ORLANDO — Americans love their caffeine — in coffee, colas and now in their alcohol.
But mixed together, particularly in high volumes, the combination of caffeine and alcohol can be deadly.
That’s why toxicologists and doctors are encouraged to see the U.S. Food and Drug Administration crack down on the makers of drinks such as Four Loko and Joose, which experts compare to two cups of coffee combined with the equivalent of four or five beers. Why caffeine and alcohol are so toxic together isn’t fully understood, but the combination appears to impair a drinker’s judgment more than drinking alcohol alone. That has led to what some researchers call “toxic jock syndrome.”
“Amongst some users, there’s a higher incidence of risk-taking behaviors because their perceptions of their limitations are distorted,” said Steven Lipshultz, chief of pediatrics at the University of Miami medical school.
As a stimulant, caffeine jazzes up your whole body, increasing blood pressure and the heart rate and, in some cases, causing heart palpitations and an irregular heartbeat. Caffeine also leads to headaches, jitteriness, agitation, stomach problems and abnormal breathing. It’s the equivalent of an adrenaline rush, Lipshultz said.
Alcohol, on the other hand, is a depressant that slows down the brain’s functioning and impairs one’s ability to walk, talk and think clearly. Mixed together, the stimulant and the depressant do not cancel each other out.
“Some people have the idea that the caffeine will negate the effect of the alcohol — and that’s simply not true,” said Glenn Whelan, assistant professor at the University of South Florida’s College of Pharmacy.
Instead, the caffeine appears to override the natural sleepiness that occurs when someone drinks alcohol. It also delays the feeling of drunkenness, so those who drink an alcoholic energy drink are likely to keep drinking beyond their normal limits.
How dangerous is one can of an alcoholic energy drink? Many brands in this burgeoning beverage field are packaged in 23.5-ounce cans that contain 260 milligrams of caffeine and are 12 percent alcohol by volume.
The effect on a drinker depends on a person’s body weight, but teens and college students — many of whom are more slender than older drinkers and haven’t developed a tolerance to alcohol — are far more likely to be affected by just one can, experts say.
“One can of Four Loko in a small, young woman can produce a blood alcohol level of 0.15 — that’s almost twice the legal limit,” said Bruce Goldberger, a professor of toxicology at the University of Florida. “In some individuals, that could be life-threatening — or lead to a life-threatening event.”
Even those who can tolerate a single can will probably drink it in a short period of time. And that, says Whelan, is why Four Loko is known as “blackout in a can.”
“If you drink a 24-ounce can of Four Loko in one hour, that’s almost like drinking a full six-pack of beer in an hour,” Whelan said. “But you have that caffeine making you more alert, so you keep drinking. It’s like the worst of the worst things you can do.”
