Before you order a Red Bull and vodka, rum and coke, or Jaeger bomb, you might want to think twice about what you’re doing to your body.
“It’s the same as driving a car [and] putting one foot on the gas and one foot on the brakes,” says Suzan Song of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). Alcohol is a depressant and caffeine is a stimulant. “Since one counteracts another, your body doesn’t tell you you’re at your limit, so you think you can still keep drinking—leading to overdosing.”
Nancy Long Seiber, also from HSPH, names another dangerous side effect. “The main issue seems to be the fact that both alcohol and caffeine are diuretics, meaning that they increase your urine output. If people consume these drinks [and] then do a lot of dancing, for instance, you might become dangerously dehydrated, which could cause blood pressure to drop, which could cause you to pass out.”
Maybe you don’t mind passing out, but an irregular heartbeat? That’s another potential side effect of mixing caffeine and alcohol, Song says.
Wonder if Budweiser “B to the E” knows what FM knows...
