Reported Risk-Taking and Consequences from the Combined Use of Alcohol and Energy Drinks

ATHLETES AND ENERGY DRINKS: REPORTED RISK-TAKING AND CONSEQUENCES FROM THE COMBINED USE OF ALCOHOL AND ENERGY DRINKS

The basis to the article is to bring attention to the use of energy drinks by athletes and in combination with the consumption of alcohol. It has been found that when athletes consume both of these liquids within the same space of time, athletes are involved in serious risk taking. The study was used as a vehicle in measuring the added consumption of alcohol stemming from energy drinks. How many times has a member of your family or just someone you knew who was burning the candle at both ends and became tired enough the they needed to attain a boost, so they relied on drinking energy drinks. Red Bull and other drinks in this category spend hundreds of millions of dollars promoting their energy drink to the target audience of school kids of all ages. Does Red Bull taste good! Definitely not, but kids don't care for it provides them with the boost and energy by installing a lot of sugar and at least 60-80 mg of caffeine straight into the body. Athletes have the metabolism to burn off the newly installed caffeine, but younger non-athletes retain and absorb it. Energy drinks are so powerful that within one 16 oz can are two servings which athletes basically inhale. At this juncture athletes are full of energy with their eyes wide opened; naturally, when it comes time to party they have not felt the affects of their exhausted body and their mind relays that they are ready to go. These false signals are sent to the body and after they consume alcohol they feel no affects, therefore they will continue to drink.

Pursuant to this study an intercollegiate group of 401 students participating in some aspect of collegiate athletics took part in this evaluation. In relation to the 401 athletes, approximately 78% or 315 are reported to consume alcohol; "150 (37%) combined alcohol with energy drinks, and 194 (48%) used energy drinks (EDs) without alcohol" (Woolsey, C., Waigandt, A., & Beck, N., 2010). There were 369 (92%), of the 401 athletes who contributed to the "binge drinking" or pass out activity. Of the participating student athletes, 244 (61 %), pursuant to their ED binge consumption of 3+ units of energy drink's, they are categorized as high-risk drinkers. The overall "results indicated combined users (n = 150) consumed significantly more alcohol and had riskier drinking habits (e.g., heavy binge drinking) than athletes who used alcohol only (n = 165)" (Woolsey, C., Waigandt, A., & Beck, N., 2010).

In conclusion, the combined consumption of energy drinks and alcohol in athletes will yield a negative adverse affect by delaying information to the body; the athlete will believe that they have unbounded energy when in fact they have no energy. Their emotions and senses may be telling them that they are cognizant when

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