Red Bull and Reaction Times Essay

IntroductionSubstances that humans intake in food or drink contain various chemicals that affect the normal bodily functions of the consumer. Stimulants are drugs which when absorbed into the body raises physiological or nervous activity. The Red Bull Energy Drink is a stimulant, which contains psychoactive ingredients such as taurine, glucuronolactone and caffeine. Sportsmen and people requiring large amounts of energy or mental stimulation consume Red Bull because the beverage claims to “increase concentration and reaction speed”. Due to Red Bull’s claim, and its increasing popularity amongst teenagers in my grade, I wanted to test if the drink did actually affect the consumer psychoactively, and to how significant an extent. To test the claim, I decided to assess 20 subjects in their psychomotor performance (reaction time/concentration) both at a normal bodily function state, and then under the influence of the chemical stimulant Red Bull.Such a test would involve many variables that had to be kept constant.