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Why shouldn't alcohol and energy drinks be mixed?
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025

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Mixing alcoholic drinks and energy drinks is dangerous: this is the warning of doctors representing the University of Portsmouth (UK) and the Federal University of Saint Mary (Brazil). They conducted a study, the progress of which was reported on the official websites of the educational institutions represented.
Among modern youth, all sorts of mixes and cocktails of various drinks are especially popular. Energy drinks and alcoholic drinks are mixed no less often: many young people are sure that drinking such a cocktail will help balance the relaxing effect of alcohol. That is, a person should supposedly feel intoxicated, but without the relaxing effect: the feeling of vivacity remains. But doctors say: the state of health from drinking such a mixture can be seriously shaken, and the load on the body exceeds that when drinking a large amount of alcoholic beverages. In addition, an alcoholic-energy cocktail causes a loss of caution, complicates the process of communicating with others, which can lead to the emergence of a lot of additional problems.
The scientists' experiment was as follows. The study involved almost two hundred Danio fish, which were divided into schools of four fish each. Some fish were given taurine (one of the ingredients in energy drinks) in their environment, others were given an alcoholic drink, and others were given a mixture of alcohol and taurine. The fourth fish were luckier: they were left with a clean environment.
The fish lived in the listed environments for an hour. Then the researchers began a behavioral analysis, assessing the condition of the fish immediately after the special conditions were lifted, as well as after half an hour and an hour. In addition, the doctors observed the fish's reaction to the demonstration of a dummy of a potentially dangerous predator. The specialists divided the aquarium into 4 sectors and "settled" the enemy in its most remote areas.
As it was discovered, the fish, previously swimming in an environment with an alcohol component and taurine, practically stopped interacting with other relatives from the school. Among other things, they began to demonstrate a special risk in behavior, allowing themselves to swim closer to the predator, ignoring the danger.
Everyone knows that drinking alcohol has a lot of negative sides. People's behavior also changes dramatically under the influence of alcoholic beverages, and their regular use in large quantities causes aggression, conflict in a person, and, as a result, injuries increase, and other serious problems appear.
Experts have concluded that the simultaneous consumption of alcoholic and energy drinks increases the negative impact of alcohol and also increases the incidence of side effects.
Zebrafish were used for the experiment because of their similar biochemical and behavioral mechanisms to humans.
The information is published on the website of the University of Portsmouth (http://uopnews.port.ac.uk/2018/08/13/mixing-energy-drinks-with-alcohol-could-enhance-the-negative-effects-of-binge-drinking/).