Boffins say Vodka Red Bulls make you sensible

Knock back a Vodka Red Bull or three this Friday night and your may experience irritability, heart palpitations and find it hard to get to sleep. But you'll also be less likely to do something really dumb than if you stuck to booze alone, say researchers from the University of Tasmania. The findings were the result of an …

[Anonymous Coward]

!!!

"Knock back a Vodka Red Bull or three this Friday night and your may experience irritability, heart palpitations and find it hard to get to sleep."

Sounds like a GREAT time! Sign me up RIGHT NOW!

[LarsG]

Really

They have never been out in Birmingham at 3am on a Sunday morning the morning after jthe night before.

They must have worked on this in laboratory conditions, field trials would show their theory stinks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Really

I agree, I think the jury I was on that declared the accused guilty of GBH with intent after a number of these drinks would also disagree with the findings.

[Annihilator]

Re: Really

And the accused wasn't the type who would do that regardless?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Really

Not according to the testimonials we heard (but even those can be bending the truth by leaving out certain nuggets, so who knows).

On the evidence presented it didn't seem like a regular occurrence, the tears did look genuine when he was shown the damage he had done the other guys face and jaw.

[jake]

Enteral administration of low-dosage speedballs is considered "good"?

Fucking idiots ... The mind absolutely boggles.

"Up the down elevator" is what killed John Belushi, amongst others.

[Stoneshop]

Re: Enteral administration of low-dosage speedballs is considered "good"?

You clearly need to lay off of whatever it is you are taking, because nowhere does it mention what you're alluding to.

The epithet clearly applies to you yourself.

[jake]

@Stoneshop ...

Clearly, you have no concept when it comes to the issues of mixing "uppers" and "downers". It ain't the chemicals, it's the affect (and effect) on the (l)user.

The epithet really doesn't apply to me ... I'm still alive & commantarding :-)

[Eddie Edwards]

Except it is the chemicals

Except it is the chemicals. Interactions actually depend on the specific drugs in question. This study looked at caffeine and alcohol, not cocaine and heroin. The outcome for the latter would presumably be quite different.

[skeptical i]

"speedball shake"

My favorite restaurant/ watering hole (now closed, R.I.P.) used to have a specialty consisting of ice cream, two shots of espresso, and stout (not Guinness but a tasty milk stout whose name I've forgotten, sorry) served in a milkshake glass -- three of four food groups in one glass! Damn, I miss that place.

[david 12]

That is to say,

That is to say, Boffins /report/ that users /claim/ that Red Bull makes them less drunk.

In any case, mixing caffine with alcohol makes the more destructive drink more addictive.

For that reason alone, it should be illegal or heavily regulated.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: That is to say,

Never had coffee after a meal that you had wine with? Or coffee(s) with friends before deciding to carry on and go to the pub? Having it mixed in the same glass doesn't somehow make it worse

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: That is to say,

Except Red Bull has all sorts of other "goodies" like taurine, which you won't find in coffee.

[Dave 126]

Re: That is to say,

>Having it mixed in the same glass doesn't somehow make it worse

No, but eating a meal slows down the absorption of anything your drink... hence aperitifs and digestifs being a part of a meal in some civilised parts of the world, in addition to the wine taken with the food, and a coffee afterwards.

Personally, I find it tricky to get back onto pints of Courage Directors for an hour or two after a good dinner.

[Annihilator]

Re: That is to say,

"In any case, mixing caffine with alcohol makes the more destructive drink more addictive. For that reason alone, it should be illegal or heavily regulated."

We must ban Kahlua immediately! And vodka & cokes!

[Anonymous Coward]

@ david 12

"mixing caffine with alcohol makes the more destructive drink more addictive."

[Citation required]

[Bad Beaver]

Ahh, the memories of Vodka RedBull…

… I still have some, can't be that bad.

Anyway, the results presented do not exactly feel like a revelation. More like "duh".

[Robert Helpmann??]

Re: Ahh, the memories of Vodka RedBull…

Yeah, when I was a grad student, the drink of choice involved Mountain Dew. We were warned that caffeine metabolizes more rapidly than alcohol, so if you try a balancing act between the two, you might find yourself waking up decorated with marker after your friends took advantage of a "crash episode." We were also reminded that giving coffee to a drunk doesn't produce a sober person. You get instead a very awake drunk.

The purpose of the research in the current study should be looked at more as a validation of previous studies. This is a very important building block of science. I am sure they will have plenty of volunteers willing to act as test subjects.

[Dave 62]

the stupid... it hurts..

Fuck me, some of the comments on here are a bit preachy aren't they? Suddenly VRB is in the same league as crack?

Looserrrs

[GitMeMyShootinIrons]

Make it illegal! I hear some cry...

A stupid idea that would be as successful as our cousin's attempt at Prohibition in the 30's.

Very much a knee jerk reaction, like most calls to ban things.

Perhaps, if it is possibly deadly, it should remain legal as a form of Darwinist population control. An option to remove one's self from the gene pool... :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Dunno about this...

Last time I got drunk on Vodka Red Bull I proposed to someone. Not touched the stuff since... too dangerous!

[Bruno Girin]

Re: Dunno about this...

I know what you mean. Last time I had VRB, I didn't do anything as dangerous as proposing to someone but I still swore never to touch the stuff ever again.

[Peter Murphy]

Re: Dunno about this...

Did s/he accept?

[Arctic fox]

As in "I got as sensible as a sack last night." -:P

See title.

AF.

[bill 36]

Flying Hirsch

or Jaeger Bombs certainly do what it says on the tin. Never tried the Vodka variety,

I call it liquid coke because it has a similar but less dramatic effect and its legal.

[Anonymous Coward]

tricky science code?

AmED = hammered....

[Triggerfish]

Safer? Yeah right

The thing is with booze on its own by the time I am drunk enough to do anything stupid, I'm usually to drunk to be capable.

With vodka and redbull well now I am drunk and fully awake and raring to go, in fact maybe I'll have another glass before I start.

[Vic]

> The odds of participants experiencing disinhibition ... were significantly lower during AmED session

Well, what's the point of that, then?

Such disinhibition is the *reason* I get drunk. The world is a happy place when I'm a giggling idiot...

Vic.

[Craig 12]

I'm not a heavy drinker, but I did grow up at the same time as the birth of alcopops. At 16/17, we'd mix up Hooch, Vodka and Red Bull to make a purple cocktail sure to keep you dancing all night (the legal way) (ignoring the under-age drinking part).

I still find Red bull stops me slurring my words, and I've never had a problem sleeping afterwards. If anything, I wake up less hungover!

I think this research is due for the "ask anyone" award of obviousness.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hoopers Hooch

and the other alcopops that followed in its wake. They were attempts by big breweries to reclaim business lost out to people taking Ecstasy in the early nineties (which was the Downfall of Western Civilisation, according to The Daily Mail). The drinks companies also promoted a 'ladette' culture by sponsoring Channel 4 programmes, convincing young women (who usually have less muscle mass and hence blood volume) that they should be matching their male peers pint for pint, in order to be 'equal' and 'girl power'.

So now we have a generation of young adults who are too fat to dance at raves, and just take Ketamine whilst shuffling along to god-awful 'Dubstep' instead.

[Ambivalous Crowboard]

I won't touch them again

One Friday, long ago, after a few of these beauties (I confess, quite a few) I ended up smoking a lot of weed and then vomiting up someone's interior wall (while kneeling) because I thought it was their toilet. And then I rode the beer scooter home with my head out the window as I thought the episode would continue (none of which I remember but am reliably told).

The following day my brother found me naked on the bathroom floor at 6am, put a towel over me and left me there.

I was ill until about 9am the Sunday morning.

Sensible? Tremendously. Line 'em up, bar keep. Proceed with this nonsense at flank speed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I won't touch them again

I think you'll find, should you decide to continue your "research" on the matter, that Red Bull is not a necessary component for a bender like that.

IMHE at least... :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Energy drinks make you more alert?

Thanks, science.

[akicif]

Dose-dependency, or, pacing is all....

This may well be true for small amounts - but folk who are more awake than they expect to be later in the evening will drink more... Rinse and repeat.

The caffeinated alcohol of choice in this part of the world - Buckie, or Buckfast Tonic Wine (six cans of coke per half bottle of 15% sweetened wine) - was originally marketed to "fortify the over-forties", in the words of the Phyllosan ad, but at something like 1% of sales is responsible for more than a quarter of the alcohol-related trouble.

That said, I'm partial to the odd glass of espreso stout or Mikkeller's "Beer geek Breakfast" - but that's different!

[Nanners]

Sensible?

Wow! So if you have a drink, and then have a coffee, you are more sensible than having a drink, and then another drink? Makes SENSE that a little caffeine would be a good thing on a night out, but I don't think anything will help the rampant alcoholism readily accepted in ... Most notably... The U.K.

[jonathanb]

Studies on Buckfast, which has even more caffeine than Red Bull suggest that it isn't a good thing to take if you want to remain "sensible".

[Solly]

When the field trial starts

Can I be in the control group with just the good stuff, energy drinks taste rank...

[Anonymous Coward]

Where there extensive tests on the more volatile mix called TVR? Tequilla Vodka Redbull?

Thank god it's Thursday!!! Let the City binge begin.

Once I asked one of the senior managers why do we always go out for work drinks on Thursday and not on Friday.

The response was; do you think I want to have a hangover in my own free time or in the company time!

AC because I'm still at the office ;P

[Anonymous Coward]

Eeeek... TVR!

/runs away crying like a little girl

Don't ask.

[blofse]

Booze and caffeine cocktails reduce likelihood of risk-taking behaviour

... er isn't boozing and drinking caffeine itself a risk-taking behaviour?

Is this statement not an oxymoron?

Fail.

[Wize]

Vodka & red bull...

...helping you wake up in the wrong bed since the 90's

[Sceptic Tank]

Science?

People at parties have know for YEARS that alcohol makes you strong like the lion, dance like M. Jackson, sing like Sting, etc.

(You feel sophisticated even though you can't say the word, et al).

Where's the IT angle? Oh yes... this job drives me to drink. Now I remember.

[Alan Brown]

Taurine

Useful if you're a cat, no use to humans whatsoever (but it looks good on the tin)

Unless you're feeding redbull to your cat, which might explain the state of those curtains.

[Anonymous Coward]

Huey Lewis was right....time for something new

I want a new drug

One that won't make me sick

One that won't make me crash my car

Or make me feel three feet thick

I want a new drug

One that won't hurt my head

One that won't make my mouth too dry

Or make my eyes too red

One that won't make me nervous

Wonderin' what to do

One that makes me feel like I feel when I'm with you

When I'm alone with you

I want a new drug

One that won't spill

One that don't cost too much

Or come in a pill

[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/h/huey+lewis+and+the+news/i+want+a+new+drug_20066322.html ]

I want a new drug

One that won't go away

One that won't keep me up all night

One that won't make me sleep all day

One that won't make me nervous

Wonderin' what to do

One that makes me feel like I feel when I'm with you

When I'm alone with you

I'm alone with you baby

I want a new drug

One that does what it should

One that won't make me feel too bad

One that won't make me feel too good

I want a new drug

One with no doubt

One that won't make me talk too much

Or make my face break out

One that won't make me nervous

Wonderin' what to do

One that makes me feel like I feel when I'm with you

When I'm alone with you

All alone with you

All alone with you, yea, yea

[Freshp2]

Raging bull, shaken not stirred.......

Vindication........ Now you can't say we be dope'n! Balance is good even under the influence of packaged liq and red bull. But proceed with caution you don't Want to over clock, burning the candle at both ends, clubs in Vegas don't get crack'n till 1am.......... And you don't want to stumble to the house 9hrs later trying to finnish up a project that's do in 3hrs......... You know how that winds up........ Crank~~~~~~> eeeeee

VP is Freshp2 online.

[Herby]

Reminds me of a saying my mother told me...

Never feed Coffee (caffeine) to a drunk. All you get is a wide awake drunk, and that is not a desirable outcome.

The combination if a couple of Vodka-Red Bulls just make a nice LOUD wide awake drunk.

On the other hand, I see a BOFH story here. Stay tuned.

[Vic]

Re: Reminds me of a saying my mother told me...

> Never feed Coffee (caffeine) to a drunk. All you get is a wide awake drunk

I was skiing in Italy a few years back. One day, I had a hankering for Black Russians.

We went to a bar which claimed to know everything about cocktails. He had to look up how to do a Black Russian - and then admitted he didn't have any Tia Maria, but he did have a local coffee liqueur, and wuold we like to try that? Of course we did.

The liqueur turned out to be an espresso liqueur. So three or four of these things later, we're all fairly mashed, but simultaneously ready to climb the walls...

Vic.

[27escape]

Buckfast - pretty much an energy drink

Now check out the silly things the drinkers of this concoction get up to after imbibing

[parityerror]

You drink, you get drunk, then tired, then stop.

You drink with caffeine, you get drunk and can continue getting more drunk. It's the ability to get more drunk that makes you more of a liability.

To test this, drink a couple of buckets in Thailand.