If you have severe chronic fatigue, sometimes redbull can be a life saver. If I’m struggling when having a night out or falling asleep at a family function, redbull can helps me keep it together for a few more hours. Maybe it isnt the healthiest way to get energy, but if you have cfs sometimes it can be the easiest way to get it.
Everyone knows that energy drinks (i.e Redbull) can give you a short term energy boost.
Do You Know What Is Actually in It?
Here are the active ingredients in Redbull that are resonsible for the increased energy.
Glucose – Obviously glucose is Sugar. Cells use sugar and can rapidly convert it into energy. This gives a short term energy boost as glucose is turned into sugar.
Taurine - Taurine is an amino acid that is naturally made in the human body. Each can of Red Bull contains 1000mg of Taurine. Taurine help to move minerals like potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium throughout the cells. This helps to generate nerve impulses.
There has been some controversy over the effects of high levels of taurine on the body. It is believed to be unfounded but there are certain countries that prohibit the sale of redbull.
Its sale is acutally prohibited in Denmark, France, Uruguay, and Norway. In France, Only energy drink without Taurine are sold.
Some CFS patients have actually been found to have low levels of taurine.
Glucuronolactone – Glucuronolactone is a precursor of taurine. It has be known to improve memory and concentration. It also can have stimulant and anti-depressant like effects.
Inositol – Inositol has mood boosting effects and improves how the brain uses serotonin. A chemical that is the same that is boosted by anti-depressant drugs like prozac and zoloft.
Some studies have recently shown that inositol may acually help treat certain problems like bipolar disorder, depression, and panic disorder.
Niacin – Niacin is a B vitamin that helps in energy formation. It metabolizes energy from fat and carbohydrates. Niacin can help the body use energy by releasing it from food.
D-Pantothenol – D-Pantothenol is also known as vitamin B5, or Pantothenic acid. It is known to improve mood and boost energy. D-Pantothenol help turn fat into energy and increases metabolism.
Pyridoxine HCL – Also known as Vitamin B6, Pyridoxine HCL helps red blood cells to form and provides better oxygen utilization. It also help to break down sugar that you have stored in your body to use for energy.
Vitamin B12 – B12 helps in the formation of red blood cells, for better oxygen utilization. It also help with energy production by breaking down fat and protein.
Caffeine – Red Bull contains 80.0 milligrams of caffeine which is almost double the amount of all other soft drinks. The caffeine in Red Bull gives you energy by blocking a chemical in you brain called adenosine. Adenosine promotes sleepiness and without it you would not be able to fall asleep. When adenosine is blocked you body releases a boost of adrenaline which wakes you up.
I sometimes use redbull to help me deal with low energy with chronic fatigue, but usually i pay the price .If you are looking for more information about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Click the link if you want to go the fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue forums.
scott, right on dude! was looking for info & stuff & i got a taurine-an-amino-acid-not-amino-acid war!lol..
tho i respect those who think it matters to those it matters, otherwise who d heck cares..i dont..
i just wanna know the neg effects of gurgling redbull on everyday basis..i got the positive ones, even though frm wad i read are generally opiniated version & not totally factual..at least i’ve got general ideas..
i dun reali drink redbull cuz of the energy boost thing..just i like it..cuz i dun do drinks cuz of personal reason, neither do i smoke & this kinda takes the place of those things one does under pressure..i just wanna know the + & – jus so i know wat im in for..currently takin 2 or 3 per day if i remmeber to buy it, or none..or mayb sometimes more then that if i rmmbr to buy more..
PS: i’m not givin a crwap abt wat any1 wants to comment abt my comment..go ahead..i’m not givin a care..every1s entitled to their own opinions & i respect that..
All I know about Red Bull is that my body can’t take it! When I tried it my heart beat so fast.
Who cares about Taurine or Red Bull, What happened to good old Blackbirds ??
Taurine is a derivative of the cysteine (which is amino acid), he don’t have carboxyl group instead he has sulfonate group and also amino group so we can call – taurine (amino sulfonic acid).
What is going on???
First of all Wikipedia is not a reliable source anyone can edit even ignorant people…
my question is does Red Bull really have bull testicles???
quoting anything from wikipedia as fact is like a retarded blind person leading the blind. half of the articles on there are under constant dispute. but i will be receiving my degree from there, so i cant complain.
I have a bottle of BlueBonnet Taurine, it makes no mention that it is an Amino Acid. All my Amino Acid vitamins mention that on the bottle. I’ve seen it listed as a non essential Amino Acid, meaning that we tend to make it in our bodies from other substances.
If you can’t realize that Red Bull is a negative drink, then I can’t help. The substances in it could be derived from substandard sources. Even if they are of high quality, that mixture isn’t anything I’d consider healthy. Usually those that need energy drinks have poor diets and are lacking vitamins/minerals/supplements their body needs. This often creates the problem of having a lack of energy in the first place.
I have Chronic Fatigue/Fibro, I’d never use some crap drink like Red Bull to try to treat that. I east mostly organic foods, get about 33 grams of fiber a day, and supplement things I might lack.
For those that wonder the supplements I take are mostly from BlueBonnet, I avoid things with gelatin in them, trying mostly for vegan/vegetarian friendly ones. I take a B-50 Complex, Super Quercetin, Super Bromelain, NAC, Bilberry w/ Lutein, Magnessium w/ B6, Vitamin K, and Pygeum. I often take dry Vitamin E 400 IU w/ Selenium 200 mcgs, Beta-Caratene, Ginko Biloba, Milk Thistle, and Gotu Kola.
The trick is knowing what vitamins/supplements to take on an empty stomach, with water, after fat, or other foods. For example I get my Potassium and Calcium from my diet. I’ll take my Magnessium after consuming them for it to absorb better. After a while you start to learn what to take when. I’ll take my Super Bromelain before consuming food from potatoes. Healthy products don’t advertise or come up with catchy commercials and jingles.
I just want to apologize. I realize that this site is dedicated to intelligent discussion about RedBull and its ingredients, and that some people have put a lot of thought and energy into what’s in Redbull and whether or not it’s good or bad stuff. You people deserve better than to have to put up with this stuff from me. Honestly, Jizm, keep your username and I’ll just stop making posts and everyone else, when you see “Guyguy” as the username just ignore it.
I’m really sorry
If you read all the way to this post you are probably wondering why you wasted your time. Apparently everyone has forgotten that this product is just another glittery sales trick that is NOT NECESSARY for your body or for your health so resolve to the fact that if you are endorsing this stuff you are sitting in the pen with all the other misguided sheep and you probably found this stuff when the quickie mart was out of Mountain Dew. Can you say NO NUTRITIONAL VALUE sucker?
Bring on XS; Number 1 in America. Made by a health & nutrition company. Researched before producing; not full of sugar. Loads of health benefits; even people like me with blood sugar & food allergy problems can have this drink only. Comes in 5 flavours & more to come. XS craps all over any other energy drink on the market so I’d not waste your time talking about red bull anymore. = )
Yeah, just did 35 bench of 90% of my weight, up from 25 3 weeks ago. Squats, I did 75, up from 53, 3 weeks ago. This was all to the power of RED BULL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH FOR ISOLATED FORMULA’S of GREATNESS, LOVE PURITY! THIS IS AN AWESOME FORUM OF INTELLIGENT PEOPLES!!
out here in India its $2 per can
I have multiple sclerosis. My most bothersome syptoms are fatigue, concentration, and loss of memory. When I drink Red Bull, I can actually live. My doctor said I should’nt drink it. Instead, she wants to prescribe me ritalin for energy. I just don’t understand why Red Bull would be considered bad for me. I have not drank red bull for 3 days and once again, I am having a hard time driving. I just can’t focus. Could it be the Taurine that helps me? or the vitamins? or the cafiene? Whatever it is, it works for me.
one red bull is three cups of coffee. sugar is bad for your immune system.
Merriam Webster Refference Desk Dictionary cites:
A colorless crysralline cysteine derivative C2H7NO3S that is found in nerve tissue, in bile and in the juices of muscles and it is obtained as a clveage product of taurochloric Acid. An amino acid which helps in vision and alertness
I guess taurine is an Amino acid after all and its good for the body in controled amounts.
I am so glad that you posted this about Red Bull and Chronic Fatigue. I have Chronic Fatigue and I can’t cope without my Red Bull. When you have a disease that is so debilitating that you can’t function, Red Bull is a blessing. What causes a racing heart in most folks just barely wakes me up. You can’t compare the effects of Red Bull on the average person to a person who has Chronic Fatigue. It is like comparing apples to oranges. I am glad to see I am not the only one…
Yes…
I swear by it!
Thank you!
So if taurine were an amino acid it would be healthy? Anyone who thinks that is a complete moron, or at least totally ignorant of human biochemistry. You can easily kill yourself or permanently damage your brain or liver by taking large doses of many amino acids, even some of the essential amino acids. Taurine, on the other hand, is safe in virtually any dose. It also provides a wide array of healthy benefits such as increased concentration and learning ability.
Nothing in red bull is inherently bad for you – perhaps aside from caffeine, which is arguable. Even caffeine itself is really fine so long as you are not taking massive doses and then strenously exercising, and red bull provides no more caffeine than the average sized soda from mcdonalds or a large cup of coffee.
In fact, I’d say every single thing in red bull is healthy taken in reasonable doses, even the caffeine. The unhealthiest thing in there is actually niacin because the ‘niacin flush’, which is actually vasodilation caused by nitric oxide release, causes long term damage known as nitric oxide tolerance when taken in high doses. So, taking red bull chronically in large amounts would be a poor idea for this reason. It would lead to your arteries becoming stiffer and less easily able to properly relax, causing high blood pressure and aterioschlerosis. Niacin can also be toxic at high levels, especially to certain susceptible individuals, but that should not be an issue at the doses present in red bull.
Taurine is a naturally occuring compound in the body, and it’s one which is necessary to basic cellular metabolism. It’s also a neuroprotectant (which should eliminate most of the bad effects of chronic caffiene use) and has a relaxing but nondrowsying effect on the brain. It doesn’t cause dehydration as some extremely foolishly claim, but actually salvages potassium and magnesium in the cells, helping your body maintain its electrolyte balance and keep proper levels of hydration at a cellular level and actually helping to fight off dehydration.
As a precursor to taurine, glucuronolactone simply acts as a taurine doping agent, allowing for more taurine release in a steady manner over time. Again, perfectly safe and quite beneficial. I supplement with taurine daily, and the reason it’s probably really in red bull has nothing to do with energy, but because it suppresses some of the sympathetic nervous system side effects of caffeine. This could potentially cover up the stimulation of caffeine and allow people to take more than they normally would, but the idea that less than 300mg of caffeine caused someone’s death has to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.
I’m sure that the caffeine didn’t help with dehydration, and by now we know virtually all stimulants have this effect, but at the same time people don’t simply drop dead from heat exhaustion, either. They drop dead from exertion…because they overexerted themselves. Period. If he stopped for aminute and dranks some water, he’d be alive today.
There have been scares about stimulants and ’sudden death’ for 40 years, but it always turns out that the people who died either had serious underlying heart conditions or else they massively overexerted themselves without properly hydrating themselves.
You can wallow in your ignorance and bash on red bull’s ingredients all you want, but it’s just that – ignorance. Redbull probably has more nutrition in it than the average schmuck on the street gets in a week, and from some of the posts in here I think many of you could do with a red bull now and again to kick your brains into gear and stimulate some neural activity.
There’s nothing negative about red bull. If you stay up all night and feel shitty the next day, it’s not red bull’s fault, it’s because you were a complete idiot and stayed up all night, which is simply not healthy. If you stayed up all night drinking alcohol and red bull and got so dehydrated you died…again, it’s not red bull’s fault. The fault is entirely your own for being an ignorant twit.
Note that I don’t even drink red bull, but this alarmist crap annoys me in the extreme. Because of a few misguided squeaky wheels in many countries (especially australia and the sad nanny states of europe)it’s extremely difficult or even completely illegal to get supplements that are completely safe and have many benefits to them (including simple amino acids in many cases). It also leads to causing many relatively innocous compounds to be made inappropriately into prescription drugs, in some cases when the basic compounds have been in use for milennia with no cases of death or serious harm involved.
I am not referring to any recreational drugs here or anything that should be controversial or is remotely dangerous, just simple supplements that can have a positive effect in people’s lives that are maligned due to ignorance or pressure from pharmaceutical companies to control (and profit on) the treatments to every disease.
How can you people even CARE about Red Bull? This drink is just a mixture of Caffeine and B Vitamins, it’s god awful.
As for the effects of this drink on your health?
Seriously? Red Bull? It’s caffeine.
Totally irrelevant.
Millions of people take Amphetamine’s daily, and have absolutely no health problems. Amphetamines are speed. This is Caffeine.
my girl drinks 64 oz a day every day…shes adicted and totaly nutz…
I know a girl who got SCURVY last year from drinking red bull and eating pizza all year (that was ALL SHE ATE no vitamins) Just take everythin gin moderation.
Seriously who cares, just take it in moderation. The max recommended caffine intake per day is 250mg and for a can of this stuff that works out at just over 3 cans per day. So it’s all good in the hood. If you can take it, have it, if you can’t then drink something else!!!
Dont know if true or not, I was most likley fed a heep of crap. But I was told that one of the ingridents in red bull is taken from the lining of the cows stomache, Is this true or false?
know someone who drunk this stuff for a prolonged period,you could definitely detect a change in his character.He used to eat heartily and healthily,after maybe a couple of years he’s ended up with his guts packin up and ending up wearing a bag. this guy used to be a strong pleasant guy who could work physicaly hard all day.If your tired ,tough get some shut eye.Do everyone a favour and your health
I wanted to let all of you know that redbull is extremely dangerous and has made my life hell for over 3 years now. Studies are coming out proving what it can do to your heart. You should stay away from it completely, especially alcohol/energy drink combination.
Here is my story:
On my 21st birthday I drank over a four pack of Red Bull doing yegar bombs, which may not seem like much, but it was obviously enough. Now I have some sort of heart condition or arrhythmia that no doctor can diagnose. I spent a year constantly going to doctors appointments and no one can tell me a real solution. My heart beats out of my chest constantly and I sometimes get these anxiety attack when it happens. Lately it has progressed so that when I stand up, I almost faint. That means my blood pressure drops when i stand… as if I didn’t have enough to deal with. I have to take two kinds of pills for it 3-4 times a day just to regulate my heartbeat and now to raise my blood pressure as well. It has completely taken over my life and I can’t do a lot of the things I used to.
If you think it will not happen to you then you’re crazy! Supposedly drinking Red Bull with alcohol can trigger heart conditions or health problems you may not have had til you were 80 years old. Researchers are also finding it causes heart palpitations,low blood pressure, and other cardiovascular problems. People have actually died from it. Please be careful and stay away from energy drinks! More and more research is coming out about the dangers of energy drinks, so please be responsible and don’t make the same mistakes I did.
wow… i’ve just wasted 35 minutes reading all yous crp bout red bull! as far as i know most people drink it because its red bull! not for the energy. i drink INK (u guys may not know it, cause its only made and sold in new zealand) and Mother, Relentless, Demon, Red bull, Lift Plus, and a whole lot of those. , maybe not as bad as JANEEN, well one day, since i’m only 14, and serious it does not make a difference if taurine is AA or not. does it?!
Late comment about Tuarine, but:
First of all whoever uses wikipedia as a reference must be an idiot, as it is not a reliable source.
Secondly the Taurine in redbull is an amino acid-like compound meaning it is a synthetically produced amino acid. Taurine is also known as 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid, meaning its part of the AA family therefore known as an AA. Some sites are not specific about it when they write Taurine as an AA.
Just wanted to pinpoint that out for people having trouble of what is Taurine.
1-Taurine
* Chemical formula: C2H7NO3S
* What it is: A non-essential amino acid
* What it does: Improved reaction time, concentration, and memory (not proven); essential amino acid for cats
I’m doing an assignment for my grade 12 university biology class and i don’t know if this issue was resolved but taurine is indeed an amino acid
i’m about to go and buy a ton of taurine. i love you taurine.
I HAVE AN IDEA – HOW’BOUT EVERYONE TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND DRINK A GLASS OF WATER?? I DON’T KNOW ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE, BUT I’M HERE LOOKING FOR HELP. I’VE JUST WASTED 20 MINS. OF PRECIOUS BRAIN/BODY ENERGY SCANNING COMMENTS FOR SOMETHING USEFUL AND UPLIFTING. I AM SHOCKED – BIG TIME – TO FIND SO MUCH NONSENSE COMING FROM – DARE I SAY – FELLOW SUFFERERS?? JUST IMAGINE WHAT KIND OF IMPRESSION DOCTORS, PSYCHIATRISTS, NON-CFS SUFFERERS AND SKEPTICS ARE GETTING ABOUT THOSE OF US WHO HAVE SPENT A LIFETIME LIVING WITH THIS HORRIFIC DISEASE WHEN THEY LOG ONTO THIS SITE. I THINK THE FOUNDER IS DOING A GREAT JOB! MAYBE EVERYBODY COULD CHILL A BIT AND PERHAPS USE THEIR TIME TO WRITE TO NEWSPAPERS, CONGRESS, LOCAL OFFICIALS, ETC. TO RAISE AWARENESS OF WHAT WE ARE ALL TRYING TO LIVE WITH – PERHAPS FUNDRAISE? PLEASE CHANGE THE SUBJECT TO HELPFUL INFO TO PASS ON TO EACH OTHER – PLEEEEEEEEEZ.
ENERGY DRINKS ARE NO GOOD FOR YOU FULL STOP READ THE FINE PRINT!!!! they affect your health. IF TOO MUCH CAN KILL… YOU LIKE GIVING YOU A HEART ATTACK A LITTLE BIT CAN’T BE VERY GOOD. RESEARCH WHATS IN THEM AND THEN SEE HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THEM!!!!!!!!!!
How about we get some people not sourcing the unreliable and ever changing Wikipedia lol
this is to anyone concerned about good or bad effects particularly if you suffer chronic fatigue. red bull and other energy drinks are as anything else we put in our bodies. there are good and bad effects. it has been mentioned to use in moderation and to use your head. the worse side effects of energy drinks when not combined with alcohol or other poisons are all temporary and situationally derived. there is reason to believe energy drinks my reduce bowel continence if large amounts R consumed for long periods of time, but this also depends on lifestyle, diet, stress etc. the only other time energy drinks have any serious health effects is when mixed with alcohol and other compounds not yet tested. when you mix with alcohol it is dangerous and there is plenty of testimony and proven documentation and liturature. but this is the sole stupidity or sad nievity of those that choose to mix. alcohol is a poison, plan and simple. it amazes me that people cry about the red bull in these sad cases but hardly mention alcohols role. remember science class? Na is poisonous, Cl is poisonous, combine them and get table salt. same true only in reverse. and about caffeine! it does not and will not kill you. I overdosed on caffeine when I was 17 at nearly 1000 mg or 4 times the max daily amount. they thought i’d be dehydrated but I wasn’t because I got the caffeine from pills. it does NOT dehydrate, the fluid you consume along with the sugars and acidity in the beverages you drink to get the caffeine force your body to flush, void, urinate whatever you call it and this saps hydration. remember that water actually sticks to itself, watch a rain drop slide down a window. my only symptoms when I overdosed were anxiety, high pulse rate, sleeplessness, and jitters and when the caffeine cleared so did the symptoms. amphetamines have a perticular neurological effect that causes decreased retention of fluids based on hormone activity and subsequent fight or flight response. not all stimulants cause this. smoke an oZ of marijuana and you will not be dehydrated. the thirst or cotton mouth comes from loss of neuro receptive communication from the brain to your organs and is also what causes the munchies. caffeine is being tested and shown extremely positive effect in alzhimers and other demention. as with anything, there are people sensitive to caffeine. this means it takes less maybe even trace amounts to cause unpleasant side effects. now, is red bull good for you because of the b vits and other ingredients ? it’s hard to say. they should be quite beneficial in proper doses and obviously are absorbed in this form as b vits cause enormous increases to energy and efficiancy of our brains and bodies. I have a b12 deficiency likely due to mal absorbtion and when I keep up with my shots I feel comparatively great. sufferers of chronic fatigue likely have one of a million underlying idiopathic conditions. if the cfs sufferer in perticular has a b vit deficiency then they will benefit and energy drinks may help them in ways that no other treatment has. others will have the same boost we all get, maybe some jitters, and the inevitable crash several hours later. I say try this… one energy drink a day for 5 days, take 2 days off, then one can every other or third day as a supplement and a can on those occasions you just have to have the extra boost. just don’t over do it. ALSO! it’s likey you will build tolerance to energy drinks. the energy you perceive may slowly decrease with prolonged use and the euphoric good feelings will likely only happen once or twice after abstences. if you start using energy drinks daily as a supplement it would likely be wise to take occasional abstences, say a 3 to 6 day span every few weeks. as with all substanances if you have a bad reaction, immediately or over time or if you feel dependant or that ANYTHING is wrong, stop use… if this doesn’t help or you can’t stop, seak medical attention. maybe talk to your doctor about b vits. there is no black and white, good and bad, in the real world. such as a bacteria called h.pylori… used for all sorts of life prolonging functions in the body only it can over colonize and become a dangerous infection. often in nature things are good and bad… got to remember cancer hardly killed anyone until humans started living past 35 years of age! maybe there was an evolutionary benefit to cancer before we started living longer? I believe in the science of medicine but understand that humans run the institutes of medicine and humans are far from perfect and really don’t know much in the grand scheme of things, hench noone having a definitave answer on taurine as an AA. it is like a diploplatopuss, which in many ways seems to be the definition of a mammal… but low en behold it lays eggs! and I know matrix was a corny movie but humans really are like a virus! lol
It is really a drink to relief the body energy, it can be help for healthy also
yeah man taurine is totally made of bull testicles…
“Taurine”, root word “Taurus”, “Taurus” = “Bull”.
“Gee, I wonder where Taurine comes from…duh!” Think people.
PS. “5 hour energy” and a CPAP machine cures all.
I think Red Bull is shocking!
Well if you drink a 473ml redbull 20 minutes before your run it will help :