Alcoholic energy drink sales increase in Canada despite health risks

Some people swear by coffee to ease a hangover.

In fact, scientists have even found that knocking back a cup of the steaming brew can help alleviate those crushing headaches that make you swear you'll never touch another drop of vodka for the rest of your life. (Or at least until the next night out.)

But according to a new report, young Canadians are increasingly skipping the morning-after chaser and mixing caffeine straight with their alcohol — despite the noted health risks.

As Postmedia News details, sales of pre-mixed alcoholic energy drinks — the kind that mix sugar, booze and caffeine (up to the equivalent of five cups of coffee) into one noxious "party in a can" — increased 296 per cent between April 2005 and April 2010.

The findings were published by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and the Centre for Addictions Research of British Columbia at the University of Victoria after the authors asked the province to provide them with sales data.

Here's why the drinks have health experts concerned.

For starters, your body likes to inform you when your liver is at capacity by triggering fatigue. When you add in a caffeinated element, you're essentially tricking your body into thinking you can keep going all night, increasing, among many other things, the odds you may soon be making a date with a stomach pump.

Another factor involves the heart. Stimulants, like high levels of caffeine, boost your heart rate. Add a natural depressant like alcohol into the mix and you run the risk of confusing your nervous system — a bad idea if you're trying to avoid cardiac-related problems.

And because caffeine is a diuretic, alcoholic energy drinks increase the odds of hangover-inducing dehydration. A number of U.S. states have already banned the beverages for these reasons.

But that hasn't stopped young Canadians from making these concoctions their party drink of choice. A 2010 survey of 465 University of Victoria students revealed that 23 per cent admitted they'd consumed caffeinated alcoholic beverages in the past 30 days, and reported consuming at least two of these drinks each time.

And it's not just the pre-mixed cans that are troubling the study's authors. According to the report, many young adults are purchasing regular energy drinks from corner stores and mixing them with alcohol after the fact.

These energy drinks typically contain more caffeine than the pre-mixed brands. While some provincial authorities won't allow for more than 30 mg per serving in the mixed cans, non-alcoholic brands like Red Bull and Monster contain anywhere between 80 mg and 200 mg, making them far more potent — and potentially dangerous.

CTV notes that the report urges Health Canada to intervene, suggesting that if the government doesn't outright ban the sales of these drinks, they should at the very least increase the price to reflect the higher risk and discourage consumption.