Alcohol + energy drinks = risky sex?

JMH · Jul 28, 2012

There just may be a link between caffeinated energy drinks mixed with alcohol and casual sex.   How so, you ask?  

Well, researchers at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) determined that college students who consumed alcohol mixed with energy drinks (AmEDs) were more likely to report having a casual partner and/or being intoxicated during their most recent sexual encounter.  

According to senior research scientist Kathleen E. Miller, AmEDs are likely to play a role in the "hook-up culture" that exists on many college campuses.  

"The problem is that casual or intoxicated sex can increase the risk of unwanted outcomes, like unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual assault and depression," Miller explained.

"And previous research has linked energy drink consumption with other dangerous behaviors: drunken driving, binge drinking and fighting, for example."

http://www.tgdaily.com/health-features/65015-alcohol-energy-drinks-risky-sex

Wrench97 · Jul 28, 2012

The same issue was around 30 years ago the common denominator seems to be the alcohol part not the energy drink part, although coke and 7 up are carbonated so maybe it's the carbonation that's the problem..................

Kosh Vorlon · Jul 28, 2012

Ah, the good old days of college life in the 60's and 70's - the days of Woodstock and that whole culture. :beerchug2:

It is slightly more risky now with AIDS and more potent forms of STDs (and more potent alternatives to energy drinks), but in all honesty Wrench is right (except back then the alternative addition(s) to alcohol were ... shall we say ... far more commonly combined - sometimes much more potent than even the alcohol and in combination even more debilitating and unpredictable). Yet, here many of us are and somehow got through (or perhaps didn't but dealt with things nonetheless).

I have a theory that kids tend to be the opposite from their parents so we're now seeing the second wave where they are now becoming more like their grandparents (and I suspect quite a few here are or are in that age bracket). Then again, we also seem to have a fair share of those very same youths (or maybe some are almost there) but I've found those who are techies tend to be more toned down and temperate than average (something with no comparison in my day).

Isn't it amazing how people can get grants from our tax dollars to write what could have been (and may have been) written in the 60's & 70's to say nothing but the obvious. So now parents are going to throw out all those 5-hr energy bottles and not look harder for the bottles of unknown little blue pills or white powder or who the hell knows what. It's sort of like being worried about a few tracking cookies while ignoring Alureon.A or Sirefef.AH.

Besides, kids do this stuff with or without these add-ons anyway. It's the nature of the beast. Those there understand. Those my age remember how it was when we were there. They key is proper parental control and having "those talks" earlier than most parents think they're necessary and realizing that it's not one talk but an ongoing process through those "dangerous" years. The problem is only partly due to alcohol with the alternatives (and high-energy drinks if that can even be believed), but more with excessiveness and the basic behaviors of the kids whether using or not using them. Obviously, more problems will occur if combined with too much of whatever, but the "too much" line can be taught and recognized and behavior altered accordingly - it's not like these things turn kids into Mr. Hyde with no way to show restraint (sort of like how a fireman is different eating donuts in the firehouse vs. fighting for lives in a burning building).

Don't get me wrong. I'm not sanctioning any of this (certainly not alcohol if under age and only in moderation if legal age, none of the "alternative substances" at all, though I can't quite bring myself to say 5-hr energy is a danger to society), but merely saying that it doesn't have to be that bad (and the energy-drink part makes me wonder what those involved were doing when that study was written and published). It was pretty bad in my college days and those things did happen - but I don't think it's all that worse these days. In fact, my experience suggests things are far better now than they were then and if these things are still happening then it's back to the parents to teach their kids how to behave properly. That was the real answer back then and it's still the answer now.

Just an opinion FWIW. And I didn't even get a $100,000 government grant to write it. LOL!

JMH · Jul 28, 2012

Moderation is the key word.

Excessive alcohol / cars dont mix,
excessive alcohol / sex dont mix
& excessive speed in cars / sex dont mix.

All parents lead by example be it good or bad.

Parenting here is {often} a forgotten "art."

Seems to be quite a few one parent families with that sole parent having to work in some sort of paid employment to make ends meet.
The child raising "parental control" & teaching of "behaving properly" is questionable....... sadly!

GZ · Jul 28, 2012

What about excessive speed in cars, period??? :lol:

usasma · Jul 29, 2012

My old girlfriend didn't appreciate excessive speed in cars - particularly when we were "parking" :0)

As I recall (and mind you, it was more than 40 years ago) we didn't need an excuse for risky behaviors when I was growing up.
We did the same stupid things when we were stone-cold sober as we did when we were drunk off our ***'s!

I count myself lucky to be here today - as many of those stupid things could have easily killed me!

Kosh Vorlon · Jul 29, 2012

usasma said:
I count myself lucky to be here today - as many of those stupid things could have easily killed me!

Amen to that! My first car (once I started college) was a 1974 Mustang. I recall on one Christmas day getting a warning (not even a ticket - probably my X-mas gift from the cop) that read it was for going 60 MPH over the speed limit - ON THE INTERSTATE!! And I did even more stupid stuff that I hesitate to put in print. :shame2:

BTW, given your military background and your signature, do some of those stupid things involve EOD events with C-4 or some other type of RDX?

usasma · Jul 29, 2012

I taught demolitions - so I was constantly having to mess around with explosives. I've got a bunch of hair-raising stories about that.
I was also a target holder for the Special Forces Sniper School - a very exciting job!

But the scariest story was when I was security for a soil analysis team - and the team got lost and strayed into Iraq (just before Gulf War I). When I finally figured out where we were, I took charge and we ran south - as fast as our vehicles could carry us!

I simply tell people that I was a professional 10 year old - I got paid to jump out of airplanes and blow stuff up, something nearly every 10 year old boy dreams of!

Auto tickets:
1) 105 in a 15 mph zone. I had to stop and wait for the cop to catch up (it was in my home town so they knew who I was by the car that I drove). Ticket was for "in excess of 60 mph" in a 15. Fine was $10 (this was back in the early 1970's). I was coming home from a night out at a bar.

2) 245 kph in a 30 kph zone - on the Autobahn in Nuremburg, Germany (around 1999/2000). It was clocked by a camera, and they mailed me a notice that my license had to be suspended for a month. My boss refused to take my license, so I had to suspend it myself (I was the First Sergeant of our Headquarters Company at the time - and had to "set the example"). Fine was in the neighborhood of $250 (US) - about 500 Euro's back then. I was returning from an Oktoberfest party.

GZ · Jul 29, 2012

Probably the craziest thing I have ever done with an auto was strip it of everything except the seats and drive it like a Rally car through my old development, gravel-pits and fire-divide.

It was a 1972 VW Super Beetle... Stripped of all fenders, back seat, windows, deck-lid, hood (trunk) etc... Including the windshield... Which nearly killed my buddy who was along for the ride... It is a good thing the '72 had headrests... I hit a branch with the A pillar going about 40-45mph... It swung in and the only thing that stopped it from making contact with his neck was the headrest...

Note to self... Leave windshied in...

This is the area I used to live... The red circle is my old home, the yellow circle in the upper left are the gravel-pits (which have since become an illegal trash dump)... The lower yellow circle is the dry lake bed with ATV trails and the green line is the road that used to turn into a fire divide...

I actually miss living up there... It was fun.

Oh yeah... We were drinking...

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Alcohol + energy drinks = risky sex?

JMH

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Wrench97

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Kosh Vorlon

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JMH

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GZ

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usasma

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Kosh Vorlon

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usasma

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GZ

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