Energy Drinks... hazards?

[Firia]

I am in total agony, right this very second.
So, this is more of a question, actually.

I got invited to my first ever lan event. (It was fun. thanks for asking.) I'd been there for a little while, played my share of game.... I only really play the one. But anyway, 1 or 2 am rolls around, and I start to waver and get tired.

Now, Bawls energy drink sponcered (among other sponcers) this event. There was a huge cooler full of these little blue bottles of Bawls. (How are they? As far as energy drinks go, they're good. quit interupting me. I'm telling a story here.)

My ride home aimed to go home when I go home, and I know he wanted to stay as long as possable. So, I reach for some Bawls (har har, how much did I hear the first joke that came into your head? ). 4:30 rolls up, I'm pooped, and only felt a little energy. I wrangle, quite easily, my ride into packing up.

Now, I'm home. And have been for 6.5 hours. I tried to go to sleep, but I found myself tossing around... alot. Not like, insomnia levels. Like, bad matress commercial tossing. Where the girl doesn't have a blanket, and only a nighty, and rolling over 15 times in this 3 second shot is supposely convincing for "uncomfortable."

But that's not all! My inner thighs donw to my knees feel like they need to be stretched out. Almost... nay, at definate PAINFUL levels. But no amout of stretching will aleveate the pain. No position, or amount of tossing solves it.

I'm absolutely exhosted! I could kneel over dead right now, if it wasn't for the absolute agony!! I aim to take some painkiller and crawl into bed. But I wanted to first ask this question;

Do energy drinks have any known hazzards to women that drink them?!

I think it was the bawls that screwed me.

At 4pm I had a rum and coke, & then water
At 6pm I had a 7&7.
at 2am'ish I had a bawls energy drink.
at 6am I had a liter of water (in case it was dehydartion).

In the past I've had Redbulls with no ill effects.
In the past I've noticed Rockstar energy drinks with warning labels to women!
A google search [Energy Drink Hazards] and Wiki tell me about the long term hazards of the heavy caffine levels in Energy Drinks.


So... people... enlightem me. Have you had any foul experiances? Any light on hazards? I'd love to read them... hopefully after I have two digits worth of sleep.

[Demongirl]

I hear vodka and RedBull can be hazardous...but I love it so!
*death-grips her can of redbull, but has no vodka at home*

Only thing I can think of is you get drunk and have tons of energy and may dehydrate yourself on the dance floor... or you may not think you're as drunk as you are and try to drive after a few. ^^

Maybe your difficulty was with the Bawls, perhaps you should try Sum Poosie energy drink.

[Kyrros]

Energy drinks are diaretics, which cause your body to lose more water than you gain by drinking the thing.. kinda like alcohol. When you mix alcohol and an energy drink you dehydrate way faster than normal. Energy drinks also contain insane amounts of caffiene which is a stimulant. Like most good stimulants they act as pain-blockers. If you're a lightweight (literally lightweight) they have more effect on ya than they do on a big fat dude. Caffiene is like the spice but it makes your muscles move quicker and gives you more strength than you normally use when doing whatever it is you're currently doing.

When ya have a -lot- of caffiene (or are real sensitive to it) your body will tend to overuse your muscles and you end up sore the next day because you caused tiny tears in your muscles (same thing happens when you work out, they'll heal) by using them well past your 'average' muscle use for the day. Doesn't matter if you're built like a brick house or a tiny waif.. you end up with the same result.

Other thing that happens is that your heart goes nuts cause you're on a stimulant (albiet a relatively mild one) and that causes extra pressure on your body. My guess is a combo of the above and moving a comp or two around did ya in.

[Mynka]

The first and only time I've EVER drank a Redbull was a very bad experience for me.

My story.

It's 8:30 a.m. and I'm on my way to Hot Topic, where I work. ( I no longer work there but the 40% discount was pretty sweet ) I'm tired and wishing I hadn't opted for the morning opening shift but hey, I did and here I am. I decide that my morning coffee I had before I left my house just wasn't cutting it and stop in at the local party store.

Browsing the energy drinks I can't seem to make up my mind on which one to buy. I opt for Redbull because it one of the more well known ones. Having never had an energy drink before I take a swig and realize that in my opinion this is pretty gross. Still, I'm tired and feeling laggy ( hehe ) so i think it will be a great idea to just down the whole thing to get it over with as quickly as possible. I mean I did pay for it and I am still tired.

Roughly ten minutes later, I start shaking, my heart is racing and I feel like I'm going to vomit. I start to walk and... whoosh... I feel myself falling. Ok, I grab the counter and catch myself but damn, I almost passed out just now. What the hell is going on? I actually had to leave work. My co workers said I looked paler then any goth kid that had came into that place in months. I have never, nor do I plan on ever, drinking a Redbull again. Most likely I will never drink another energy drink again.

Now, I know that my ill effects were from downing the whole can like it was a double shot of Jagermeister. Still, I will never forget the way I felt that day and it put a bad taste in my mouth for energy drinks. I'll just stick to my slow over time pot-o-coffee I drink in a day and be happy with that.

But now I'm curious to know why they must put a warning label for women on certain energy drinks. I'll have to google that one myself.

[Firia]

The combo of redbull and [alcohol] accelerated the drunkeness. Which is partly why they're so popular.

[Ashval]

I've tried a variety of energy drinks. I've become a habitual "one a day"
drinker of Monster energy drinks. I like the heavy dose of caffeine during that sleepy time right after lunch, and Monster's actually contain some healthy stuff in them. (and, they taste fantastic)

The only time I've had a bad experience with energy drinks was during my 50 hour marathon and the severe kidney pains I was having. I can't necessarily attribute that to just the energy drinks, though. I'm pretty sure lack of sleep helped.

[Mivat]

Energy-drinks doesn't have a noticeable effect on me until after rather massive doses of it. Usually they cause me to go Blabbermouth bigtime, although after 10 boxes of Battery, two Red Bulls, 4 Dark Dogs and a Bomba, plus 1.5 liters of Coca Cola and two tubes of 10 pills each of something called XL1 (Some 98% Glucose by weight) I had serious problems with sitting still, not to mention sleeping. The next had me feeling like I had a hangover, and my digestive system was WAY out of whack.

[Gridfan]

People should always be carefull about digesting artificial "boosters" like this.
Most of this stuff (including vitamins and similar stuff) has concentrated amounts in them.

Like myself, I got a 1.5 liter pepsi bottle here. I take small sips of it through the day, that's like half a day pluss to drink a huge pepsi bottle.
Add to this around half a liter of milk/water and I'm at around 2 liters of liquid a day, (seem to recall that is a adviced amount of liquid per day)
plus the sugar etc in the Pepsi obviously.
I drank a lot less several years ago but now my body is adjusted to it over time, besides I'm drinking it conservatively.
My advice would be to do the same with artifical boosters and drinks with concentrated levels of something.

Spread out the dosage over time and the human body should have no issue handling pretty much anything.

[Firia]

Whoa, Mynka. Totally missed your post. You musta snuck it in when I posted.

Yeah, wow. That's a pretty bad experiance! I'm wondering if mine wasn't so much "an energy drink" bad effect, as it was Not having caffine in a long time and suddenly having a jolt of it all at once.

Two asprins and 13 hours after the E-drink, I finally zonked out. But now, the following day, I feel so low energy. At least I'm not wracked in pain anymore.

[Aaox]

sometimes i have to have energy drinks to get through work....i dont have adrenal glands so it helps

[Regidoc]

Actually grid, it's about 8 glasses of water that is recommended to drink each day. 8 12 onze glasses or something like that. Pepsi and such is mostly sugar and I don't think there's much water in it neither.

[Myz_Lilith]

There's still plenty of water in pepsi - it's what makes it fluid. But the caffeine - and in the case of diet drinks, usually the sweetners too - is a diuretic, so the benefits from the water get cancelled out - I don't know by how much, though.

How much actual liquid you need to drink depends a lot on your diet as well. The digestive process requires water, so fluids that need digesting, such as pure fruit juices rehydrate you less. (That's why fruit juice can make you feel worse when you're hungover - most of the effects of a hangover are promarily down to dehydration, so you're better off with fruit juice mixed with water or the like.) Whereas vegeables have a high water content that they release as they are digested, so if you eat lots of crisp salad, you'll need less actual glasses of water.

[Xtrophic]

I've come to the conclusion that energy drinks does jack for me. I seem to be immune to them.

I've tried quite a few and all they do to me is taste good, but I've never felt that they make me feel more awake. And to that effect I can't say I've ever felt any side effects from drinking them.

As for staying alert and having fun at LAN parties I'd suggest getting a few hours of shuteye when you start getting sleepy. You will be amazed at how much a few hours will do. Also drink alot, if nothing else, the feeling that you need to visit the bathroom will keep you awake

Another thing is to stay away from alcohol, that's a big no-no. Will only make sure you fall asleep alot quicker