Remember that last time you were in a bar, and saw some testosterone-laden bar fight break out between two drunk guys? Well, leave it to science to figure out what one of the might’ve been drinking…vodka and Red Bull. Dr. Matt Parker from University of Portsmouth teamed up with researchers in Brazil, and their findings have been published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.
What were they looking at? The effects of the powerful mixture of alcohol and “taurine” on zebrafish. “Taurine” is a key ingredient found in energy drinks like Red Bull. What they did was take those zebrafish and separate them into equal groups, and then dosed what they swam in with either straight water, alcohol or taurine separately, or alcohol and taurine mixed together.
The fish that were exposed to the mixture tended to “act more recklessly and less socialized” than the other fish groups. The conclusion of the researchers was that the alcohol can cause “euphoria” in small doses, but the more that gets added, the more likely that “fighting” and “risky behavior” can come about.
Source: Journal of Psychiatric Research