Dangers of Mixing Alcohol With Caffeine
If you’re unfamiliar with the repercussions of mixing alcohol with caffeine there are many good reasons why you should never attempt to combine the two. In this article, we’ll go over what happens when alcohol and caffeine are mixed and what it does to your body when consumed.
People frequently combine caffeine and alcohol when they are drinking, and once-common caffeinated alcoholic drinks (CABs) encourage this behavior even more. However, using alcohol along with energy drinks or other caffeinated drinks may have unintended repercussions. It is advised to avoid having these two beverages together because they can have the same negative effects whether coffee is consumed before or after alcohol.
The Gateway Foundation can assist if you need advice on how to stop drinking alcohol and caffeine at the same time. Learn more about the effects of drinking alcohol and caffeine on your body and how to prevent dependence from developing into a serious problem.
What Happens When Alcohol and Caffeine Are Mixed?
Contrary to popular belief, coffee does not reduce the amount of alcohol in a person’s system or aid in sobriety. When you combine alcohol and caffeine, you’re combining an agent that stimulates the central nervous system, caffeine, with one that depresses it, alcohol. Alcohol slows your responses and gives you a drowsy feeling, which affects your coordination, speech, cognitive functions, and more. Contrarily, caffeine increases alertness along with other symptoms like a faster heartbeat, irritability or anxiety, trouble sleeping, and more.
Contrary to popular belief, these antagonistic compounds do not cancel one another out when present in your body at the same time. Instead, caffeine can “disguise” the effects of alcohol and increase alertness without really increasing it.
When caffeine and alcohol are combined, there are certain known behavioral impacts that include:
An increased risk of binge drinking
This is defined as six or more drinks ingested in one episode and is present in those between the ages of 15 and 23 who combine alcohol with high-caffeine energy drinks.
Increased risky behavior
A study of 602 college students found that regular energy drink users were more than twice as likely to experience alcohol-related incidents than non-users. These scenarios include being in the company of a drunk driver, getting hurt or ill enough to require medical attention, and engaging in more bouts of drinking than usual in a given week.
The same survey mentioned above revealed that students who consumed CABs had a higher prevalence of sexual assault. Even on its own, alcohol can encourage dependence, but combining it with caffeine may raise your risk of becoming addicted.
What It Does to Your Body
Both in the short and long run, alcohol and caffeine can have a number of negative effects on the body. Consuming these mixed beverages over an extended length of time can cause long-term health issues that have an impact on several bodily systems. These health problems are related to the fact that many people who combine alcohol and caffeine also binge drink, which has a host of health and safety dangers as well as the potential for catastrophic liver and other organ damage.
Even while not everyone who binges drinks has an alcohol use disorder, doing so raises one’s chances of becoming addicted. The more advanced your alcoholism becomes, the worse it will be for your health because it is regarded as a progressive disease with different degrees.
Are you looking for help?
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