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Dubious research tied to Red Bull has shaped energy drink policy

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171–180 of 263 posts

Re: Dubious research tied to Red Bull has shaped energy drink policy

#171
post #60
post #25

I have always hated coffee so I've previously had some kind of energy drink in the morning for weeks at a time. Those suckers are bizarrely addictive. It's one thing to have one shortly after you wake up, but I found myself craving them later and later in the day, and of course that makes it harder to sleep...which makes me more likely to have energy drinks the next day. I stopped the daily consumption when I realize…

Feeling miserable for three days seems ... unlikely after 800mg/day of caffeine. I say that to mean, it should be much longer (been there, done that, took many months) Caffeine use especially at that level massively grows the amount adenosine receptors your brain has, and they don't just disappear overnight. A 500ml Diet Coke (assuming you don't mean the caffeine free version) also contains about 65 mg of caffeine, w…

I think the actual threshold is when the withdrawal misery falls below the noise floor of the ambient misery.

Re: Dubious research tied to Red Bull has shaped energy drink policy

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have ADHD and noticed an INVERSE effect of caffeine for years, it would mostly just make me tired. That was before being properly medicated with a stimulant. After that, caffeine works the same as anyone else. It’s very weird. In the internet age, I’ve learned this is pretty common for people with adhd. I have 6 or so years experience with serious running, and experienced a runners high exactly 1 time.

> INVERSE effect of caffeine for years It's likely due to some other factor or individual difference. To my knowledge, there is no evidence that stimulants affect people with ADHD any differently than people without ADHD. By differently, I mean having a paradoxical reaction that can only be attributed to having ADHD. Correlation does not imply causation, but people still try it all the time.

I know someone who doesn't have ADHD, but when she drinks coffee it makes her sleepy. Her whole family drinks coffee before bed!

Re: Dubious research tied to Red Bull has shaped energy drink policy

#173
post #169

>A considerable body of research suggests that incidents like these aren’t just chance or circumstance. Mixing alcohol and energy drinks was linked to higher rates of binge drinking, sexual abuse and drunk driving, according to a study conducted among U.S. college students. This sounds like it could be correlation? People who are more prone to risk-taking are more likely to mix caffeine and alcohol? Although, in that…

feels like it wouldn't change behavior all that much just choice of the drug

Re: Dubious research tied to Red Bull has shaped energy drink policy

#174
post #62

I really don't know why people go so nuts over energy drinks. People casually chug coffee like crazy and then act like you're drinking nuclear waste when you drink a monster, and then you look at the ingredients list and it's like - Water - Sugar - Vitamin B - Caffeine and the caffeine is basically equivalent to one cup of coffee.

I am with you here, especially given that the examples listed in the article were basically: * Some young man downed 6 beers and "several" energy drinks, then dove into a lake, and subsequently died. His mother said that he grew up near a lake and a was a good swimmer, so their conclusion was to blame energy drinks. * An 18 year old woman downed 10 jagerbombs (a mix of jagermeister liquor and an energy drink) and sub…

There seem to be heart issues involved in most of the energy drink related deaths. More specifically, people finding out they had heart issues, by dying.

So "those people just shouldn't drink caffeine then" would be the standard advice, except that some people apparently die before they realize that they're in that category. (It seems to be mostly young people? My country recently banned energy drinks for people under 18, they now check your age at the supermarket if you try to buy them.)

The strange thing is, if it's caused by caffeine, we'd also be hearing about people dying from having too many coffees, but you never hear about that. Maybe it's some of the other ingredients (taurine, guarana) or the combination?

Re: Dubious research tied to Red Bull has shaped energy drink policy

#175
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> consumed an equivalent of 10 energy drinks+10 shots of hard liquor a jagerbomb is not typically an entire energy drink. it's typically 3oz/90ml of energy drink. 10 jagerbombs would be ~3 redbulls. (which is still obviously a lot of energy drink and alcohol in a short time)

Fair point, but yeah, it is still quite a crazy amount, esp in terms of alcohol, even for someone like me. And I am saying this as someone with very strong alcohol tolerance, not as a (likely) smaller 18 year old woman with way less tolerance.

I had 10 Jaeger bombs one time and I woke up in Belgium.

Re: Dubious research tied to Red Bull has shaped energy drink policy

#176
post #25

I have always hated coffee so I've previously had some kind of energy drink in the morning for weeks at a time. Those suckers are bizarrely addictive. It's one thing to have one shortly after you wake up, but I found myself craving them later and later in the day, and of course that makes it harder to sleep...which makes me more likely to have energy drinks the next day. I stopped the daily consumption when I realize…

I make my own all natural energy drink. I too don’t like coffee much, no matter how hard I’ve tried, but also those things have a lot of chemicals other than caffeine in them.

You can buy powdered caffeine derived from green tea. I do bottling including my own sodas so I have ready access and you might have to buy at least 1 lb, which is a lot of caffeine, but it’s worth it for your health.

I don’t drink more than 200mg in a day and usually not even that much so maybe I’m at a gram a week-ish. So a lb would last me for over 8 years.

Get a jewelers scale and you’re good to go

Re: Dubious research tied to Red Bull has shaped energy drink policy

#177

I really don't know why people go so nuts over energy drinks. People casually chug coffee like crazy and then act like you're drinking nuclear waste when you drink a monster, and then you look at the ingredients list and it's like - Water - Sugar - Vitamin B - Caffeine and the caffeine is basically equivalent to one cup of coffee.

To me the surprising thing is how much sugar people are willing to drink, but I think the same thing when my friend drinks Coca Cola.

https://xkcd.com/1035/

Re: Dubious research tied to Red Bull has shaped energy drink policy

#178
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, you could say the same thing about coffee.

As a coffee drinker the "bizarrely addictive" comment does not resonate with me at all. I don't really have trouble keeping myself to, like, 1.2 coffees a day. I can't imagine drinking 6-7 coffees in a day to get to 800 mg caffeine. Unless you add ice or sweetener it's bitter and hot, so it's a lot harder to slide down the slippery slope of just drinking it whenever you're thirsty and simultaneously getting addicted…

Coffee is also slightly diuretic, so it's not a "drink to quench your thirst" drink, at least not to me. Water (plain or fizzy/flavored), milk, diet sodas, etc. fill that niche.

Re: Dubious research tied to Red Bull has shaped energy drink policy

#179
post #169

>A considerable body of research suggests that incidents like these aren’t just chance or circumstance. Mixing alcohol and energy drinks was linked to higher rates of binge drinking, sexual abuse and drunk driving, according to a study conducted among U.S. college students. This sounds like it could be correlation? People who are more prone to risk-taking are more likely to mix caffeine and alcohol? Although, in that…

feels like it wouldn't change behavior all that much just choice of the drug

[dead]

Re: Dubious research tied to Red Bull has shaped energy drink policy

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree it's not good for my heart. I keep my caffeine intake considerably lower now, always less than the 400mg max that the FDA recommends, usually less than that. I'm not sure that adderrall is significantly healthier for the heart. I did take it for a bit but I found adderral to be unbelievably terrible. I would take a small dose at like 7am, and I still would have trouble getting to sleep at night, and when I di…

> I would take a small dose at like 7am, and I still would have trouble getting to sleep at night Was this an extended release verson like Vyvanse? I had an absolutely terrible time with that for the same reasons. If that was your experience with plain dextroamphetamine, totally sounds like it's just not meant for you!

I tried the three big ones: regular Adderall, Adderall extended release, and Vyvance. None of them really helped my focus and all three really screwed with my sleep.

Kind of ironically, it turned out that a lot of my focus issues were due to (at the time) undiagnosed sleep apnea. The caffeine and the adderall sort of became band-aids that covered up the real problems.

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