Yeah I remember a couple of the deaths and I think they were actually drinking a lot and doing strenuous things like dancing. So try drinking a pot of coffee or a six pack of Mountain Dew, six shots of vodka (or 8 depending on your bartender) and going for a quick three mile run. Kind of equivalent to to drinking six raging bulls and then going dancing - but I know people who do it every weekend and so far, they have all survived.
Personal experience here…
I drink Red Bull/vodkas all the time. Usually when I’m out and need a bit of a boost.
However, one night, I was really tired and drank 2-3 straight Red Bulls…along with copious amounts of alcohol. It worked…I was wide awake all night.
The next day, I woke to severe sweating, shaking and, what I thought were heart palpitations. I tried to get out of bed to go to the bathroom but only made it halfway. I crawled back into bed and prayed that it would pass. I had shallow breathing and couldn’t stop shaking. Eventually, I dozed off and when I woke later was back to normal.
I often drink copious amounts of alcohol, so I attribute this to the Red Bull. I still drink the stuff, sometimes straight, but in smaller quantities.
Wow - that is curious. I’ve had friends tell me they can’t drink m ore than one or they stay awake all night but I do it all the time in large quantities and I can stay awake and party all night but if I want to go to sleep I’ve never had any problem. BUt I wil admiot it gives me this really freakish buzz - not like alcohol alone. It’s weird, & frenetic.
PS - Could it have anything to do with the amount of caffeine a person is used to consuming. I consume a lot of espresso on a regular basis. Just wondering if that is why I am able to sleep afterward.
Caffeine does different things to different people. I know people who can’t drink any caffeine after early afternoon or they have trouble sleeping. I can consume large amounts of caffeine and still sleep fine.
malaka, IAMAD but, it sounds like you dehydrated yourself. The combination of vodka, caffeine and activity like dancing can easily cause you to dehydrate if you aren’t careful. Next time have a few glasses of water.
On a slightly related note. A couple of the clubs in here( Scotland) stopped selling aftershock after a couple of people died after drinking a lot of the stuff and swimming into the north sea.
I thought it a bit absurd to ban a particular drink when any alcohol in large quantities makes you stupid, and really… the north sea of all places.
Anyway. it got publicised that the people had been drinking aftershock and it got taken out of the clubs at the beach.
I think its a similar situation to the red-bull-vodka one.
It’s just driking too much, and it happens to be related to something that journalists can squeeze a story out of.
Vodka red-bull is quite big in Scotland, and i have heard no such rumors at all about red-bull.
p.s i don’t seen to get any particular high from red-bull, and i have no problem sleeping after. but i only drink red-bull at clubs, so maybe i just burn it up and dont notice.
It does taste sickly tho, but you would never guess there was vodka in it.
-Qis
You’re probably right. I normally don’t add water to the mix when I’m out. I certainly didn’t that night. Probably should from now on.
I also think mipiace hit on an important point. I rarely drink coffee. A single Mountain Dew will keep me up for hours. A half cup of coffee will have me wired for the entire morning. Once, I had a cup of cuban coffee. My legs went numb, I got tingly and felt faint. Knowing this, I should’ve expected an adverse reaction to Red Bull.
I was a soldier in an infantry unit in Germany, and we used to save the coffee, sugar & cream packets from our MRE’s. (Meal Ready to Eat, the modern army rations. Pretty darn tasty, actually, considering) If we were pulling guard duty & having trouble staying awake, we’d mix all of the packets together & wash the powder down with water from our canteen…now THAT’s instant coffee.
After one field problem, I had about a dozen packet bundles left over, and on the long bus ride back I decided to see what a caffeine buzz was like. I washed all of them down, and proceeded to feel absolutely horrible for the next few hours…heart palpitations, sweating, anxiety…I couldn’t wait for it to end, and it gave me new respect for caffeine.
IIRC, Red Bull has 100mg of caffeine in an 8-ounce can. That’s a lot. It’s pretty dumb to load up on caffeine & then start strenuous exercise, IMHO.
Red Bull has spent a lot of money sponsoring hang gliding events. I’ve seen quite a few gliders that were basically flying billboards for the stuff.