Caffeine Isn’t An Effective Tool for Getting Sober March 10
Don’t rely on coffee to clear your mind after a night of drinking!
Recent research has proven that while caffeine reduces the tranquilizing effects of alcohol it doesn’t improve your concentration so decision-making processes will remain as limited as they were without the caffeine. You may assume you’re not as intoxicated as you are and the impaired thinking that remains may lead to poorly thought out choices and decision-making. Caffeine doesn’t change bac levels and it doesn’t help improve your ability to make proper choices. The result is that you can find yourself doing things you wouldn’t have if you were truly sober. This assumption about caffeine affects younger people (26% of whom according to the FDA are regular consumers) even more strongly as they’re prone to combining the two.
The FDA has plans to look into the risks of combining the two and has asked companies who produce the drinks to explain how they’ve determined their safety and reasoned that they’re safe to sell.
Researchers studied the effects of ethanol and caffeine on mice, both separately and together. When given together, ethanol interfered with caffeine’s anxiety-producing effect, but caffeine could not restore ethanol’s positive effects on learning. The result was a relaxed mouse prone to taking risks without being aware of those risks.
This adds to the growing body of evidence that individuals who combine caffeinated energy drinks with alcohol may be inadvertently putting themselves at greater risk due to poor decision-making and the misperception that their judgment is intact,” said Jeffrey T. Parsons, chairman of psychology at Hunter College in New York City.
Tags: Alcohol, caffiene, coffee, myths, sobering