those too, and the British Medical Journal published a review of trials of everything from borage to artichoke and glucose to prickly pears in The bad news for drinkers is that none of them work.
Do you agree? Medical Myths Human body. Does mixing alcoholic drinks cause hangovers? Share using Email.
0コメント