Combining alcohol and energy drinks can pose risks to adolescent brains, according to an American study.
Will the famous Vodka-Red Bull resist these revelations. The consumption of highly caffeinated alcoholic drinks (energy drink) would trigger effects in the brain of adolescents similar to those of cocaine. In any case, this is what a study by Purdue University in Indiana (United States) published in the review PLOS ONE.
To reach this conclusion, the team made young mice, whose neuronal activity is a good model of that of human beings, drink drinks up to ten times more concentrated in caffeine than soda. This in combination with alcohol. Principal author of the study, Richard M. van Rijn, professor of medical chemistry and molecular pharmacology, explains that when the mixture is consumed regularly, “the mice reach very high levels of arousal. And that’s just the start of a cold sweat for those preparing for a drunken night out this Friday night. Because the effect is only seen with this combination of drinks. It was, it is true, not observed when the drinks were consumed individually.
Forbidden experiences among teens
Thus, researchers warn about “this combination which has the same effect on the adolescent brain as cocaine”. They also noted the presence of a particular protein (AlphaFosB) in the brain. Nothing reassuring either since it is in fact a biomarker of long-term brain damage linked to the consumption of hard drugs (cocaine, morphine).
“The changes in the brain are such that mice were more likely to abuse this cocktail as adults.” Indeed, according to the researchers, like cocaine “the mice, in order to continue to feel the effects of the drinks, increased the doses”. This damage, spotted several years after risky consumption “explains the difficulty experienced by drug users in getting rid of their addiction,” continues Richard M. van Rijn.
The researchers also claim that adolescents exposed to the mixture would also have a stronger propensity to consume other products: “Their brains have changed so much that they tend to abuse substances giving pleasure even in adulthood”, specifies the scientist. For ethical reasons, these experiments obviously cannot be carried out in humans. “But these results prove the equivalence of harmfulness between legal and illegal addictive substances,” the team concludes.
ANSES recommendations
In 2013, the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) had already sounded the alarm on the dangers associated with energy drinks, their caffeine content (equivalent on average to two espressos ) may, in association with alcohol or sport, “generate serious cardiac accidents in consumers with frequent genetic predispositions (1 in 1,000 individuals) and generally undiagnosed”.
Faced with so many risks, ANSES recommended avoid risky mixing of energy drinks with alcohol. Especially for certain fragile consumers: pregnant and breastfeeding women for example, caffeine can in particular increase the risk of fetal growth retardation and pass into breast milk. Another population to protect, that of children and adolescents, particularly sensitive to caffeine. It can disrupt their sleep, cause daytime sleepiness and expose them to the further development of addictive behaviors. The Agency therefore wished to supervise the promotion of these drinks to the most sensitive audiences.
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