Mixing alcohol with energy drinks can have lamentable consequences, the Health Ministry warns, and with it doctors. Such a combination is most often seen in young people, especially during the holiday season. Ingestion of such a mixture often ends up in the ED. There may even be life-threatening cardiac complications.
Dangerous compounds: alcohol and energies
Published Aug. 22, 2024 09:30
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The Health Ministry warns that combining energizer with alcohol increases the risk of heart attack and stroke, alcohol poisoning and dehydration.
- Alcohol by itself is already a diuretic, that is, it has a diuretic effect. Combining it with psychoactive substances contained in energizers (taurine, caffeine - editor's note) usually results in dehydration of the patient and all related complications, such as cardiac arrhythmias and possible disturbances in the state of consciousness. This is a very dangerous combination, especially in the summer, when the temperature outside is high," explains Dr. Michal Domagała, MD, specialist in anesthesiology and intensive care, toxicologist, head of the Clinical Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Unit at the Regional Hospital in Kielce, in an interview with Medexpress.
Most such cases are recorded during the holiday season, and young people in particular are affected.
- Such patients end up in intensive care relatively rarely. The first place they land is the hospital emergency department. It is often the case that adequate fluid therapy with electrolyte substitution brings the story to a happy ending. I get patients who are already seriously ill, in whom the limit has been crossed many times, that is, those who have taken far too much alcohol and far too many energizers," adds Dr. Michal Domagala.
However, young people are experimenting with more than just such combinations. A growing problem is that they are turning to psychoactive substances produced in chemical laboratories.
- Their composition is not fully known, but they usually have a psycho-stimulant effect. Adolescents usually combine them with alcohol and energizers, then go to a party or concert, there is a factor associated with physical exertion and the already mentioned dehydration. Such patients can develop kidney damage and electrolyte disorders, for example, the toxicologist points out.
