The deadline.
The pressure.
The anxiety.
The stress is too much to bear.
How will you get through the night?
Coffee's not working, and you're desperate.
What's this?
It's kind of doing the trick,
feeling a bit weird,
and it's like you have wings.
This is What If,
and here's what would happen
In parts of the U.S.,
grassroots movements are pressuring
officials to restrict the sale of
energy drinks to minors,
due to severe health concerns
from binge drinking.
Red Bull is one of various brands
being targeted.
It was first developed in Thailand
as a drink to improve stamina and it's
been around since the late 1970s.
Although it didn't become popular until an
Austrian marketer discovered it in 1984.
Three years later,
the "Red Bull gives you wings" slogan
made its debut.
And since then, 82 billion cans have
been chugged back,
7.5 billion of those in 2019 alone.
One can of regular Red Bull contains
caffeine, sucrose, glucose,
citric acid, taurine,
vitamin B12, carbonated water,
sodium bicarbonate, calcium pantothenate,
and artificial and natural colors,
including flavors.
Sounds perfectly healthy, right?
That might depend on what your
definition of healthy is,
but can too much Red Bull hurt you?
Well, one 250 ml (8.4 oz) Red Bull
contains 80 mg (0.003 oz) of caffeine,
and a whopping 27 grams (0.95 oz) of sugar.
If you drink one of these,
the effects might not be too bad,
but pounding back one after another
will definitely leave you in a jittery mess.
And curiously, over 34 deaths have
been linked to the intake of energy drinks.
Other than caffeine and sugar,
the excessive amounts of B vitamins
and high taurine levels
will cause you problems.
B vitamins are good for you
and can ease stress,
but too much of them can be dangerous.
High levels of B3 and B6 can cause
gastrointestinal problems, liver toxicity,
blurry vision, and nerve damage.
Likewise, taurine is an amino acid
that helps in neurological development
and regulates water and minerals
in the blood,
but you shouldn't overdo that either.
In animal studies, increased ingestion
of taurine has been shown to decrease
body weight and cause dehydration.
So, what would happen
The math is daunting.
Drinking 1,000 Red Bulls in 31 days
means gulping 32 cans of the stuff
each day.
That's two cans per hour,
if you stop for eight hours of sleep.
Since there's no time to lose,
let's get started.
Just 10 minutes in,
the caffeine from the first Red Bull
permeates the bloodstream.
Your heart rate and blood pressure
now start to rise.
After 15 to 45 minutes,
you may have better concentration
or just feel more wired, depending on
how fast you downed the entire can.
The caffeine is completely absorbed
30 to 50 minutes later.
Pupils will dilate,
blood pressure rises even higher,
and the body releases bursts of insulin.
With caffeine blocking the effects
of adenosine, a necessary chemical
involved in the sleep process,
the body kicks into full-on emergency
adrenaline response mode.
The liver dumps extra sugar into
the bloodstream and it's converted into fat.
After one hour, you may start to feel
a major sugar crash, and the effects
of the caffeine start to die down.
Congratulations, you just survived
the first hour and there's only
30 more cans to go today.
Not to worry, you probably
won't survive the entire 31 days anyway,
because you'll likely experience a
caffeine overdose in the first two weeks.
Consider this,
you'll be consuming 160 mg (0.006 oz)
of caffeine every hour you are awake.
That's 2,560 mg (0.09 oz) in 16 hours.
The negative effects of caffeine would
have already kicked in around the
300 to 500 mg (0.01 to 0.017 oz) mark.
To overdose on caffeine,
you would need to reach a 10 gram (0.35 oz)
level of intake.
Since one 250 ml (8.4 oz)
can contains 80 mg (0.003 oz) of caffeine,
it would take only 125 cans of Red Bull
to totally over do it.
You can also forget about that eight hours
of sleep we estimated.
With all that sugar and caffeine in your system,
it's no surprise that insomnia is often
a reported side effect.
Then, there's the physical aftermath
of trying such a challenge.
High blood pressure, increase for risk
of type 2 diabetes, heart disease,
and kidney problems.
Not to mention,
your teeth would look disgusting from
the enamel being stripped off.
It's safe to say
no one should ever try to drink
this many Red Bulls.
Our bodies aren't made to function
well in this constant, hyped-up state
of fight or flight.
Even drinking one can of Red Bull
probably isn't doing your body any favors.
But we wouldn't expect you to give up
caffeine entirely.
Can you imagine what our world would
look like if everyone stopped drinking coffee?
Well, that's a story for another What If.