In the April issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, Brazilian researchers conduct the first controlled scientific study on the effects of combining alcohol with Red Bull®. Results show a considerable disconnect between subjects’ perceptions and objective measures of their abilities: although combined use reduces the sensation of tiredness and sleepiness, actual capabilities are significantly impaired.

Compared to the ingestion of alcohol alone, the combined ingestion of alcohol and Red Bull® significantly reduced the subjects’ perception of headache, weakness, dry mouth and impairment of motor coordination. Red Bull® did not, however, significantly reduce deficits caused by alcohol on objective measures of motor coordination and visual reaction time.

“There are two key points,” said Souza-Formigoni. “Although combined ingestion decreases the sensation of tiredness and sleepiness, objective measures of motor coordination showed that it cannot reduce the harmful effects of alcohol on motor coordination. In other words, the person is drunk but does not feel as drunk as he really is. The second important point is that many users reported using energy drinks to reduce a not-so-pleasant taste of alcoholic beverages, which could dangerously increase the amount (as well as the speed of ingestion) of alcoholic beverages.”

“The implications of these findings,” added Boerngen, “are that this association of alcohol and energy drinks is harmful rather than beneficial, as believed by consumers. Especially because those individuals who combine alcohol and energy drinks, believing they are less impaired than reality would indicate, are actually at an increased risk for problems such as automobile accidents.”

iDrink lists 151 recipes using Red Bull.