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We need a study to tell us things like this? My bad; I forgot that society no longer has common sense. 6 years ago my brother was found dead in his apartment. The only explanation the coroner gave my family was that his heart "just stopped", and it was most likely due to the fact that he had been drinking what you call "energy cocktails" with friends the night before (red bull and vodka). Drinking these things doesnt just affect your decision making skills, or cause anxiety disorders, IT CAN KILL YOU. PLEASE, everybody who reads this, remember uppers and downers DO NOT MIX Why? This trend has happened in the past too with other stimulants. Stimulants with depressants have a synergistic effect in some cases trippling the effect of one or the other which can have deadly consequences. The people using these combinations, one need to grow up and stop mixing drinks like little kids at a coolaid party and two wake up before they cannot wake up...they mix drinks for attention and some mystical edge that those flakes think they get from mixing energy drinks and alcohol....sad. Energy drinks are disgusting. Why would anyone mix them with alcohol? When i was in college we would routinly drink all night long taking caffine pills through out to stay up. Its a lot of fun, I had such good times in college, I miss it. We would also inhale aerosol room deoderizers. That just made you kinda pass out and fall down, so not as much fun. I found that if I drank all night with the caffine pills I could smoke a one hitter just before going to sleep and I wouldnt have a hangover when I woke up. I could start the process over when I woke up. I did this 5-6 nights a week on average. I graduated with a 3.4 gpa and now I have a great job making 93k per year. So there really isnt any harm in this behavior. Another misleading study. Forget that the people that drink energy drinks and alcohol together are just more riskier. Its the caffeine and alcohol combination that makes them morons. God forbid they are morons without the combination of the two. alcohol + energy drinks = a great time! Alcohol must be necessary to cut the awful taste of the energy drinks. One major flaw in this study. Are the people who partake in this risky behaviour, including mixing caffiene and alcohol, more prone to this type of behaviour to begin with? As a former "cherry bomb", vodka-red bull, and jager-bomb drinker, I can appreciate the feeling you get when you drink caffiene and liquor. I never did anything extra risky when clubing and drinking these beverages. I also am not prone to risky behaviour other than the rare binge drinking. Gee what do you know... more things that are bad for you!! What a bogus study. Too much of anything harmful to your body is going to do damage. I for one love the combo but only in moderation. Risky behavior... Give me a break! Driving your car or even going to a party or club is "risky" behavior. With all the sickos in the world today, no one is ever safe. Always be aware of your surroundings and always in moderation. This article reminded me that I had a 5 hr energy drink in my computer bag. Thanks! that just saved my afternoon. Also, I drank 2 – 5hr energies at a party last weekend and had a blast. Caffeine is what makes the world go round and alcohol makes the world a cooler place. So if my logic is correct the two combined are a match made in heaven. Drink on! Red bull and vodka is the modern, legal, "speedball," and we all know that caffeine + liquor simply equals a wide-awake drunk. So how is this riskier than just getting drunk and then trying to sober up by drinking black coffee? I agree with everyone who says that vodka plus Red Bull is just legal crack. We might as well give up on the War on Drugs right now. It's pointless to spend billions of dollars on fighting the cocaine cartels when you can just add vodka to Red Bull and get the same effect and the same damage to society from the perpetual overdoers. Nothing new – someone once thought it was 'fun' to mix barbituates with stimulants. The fact remains, risk increases, not decreases. It's always interesting to hear from those who justify questionable activity, whether or not it has been definitively determined to be risky. It usually begins with the phrase '...I like..', as if the ends, the effect, justifies the means, the unknown mixture, regardless of the actual risks, usually unknown. Well, some people like pit bulls, some like shooting AK's at wildlife, some like driving SUV's like sports cars, but, none of those are conducive to low risk, great decisions or desirable behavior. The operative word here is MAY. This is not a definitive study and, therefore, any conclusions are not empirical. Two of the worst hangovers I have ever had were the result of just 2 or 3 vodka-redbulls... No thanks, no more, that cured me. This indicates a link to Anxiety and Manic Depressive behavior. I used to drink energy drinks to help recover from the previous night. I then discovered that the energy drinks + alcohol were less expensive than plain energy drinks (go figure). These became my first drinks of the day...I am now in 12 step recovery. Who wants to live low risk their whole life? The entire USA is a country of risk/pain/consequence averse cowards. Im surprised the Amish dont take over the country. They probably would if it werent for the language barrier. "So there really isn't any harm in this behavior." – You're an ignorant piece of trash, please die. Ok, enough with people being all judgmental and comparing redbull and vodka to a freaking SPEEDBALL of heroin and cocaine. Um, not even close people. How many of you out there take your doctor-prescribed anti-anxiety pills with your morning coffee? Same thing. And to the person who said "pit bulls... [not] conducive to low risk, great decisions or desirable behavior" I have a pitbull. They are VERY loving and loyal dogs. Even a poodle who is raised wrong can cause great injury to a person. I think it's irresponsible to use owning a pitbull to try and make a point about reckless behavior. You are just spreading the hate. ANY dog raised in a sick environment can turn out dangerous. Sometimes I will have an energy beer, or do some various 'bomb' containing redbull and something 80-proof. Obviously when you're hyper and drunk, you might do stupid things. When you're drunk and tired, you might also do stupid things. I wish doctors and researchers would find a cure for cancer and AIDS and stop 'researching' all of these common sense things! Ridiculous. I like to start the night off with a energydrink and vodka mix. one or two to get me going and then I switch to beer. I have been doing this for years and have not noticed any problems with health or risk taking. Taste Great, but yeah uppers + downers is a bad idea To Poppy, I think I went to college with you and was perhaps involved in the debauchery...but don't make nearly what you make, and not everyone is as lucky as you, or dodges as many life bullets as you have. word. I am sorry to read the post about the brother who passed away, possibly related to the mixture of energy drinks and alcohol. That being said, there is an old saying...."everything in moderation" PS – Red Bull and grape flavored Three Olives vodka is maaawney!!! Patricia....Red Bull and vodka the same effect as cocaine? you probably have had neither because you clearly have no idea what you are talking about Lester, redbull and vodka didn't make you an alcoholic, I guess you've missed the step about taking responsibilitiy for your own actions. I'm a professional, a mom and a wife who every once in a while(about half a dozen times a year) is called on by friends to go out and celebrate a special occassion. Unless I'm at a party I don't ever drink (doesn't entice me) . Maybe as a product of my generation, I've been drinking this combo for almost a decade. This study has no control for the initial propensity for risk that the individuals natrually possess. It certainly doesn't make me more inclined to take any risks. What it does do for me is allow me to keep up with my non-parent friends who can stay up dancing until 5am. Otherwise, I'd pass out at 11pm (toddlers really make you tired, no need to make a study for that). I don't over-do it. Those who do would overdo it and take risks no matter what they were drinking. @johnna: that's absurd. If there is any truth to your post, then your brother most likely died because he had a congenital heart defect that may have been exacerbated by the caffeine and/or sugar in the energy drink. Glad to know that I only consumed a small qty of jagerbombs in my life – and never more than 1 in a single night. I no longer drink any sort of energy drink, they are just bad news all around. So.... Vodka and Red Bull is bad, but an Irish Coffee is okay? Huh. You need the alcohol mixers in order to drink the red bull – that stuff is just nasty – battery acid tasting. "An acquired taste." Sorry, no thanks. Moderation is key. Binge drinking is just plain stupid. When you have college students who think they will live forever, try to drink a keg themselves, or a liter of Jack Daniels at one sitting or ... your self-prescribed alcohol mix here ... then you will have problems. Yes, first time binge drinkers can die. Yes, some alcoholic drinkers can drink all they way all the time and nothing "serious" happens to them, yet others imitating them can die. George Burns drank and smoke cigars til he died. Thousands of others imitating his kind of lifestyle died much sooner. We may never know what kept him from having problems. I don't drink, but if I did, I'd have an XS Energy Drink and some good vodka. 14 flavors, little caffiene (6 oz coffee amt) but 5000% Vitamin B12. Yes, it could make a more awake drunk. But you could also drink the XS Energy without the booze and not have a sugar crash later. Because it doesn't have any sugar or carbs in it. Only 8 calories a can. And no acquired taste for battery acid required. www . jve . biz pwd: nutrition Most of these posts scare me to death for today's generation. I hope there aren't many out there like you. My preference is Tequila Bombs or Watermelon Crawls....a shot of tequila surrounded by the energy drink or 1/2 shot tequila and 1/2 shot watermelon pucker surrounded by energy drink. I usually drink about 12 of these on a "party" night. Feel real good all night and never feel sick the next day if I stop at 12. Anything after 12 can take a turn for the worse! This is news? 30 years ago, it was caffiene tablets from the back of High Times and power drinking. 20 years ago, it was speed and power drinking. 10 years ago, energy drinks came on the scene and power drinkers have made the transition official. Now we have a study that advises if you give caffiene or other herbal stimulants to a power-drinker, then you get a wide-awake drunk. I wonder once again how much tax money was spent to tell me what I already knew. Does a Wide-Awake drunk engage in more risky behavior? DUH.... Is there a likelihood of Alcohol poisoning and even death in these situations? again, DUH.... The more things change, the more they remain the same. What a ridiculous study. It's sad that people even consider this news. There is more caffeine in headache medicine than in a Red Bull. I agree that some of the larger energy drinks, like Monster and Rockstar have quite a bit of caffeine....but mixing it with alcohol isn't the problem. It's the alcohol! People have been mixing liquor with coca cola and coffee forever and this is no different. Caffeine and alcohol? Who would have *ever* thought of mixing those two? Anyone ever heard of "Rum & Coke" before? And to the people who are equating mixing alcohol and energy drinks to cocaine, wow, you could not be more wrong. It is not even close to the same thing. Not even a little bit. Hopefully they people get anxiety and depression and kill themselves before they cost all of money in the free health care they will require and get! Let's all be idiots and then make everyone else pay the price. BRILLIANT!!!! Kids that are 25 and younger in this country are absolutely useless anyway. Hopefully they wipe themselves out and we jump right to next generation. Afterall, it is the same people that have worshiped Britany Spears, Paris Hilton, The Hills, and energy drinks. I think we will be ok if they all end up in mental hospitals or dead. Risky behavior? I would think that's the least of your concerns when your mixing uppers and downers. I feel like we might see the effects of those nasty drinks in studies done years from now on my peers that party hard. Eating a healthy diet, exercise and proper breathing also gives you energy...all day long! Huh....I would think the mix would leave you with one heck of a hang over. The kind that feels like a spike in your brain. @ Poppy: diaf pls. k, thnx @ the rest of you: Chill out. You all are like watching people run around in circles pulling their hair out in a mad panic. omg omg this is hooooorible. We must lemming march and listen to these wise souls who tell us their correlational study is the gospel truth! Alcohol has been a source of risky behavior since the dawn of, well, liquor. I don't think adding a Red Bull or a Monster is going to make that any less true. I really get annoyed when people leave comments just to say, "This isn't news!" People need to be reminded once in a while if something isn't a good idea. A lot of people mix energy drinks with alcohol. As for myself, usually consume my energy drink an hour or so before beginning a night out to shake off a mood, a feeling of sloth. So maybe my timing is OK? I haven't noticed anything too unusual when I do this. It is wise to remember "everything in moderation", as someone above said. It is common sense, but how many of of really practice that? "Woolsey says the danger isn't specifically in the caffeine; it's in the combination of drinks with the other stimulants potentially being more dangerous because people haven't built up tolerances to them. Woolsey says many of these so called energy drinks contain unregulated herbal stimulants." Did all of you totally miss this part? You all keep going on about the caffeine. Read a story in its entirety, dont lock on one thing and run with it like a 5 year old. More junk "science" used to create sensational headlines. College kids do crazy stuff, they always have and always will. Unfortunately some of us will not live through it. There seems to be a lot of people in denial here. As somebody who has had a red bull/vodka combination – there is a lot of truth to this study. It truly makes you feel sober when you are digustingly NOT. Kudos to Ok State and Mizzou for trying to educate people –too bad that it's fallen on deaf ears.

By A new study that college are more likely to engage in energy - binge drinking when alcohol than non - .

We need a study to tell us things like this? My bad; I forgot that society no longer has common sense. 6 years ago my brother was found dead in his apartment. The only explanation the coroner gave my family was that his heart "just stopped", and it was most likely due to the fact that he had been drinking what you call "energy cocktails" with friends the night before (red bull and vodka). Drinking these things doesnt just affect your decision making skills, or cause anxiety disorders, IT CAN KILL YOU. PLEASE, everybody who reads this, remember uppers and downers DO NOT MIX Why? This trend has happened in the past too with other stimulants. Stimulants with depressants have a synergistic effect in some cases trippling the effect of one or the other which can have deadly consequences. The people using these combinations, one need to grow up and stop mixing drinks like little kids at a coolaid party and two wake up before they cannot wake up...they mix drinks for attention and some mystical edge that those flakes think they get from mixing energy drinks and alcohol....sad. Energy drinks are disgusting. Why would anyone mix them with alcohol? When i was in college we would routinly drink all night long taking caffine pills through out to stay up. Its a lot of fun, I had such good times in college, I miss it. We would also inhale aerosol room deoderizers. That just made you kinda pass out and fall down, so not as much fun. I found that if I drank all night with the caffine pills I could smoke a one hitter just before going to sleep and I wouldnt have a hangover when I woke up. I could start the process over when I woke up. I did this 5-6 nights a week on average. I graduated with a 3.4 gpa and now I have a great job making 93k per year. So there really isnt any harm in this behavior. Another misleading study. Forget that the people that drink energy drinks and alcohol together are just more riskier. Its the caffeine and alcohol combination that makes them morons. God forbid they are morons without the combination of the two. alcohol + energy drinks = a great time! Alcohol must be necessary to cut the awful taste of the energy drinks. One major flaw in this study. Are the people who partake in this risky behaviour, including mixing caffiene and alcohol, more prone to this type of behaviour to begin with? As a former "cherry bomb", vodka-red bull, and jager-bomb drinker, I can appreciate the feeling you get when you drink caffiene and liquor. I never did anything extra risky when clubing and drinking these beverages. I also am not prone to risky behaviour other than the rare binge drinking. Gee what do you know... more things that are bad for you!! What a bogus study. Too much of anything harmful to your body is going to do damage. I for one love the combo but only in moderation. Risky behavior... Give me a break! Driving your car or even going to a party or club is "risky" behavior. With all the sickos in the world today, no one is ever safe. Always be aware of your surroundings and always in moderation. This article reminded me that I had a 5 hr energy drink in my computer bag. Thanks! that just saved my afternoon. Also, I drank 2 – 5hr energies at a party last weekend and had a blast. Caffeine is what makes the world go round and alcohol makes the world a cooler place. So if my logic is correct the two combined are a match made in heaven. Drink on! Red bull and vodka is the modern, legal, "speedball," and we all know that caffeine + liquor simply equals a wide-awake drunk. So how is this riskier than just getting drunk and then trying to sober up by drinking black coffee? I agree with everyone who says that vodka plus Red Bull is just legal crack. We might as well give up on the War on Drugs right now. It's pointless to spend billions of dollars on fighting the cocaine cartels when you can just add vodka to Red Bull and get the same effect and the same damage to society from the perpetual overdoers. Nothing new – someone once thought it was 'fun' to mix barbituates with stimulants. The fact remains, risk increases, not decreases. It's always interesting to hear from those who justify questionable activity, whether or not it has been definitively determined to be risky. It usually begins with the phrase '...I like..', as if the ends, the effect, justifies the means, the unknown mixture, regardless of the actual risks, usually unknown. Well, some people like pit bulls, some like shooting AK's at wildlife, some like driving SUV's like sports cars, but, none of those are conducive to low risk, great decisions or desirable behavior. The operative word here is MAY. This is not a definitive study and, therefore, any conclusions are not empirical. Two of the worst hangovers I have ever had were the result of just 2 or 3 vodka-redbulls... No thanks, no more, that cured me. This indicates a link to Anxiety and Manic Depressive behavior. I used to drink energy drinks to help recover from the previous night. I then discovered that the energy drinks + alcohol were less expensive than plain energy drinks (go figure). These became my first drinks of the day...I am now in 12 step recovery. Who wants to live low risk their whole life? The entire USA is a country of risk/pain/consequence averse cowards. Im surprised the Amish dont take over the country. They probably would if it werent for the language barrier. "So there really isn't any harm in this behavior." – You're an ignorant piece of trash, please die. Ok, enough with people being all judgmental and comparing redbull and vodka to a freaking SPEEDBALL of heroin and cocaine. Um, not even close people. How many of you out there take your doctor-prescribed anti-anxiety pills with your morning coffee? Same thing. And to the person who said "pit bulls... [not] conducive to low risk, great decisions or desirable behavior" I have a pitbull. They are VERY loving and loyal dogs. Even a poodle who is raised wrong can cause great injury to a person. I think it's irresponsible to use owning a pitbull to try and make a point about reckless behavior. You are just spreading the hate. ANY dog raised in a sick environment can turn out dangerous. Sometimes I will have an energy beer, or do some various 'bomb' containing redbull and something 80-proof. Obviously when you're hyper and drunk, you might do stupid things. When you're drunk and tired, you might also do stupid things. I wish doctors and researchers would find a cure for cancer and AIDS and stop 'researching' all of these common sense things! Ridiculous. I like to start the night off with a energydrink and vodka mix. one or two to get me going and then I switch to beer. I have been doing this for years and have not noticed any problems with health or risk taking. Taste Great, but yeah uppers + downers is a bad idea To Poppy, I think I went to college with you and was perhaps involved in the debauchery...but don't make nearly what you make, and not everyone is as lucky as you, or dodges as many life bullets as you have. word. I am sorry to read the post about the brother who passed away, possibly related to the mixture of energy drinks and alcohol. That being said, there is an old saying...."everything in moderation" PS – Red Bull and grape flavored Three Olives vodka is maaawney!!! Patricia....Red Bull and vodka the same effect as cocaine? you probably have had neither because you clearly have no idea what you are talking about Lester, redbull and vodka didn't make you an alcoholic, I guess you've missed the step about taking responsibilitiy for your own actions. I'm a professional, a mom and a wife who every once in a while(about half a dozen times a year) is called on by friends to go out and celebrate a special occassion. Unless I'm at a party I don't ever drink (doesn't entice me) . Maybe as a product of my generation, I've been drinking this combo for almost a decade. This study has no control for the initial propensity for risk that the individuals natrually possess. It certainly doesn't make me more inclined to take any risks. What it does do for me is allow me to keep up with my non-parent friends who can stay up dancing until 5am. Otherwise, I'd pass out at 11pm (toddlers really make you tired, no need to make a study for that). I don't over-do it. Those who do would overdo it and take risks no matter what they were drinking. @johnna: that's absurd. If there is any truth to your post, then your brother most likely died because he had a congenital heart defect that may have been exacerbated by the caffeine and/or sugar in the energy drink. Glad to know that I only consumed a small qty of jagerbombs in my life – and never more than 1 in a single night. I no longer drink any sort of energy drink, they are just bad news all around. So.... Vodka and Red Bull is bad, but an Irish Coffee is okay? Huh. You need the alcohol mixers in order to drink the red bull – that stuff is just nasty – battery acid tasting. "An acquired taste." Sorry, no thanks. Moderation is key. Binge drinking is just plain stupid. When you have college students who think they will live forever, try to drink a keg themselves, or a liter of Jack Daniels at one sitting or ... your self-prescribed alcohol mix here ... then you will have problems. Yes, first time binge drinkers can die. Yes, some alcoholic drinkers can drink all they way all the time and nothing "serious" happens to them, yet others imitating them can die. George Burns drank and smoke cigars til he died. Thousands of others imitating his kind of lifestyle died much sooner. We may never know what kept him from having problems. I don't drink, but if I did, I'd have an XS Energy Drink and some good vodka. 14 flavors, little caffiene (6 oz coffee amt) but 5000% Vitamin B12. Yes, it could make a more awake drunk. But you could also drink the XS Energy without the booze and not have a sugar crash later. Because it doesn't have any sugar or carbs in it. Only 8 calories a can. And no acquired taste for battery acid required. www . jve . biz pwd: nutrition Most of these posts scare me to death for today's generation. I hope there aren't many out there like you. My preference is Tequila Bombs or Watermelon Crawls....a shot of tequila surrounded by the energy drink or 1/2 shot tequila and 1/2 shot watermelon pucker surrounded by energy drink. I usually drink about 12 of these on a "party" night. Feel real good all night and never feel sick the next day if I stop at 12. Anything after 12 can take a turn for the worse! This is news? 30 years ago, it was caffiene tablets from the back of High Times and power drinking. 20 years ago, it was speed and power drinking. 10 years ago, energy drinks came on the scene and power drinkers have made the transition official. Now we have a study that advises if you give caffiene or other herbal stimulants to a power-drinker, then you get a wide-awake drunk. I wonder once again how much tax money was spent to tell me what I already knew. Does a Wide-Awake drunk engage in more risky behavior? DUH.... Is there a likelihood of Alcohol poisoning and even death in these situations? again, DUH.... The more things change, the more they remain the same. What a ridiculous study. It's sad that people even consider this news. There is more caffeine in headache medicine than in a Red Bull. I agree that some of the larger energy drinks, like Monster and Rockstar have quite a bit of caffeine....but mixing it with alcohol isn't the problem. It's the alcohol! People have been mixing liquor with coca cola and coffee forever and this is no different. Caffeine and alcohol? Who would have *ever* thought of mixing those two? Anyone ever heard of "Rum & Coke" before? And to the people who are equating mixing alcohol and energy drinks to cocaine, wow, you could not be more wrong. It is not even close to the same thing. Not even a little bit. Hopefully they people get anxiety and depression and kill themselves before they cost all of money in the free health care they will require and get! Let's all be idiots and then make everyone else pay the price. BRILLIANT!!!! Kids that are 25 and younger in this country are absolutely useless anyway. Hopefully they wipe themselves out and we jump right to next generation. Afterall, it is the same people that have worshiped Britany Spears, Paris Hilton, The Hills, and energy drinks. I think we will be ok if they all end up in mental hospitals or dead. Risky behavior? I would think that's the least of your concerns when your mixing uppers and downers. I feel like we might see the effects of those nasty drinks in studies done years from now on my peers that party hard. Eating a healthy diet, exercise and proper breathing also gives you energy...all day long! Huh....I would think the mix would leave you with one heck of a hang over. The kind that feels like a spike in your brain. @ Poppy: diaf pls. k, thnx @ the rest of you: Chill out. You all are like watching people run around in circles pulling their hair out in a mad panic. omg omg this is hooooorible. We must lemming march and listen to these wise souls who tell us their correlational study is the gospel truth! Alcohol has been a source of risky behavior since the dawn of, well, liquor. I don't think adding a Red Bull or a Monster is going to make that any less true. I really get annoyed when people leave comments just to say, "This isn't news!" People need to be reminded once in a while if something isn't a good idea. A lot of people mix energy drinks with alcohol. As for myself, usually consume my energy drink an hour or so before beginning a night out to shake off a mood, a feeling of sloth. So maybe my timing is OK? I haven't noticed anything too unusual when I do this. It is wise to remember "everything in moderation", as someone above said. It is common sense, but how many of of really practice that? "Woolsey says the danger isn't specifically in the caffeine; it's in the combination of drinks with the other stimulants potentially being more dangerous because people haven't built up tolerances to them. Woolsey says many of these so called energy drinks contain unregulated herbal stimulants." Did all of you totally miss this part? You all keep going on about the caffeine. Read a story in its entirety, dont lock on one thing and run with it like a 5 year old. More junk "science" used to create sensational headlines. College kids do crazy stuff, they always have and always will. Unfortunately some of us will not live through it. There seems to be a lot of people in denial here. As somebody who has had a red bull/vodka combination – there is a lot of truth to this study. It truly makes you feel sober when you are digustingly NOT. Kudos to Ok State and Mizzou for trying to educate people –too bad that it's fallen on deaf ears.

alcohol + energy drinks = a great time ! And to the people who are equating mixing alcohol and energy drinks to cocaine , wow , you could not be more wrong . A lot of people mix energy drinks with alcohol .

We need a study to tell us things like this? My bad; I forgot that society no longer has common sense. 6 years ago my brother was found dead in his apartment. The only explanation the coroner gave my family was that his heart "just stopped", and it was most likely due to the fact that he had been drinking what you call "energy cocktails" with friends the night before (red bull and vodka). Drinking these things doesnt just affect your decision making skills, or cause anxiety disorders, IT CAN KILL YOU. PLEASE, everybody who reads this, remember uppers and downers DO NOT MIX Why? This trend has happened in the past too with other stimulants. Stimulants with depressants have a synergistic effect in some cases trippling the effect of one or the other which can have deadly consequences. The people using these combinations, one need to grow up and stop mixing drinks like little kids at a coolaid party and two wake up before they cannot wake up...they mix drinks for attention and some mystical edge that those flakes think they get from mixing energy drinks and alcohol....sad. Energy drinks are disgusting. Why would anyone mix them with alcohol? When i was in college we would routinly drink all night long taking caffine pills through out to stay up. Its a lot of fun, I had such good times in college, I miss it. We would also inhale aerosol room deoderizers. That just made you kinda pass out and fall down, so not as much fun. I found that if I drank all night with the caffine pills I could smoke a one hitter just before going to sleep and I wouldnt have a hangover when I woke up. I could start the process over when I woke up. I did this 5-6 nights a week on average. I graduated with a 3.4 gpa and now I have a great job making 93k per year. So there really isnt any harm in this behavior. Another misleading study. Forget that the people that drink energy drinks and alcohol together are just more riskier. Its the caffeine and alcohol combination that makes them morons. God forbid they are morons without the combination of the two. alcohol + energy drinks = a great time! Alcohol must be necessary to cut the awful taste of the energy drinks. One major flaw in this study. Are the people who partake in this risky behaviour, including mixing caffiene and alcohol, more prone to this type of behaviour to begin with? As a former "cherry bomb", vodka-red bull, and jager-bomb drinker, I can appreciate the feeling you get when you drink caffiene and liquor. I never did anything extra risky when clubing and drinking these beverages. I also am not prone to risky behaviour other than the rare binge drinking. Gee what do you know... more things that are bad for you!! What a bogus study. Too much of anything harmful to your body is going to do damage. I for one love the combo but only in moderation. Risky behavior... Give me a break! Driving your car or even going to a party or club is "risky" behavior. With all the sickos in the world today, no one is ever safe. Always be aware of your surroundings and always in moderation. This article reminded me that I had a 5 hr energy drink in my computer bag. Thanks! that just saved my afternoon. Also, I drank 2 – 5hr energies at a party last weekend and had a blast. Caffeine is what makes the world go round and alcohol makes the world a cooler place. So if my logic is correct the two combined are a match made in heaven. Drink on! Red bull and vodka is the modern, legal, "speedball," and we all know that caffeine + liquor simply equals a wide-awake drunk. So how is this riskier than just getting drunk and then trying to sober up by drinking black coffee? I agree with everyone who says that vodka plus Red Bull is just legal crack. We might as well give up on the War on Drugs right now. It's pointless to spend billions of dollars on fighting the cocaine cartels when you can just add vodka to Red Bull and get the same effect and the same damage to society from the perpetual overdoers. Nothing new – someone once thought it was 'fun' to mix barbituates with stimulants. The fact remains, risk increases, not decreases. It's always interesting to hear from those who justify questionable activity, whether or not it has been definitively determined to be risky. It usually begins with the phrase '...I like..', as if the ends, the effect, justifies the means, the unknown mixture, regardless of the actual risks, usually unknown. Well, some people like pit bulls, some like shooting AK's at wildlife, some like driving SUV's like sports cars, but, none of those are conducive to low risk, great decisions or desirable behavior. The operative word here is MAY. This is not a definitive study and, therefore, any conclusions are not empirical. Two of the worst hangovers I have ever had were the result of just 2 or 3 vodka-redbulls... No thanks, no more, that cured me. This indicates a link to Anxiety and Manic Depressive behavior. I used to drink energy drinks to help recover from the previous night. I then discovered that the energy drinks + alcohol were less expensive than plain energy drinks (go figure). These became my first drinks of the day...I am now in 12 step recovery. Who wants to live low risk their whole life? The entire USA is a country of risk/pain/consequence averse cowards. Im surprised the Amish dont take over the country. They probably would if it werent for the language barrier. "So there really isn't any harm in this behavior." – You're an ignorant piece of trash, please die. Ok, enough with people being all judgmental and comparing redbull and vodka to a freaking SPEEDBALL of heroin and cocaine. Um, not even close people. How many of you out there take your doctor-prescribed anti-anxiety pills with your morning coffee? Same thing. And to the person who said "pit bulls... [not] conducive to low risk, great decisions or desirable behavior" I have a pitbull. They are VERY loving and loyal dogs. Even a poodle who is raised wrong can cause great injury to a person. I think it's irresponsible to use owning a pitbull to try and make a point about reckless behavior. You are just spreading the hate. ANY dog raised in a sick environment can turn out dangerous. Sometimes I will have an energy beer, or do some various 'bomb' containing redbull and something 80-proof. Obviously when you're hyper and drunk, you might do stupid things. When you're drunk and tired, you might also do stupid things. I wish doctors and researchers would find a cure for cancer and AIDS and stop 'researching' all of these common sense things! Ridiculous. I like to start the night off with a energydrink and vodka mix. one or two to get me going and then I switch to beer. I have been doing this for years and have not noticed any problems with health or risk taking. Taste Great, but yeah uppers + downers is a bad idea To Poppy, I think I went to college with you and was perhaps involved in the debauchery...but don't make nearly what you make, and not everyone is as lucky as you, or dodges as many life bullets as you have. word. I am sorry to read the post about the brother who passed away, possibly related to the mixture of energy drinks and alcohol. That being said, there is an old saying...."everything in moderation" PS – Red Bull and grape flavored Three Olives vodka is maaawney!!! Patricia....Red Bull and vodka the same effect as cocaine? you probably have had neither because you clearly have no idea what you are talking about Lester, redbull and vodka didn't make you an alcoholic, I guess you've missed the step about taking responsibilitiy for your own actions. I'm a professional, a mom and a wife who every once in a while(about half a dozen times a year) is called on by friends to go out and celebrate a special occassion. Unless I'm at a party I don't ever drink (doesn't entice me) . Maybe as a product of my generation, I've been drinking this combo for almost a decade. This study has no control for the initial propensity for risk that the individuals natrually possess. It certainly doesn't make me more inclined to take any risks. What it does do for me is allow me to keep up with my non-parent friends who can stay up dancing until 5am. Otherwise, I'd pass out at 11pm (toddlers really make you tired, no need to make a study for that). I don't over-do it. Those who do would overdo it and take risks no matter what they were drinking. @johnna: that's absurd. If there is any truth to your post, then your brother most likely died because he had a congenital heart defect that may have been exacerbated by the caffeine and/or sugar in the energy drink. Glad to know that I only consumed a small qty of jagerbombs in my life – and never more than 1 in a single night. I no longer drink any sort of energy drink, they are just bad news all around. So.... Vodka and Red Bull is bad, but an Irish Coffee is okay? Huh. You need the alcohol mixers in order to drink the red bull – that stuff is just nasty – battery acid tasting. "An acquired taste." Sorry, no thanks. Moderation is key. Binge drinking is just plain stupid. When you have college students who think they will live forever, try to drink a keg themselves, or a liter of Jack Daniels at one sitting or ... your self-prescribed alcohol mix here ... then you will have problems. Yes, first time binge drinkers can die. Yes, some alcoholic drinkers can drink all they way all the time and nothing "serious" happens to them, yet others imitating them can die. George Burns drank and smoke cigars til he died. Thousands of others imitating his kind of lifestyle died much sooner. We may never know what kept him from having problems. I don't drink, but if I did, I'd have an XS Energy Drink and some good vodka. 14 flavors, little caffiene (6 oz coffee amt) but 5000% Vitamin B12. Yes, it could make a more awake drunk. But you could also drink the XS Energy without the booze and not have a sugar crash later. Because it doesn't have any sugar or carbs in it. Only 8 calories a can. And no acquired taste for battery acid required. www . jve . biz pwd: nutrition Most of these posts scare me to death for today's generation. I hope there aren't many out there like you. My preference is Tequila Bombs or Watermelon Crawls....a shot of tequila surrounded by the energy drink or 1/2 shot tequila and 1/2 shot watermelon pucker surrounded by energy drink. I usually drink about 12 of these on a "party" night. Feel real good all night and never feel sick the next day if I stop at 12. Anything after 12 can take a turn for the worse! This is news? 30 years ago, it was caffiene tablets from the back of High Times and power drinking. 20 years ago, it was speed and power drinking. 10 years ago, energy drinks came on the scene and power drinkers have made the transition official. Now we have a study that advises if you give caffiene or other herbal stimulants to a power-drinker, then you get a wide-awake drunk. I wonder once again how much tax money was spent to tell me what I already knew. Does a Wide-Awake drunk engage in more risky behavior? DUH.... Is there a likelihood of Alcohol poisoning and even death in these situations? again, DUH.... The more things change, the more they remain the same. What a ridiculous study. It's sad that people even consider this news. There is more caffeine in headache medicine than in a Red Bull. I agree that some of the larger energy drinks, like Monster and Rockstar have quite a bit of caffeine....but mixing it with alcohol isn't the problem. It's the alcohol! People have been mixing liquor with coca cola and coffee forever and this is no different. Caffeine and alcohol? Who would have *ever* thought of mixing those two? Anyone ever heard of "Rum & Coke" before? And to the people who are equating mixing alcohol and energy drinks to cocaine, wow, you could not be more wrong. It is not even close to the same thing. Not even a little bit. Hopefully they people get anxiety and depression and kill themselves before they cost all of money in the free health care they will require and get! Let's all be idiots and then make everyone else pay the price. BRILLIANT!!!! Kids that are 25 and younger in this country are absolutely useless anyway. Hopefully they wipe themselves out and we jump right to next generation. Afterall, it is the same people that have worshiped Britany Spears, Paris Hilton, The Hills, and energy drinks. I think we will be ok if they all end up in mental hospitals or dead. Risky behavior? I would think that's the least of your concerns when your mixing uppers and downers. I feel like we might see the effects of those nasty drinks in studies done years from now on my peers that party hard. Eating a healthy diet, exercise and proper breathing also gives you energy...all day long! Huh....I would think the mix would leave you with one heck of a hang over. The kind that feels like a spike in your brain. @ Poppy: diaf pls. k, thnx @ the rest of you: Chill out. You all are like watching people run around in circles pulling their hair out in a mad panic. omg omg this is hooooorible. We must lemming march and listen to these wise souls who tell us their correlational study is the gospel truth! Alcohol has been a source of risky behavior since the dawn of, well, liquor. I don't think adding a Red Bull or a Monster is going to make that any less true. I really get annoyed when people leave comments just to say, "This isn't news!" People need to be reminded once in a while if something isn't a good idea. A lot of people mix energy drinks with alcohol. As for myself, usually consume my energy drink an hour or so before beginning a night out to shake off a mood, a feeling of sloth. So maybe my timing is OK? I haven't noticed anything too unusual when I do this. It is wise to remember "everything in moderation", as someone above said. It is common sense, but how many of of really practice that? "Woolsey says the danger isn't specifically in the caffeine; it's in the combination of drinks with the other stimulants potentially being more dangerous because people haven't built up tolerances to them. Woolsey says many of these so called energy drinks contain unregulated herbal stimulants." Did all of you totally miss this part? You all keep going on about the caffeine. Read a story in its entirety, dont lock on one thing and run with it like a 5 year old. More junk "science" used to create sensational headlines. College kids do crazy stuff, they always have and always will. Unfortunately some of us will not live through it. There seems to be a lot of people in denial here. As somebody who has had a red bull/vodka combination – there is a lot of truth to this study. It truly makes you feel sober when you are digustingly NOT. Kudos to Ok State and Mizzou for trying to educate people –too bad that it's fallen on deaf ears.

collection of america .

We need a study to tell us things like this? My bad; I forgot that society no longer has common sense. 6 years ago my brother was found dead in his apartment. The only explanation the coroner gave my family was that his heart "just stopped", and it was most likely due to the fact that he had been drinking what you call "energy cocktails" with friends the night before (red bull and vodka). Drinking these things doesnt just affect your decision making skills, or cause anxiety disorders, IT CAN KILL YOU. PLEASE, everybody who reads this, remember uppers and downers DO NOT MIX Why? This trend has happened in the past too with other stimulants. Stimulants with depressants have a synergistic effect in some cases trippling the effect of one or the other which can have deadly consequences. The people using these combinations, one need to grow up and stop mixing drinks like little kids at a coolaid party and two wake up before they cannot wake up...they mix drinks for attention and some mystical edge that those flakes think they get from mixing energy drinks and alcohol....sad. Energy drinks are disgusting. Why would anyone mix them with alcohol? When i was in college we would routinly drink all night long taking caffine pills through out to stay up. Its a lot of fun, I had such good times in college, I miss it. We would also inhale aerosol room deoderizers. That just made you kinda pass out and fall down, so not as much fun. I found that if I drank all night with the caffine pills I could smoke a one hitter just before going to sleep and I wouldnt have a hangover when I woke up. I could start the process over when I woke up. I did this 5-6 nights a week on average. I graduated with a 3.4 gpa and now I have a great job making 93k per year. So there really isnt any harm in this behavior. Another misleading study. Forget that the people that drink energy drinks and alcohol together are just more riskier. Its the caffeine and alcohol combination that makes them morons. God forbid they are morons without the combination of the two. alcohol + energy drinks = a great time! Alcohol must be necessary to cut the awful taste of the energy drinks. One major flaw in this study. Are the people who partake in this risky behaviour, including mixing caffiene and alcohol, more prone to this type of behaviour to begin with? As a former "cherry bomb", vodka-red bull, and jager-bomb drinker, I can appreciate the feeling you get when you drink caffiene and liquor. I never did anything extra risky when clubing and drinking these beverages. I also am not prone to risky behaviour other than the rare binge drinking. Gee what do you know... more things that are bad for you!! What a bogus study. Too much of anything harmful to your body is going to do damage. I for one love the combo but only in moderation. Risky behavior... Give me a break! Driving your car or even going to a party or club is "risky" behavior. With all the sickos in the world today, no one is ever safe. Always be aware of your surroundings and always in moderation. This article reminded me that I had a 5 hr energy drink in my computer bag. Thanks! that just saved my afternoon. Also, I drank 2 – 5hr energies at a party last weekend and had a blast. Caffeine is what makes the world go round and alcohol makes the world a cooler place. So if my logic is correct the two combined are a match made in heaven. Drink on! Red bull and vodka is the modern, legal, "speedball," and we all know that caffeine + liquor simply equals a wide-awake drunk. So how is this riskier than just getting drunk and then trying to sober up by drinking black coffee? I agree with everyone who says that vodka plus Red Bull is just legal crack. We might as well give up on the War on Drugs right now. It's pointless to spend billions of dollars on fighting the cocaine cartels when you can just add vodka to Red Bull and get the same effect and the same damage to society from the perpetual overdoers. Nothing new – someone once thought it was 'fun' to mix barbituates with stimulants. The fact remains, risk increases, not decreases. It's always interesting to hear from those who justify questionable activity, whether or not it has been definitively determined to be risky. It usually begins with the phrase '...I like..', as if the ends, the effect, justifies the means, the unknown mixture, regardless of the actual risks, usually unknown. Well, some people like pit bulls, some like shooting AK's at wildlife, some like driving SUV's like sports cars, but, none of those are conducive to low risk, great decisions or desirable behavior. The operative word here is MAY. This is not a definitive study and, therefore, any conclusions are not empirical. Two of the worst hangovers I have ever had were the result of just 2 or 3 vodka-redbulls... No thanks, no more, that cured me. This indicates a link to Anxiety and Manic Depressive behavior. I used to drink energy drinks to help recover from the previous night. I then discovered that the energy drinks + alcohol were less expensive than plain energy drinks (go figure). These became my first drinks of the day...I am now in 12 step recovery. Who wants to live low risk their whole life? The entire USA is a country of risk/pain/consequence averse cowards. Im surprised the Amish dont take over the country. They probably would if it werent for the language barrier. "So there really isn't any harm in this behavior." – You're an ignorant piece of trash, please die. Ok, enough with people being all judgmental and comparing redbull and vodka to a freaking SPEEDBALL of heroin and cocaine. Um, not even close people. How many of you out there take your doctor-prescribed anti-anxiety pills with your morning coffee? Same thing. And to the person who said "pit bulls... [not] conducive to low risk, great decisions or desirable behavior" I have a pitbull. They are VERY loving and loyal dogs. Even a poodle who is raised wrong can cause great injury to a person. I think it's irresponsible to use owning a pitbull to try and make a point about reckless behavior. You are just spreading the hate. ANY dog raised in a sick environment can turn out dangerous. Sometimes I will have an energy beer, or do some various 'bomb' containing redbull and something 80-proof. Obviously when you're hyper and drunk, you might do stupid things. When you're drunk and tired, you might also do stupid things. I wish doctors and researchers would find a cure for cancer and AIDS and stop 'researching' all of these common sense things! Ridiculous. I like to start the night off with a energydrink and vodka mix. one or two to get me going and then I switch to beer. I have been doing this for years and have not noticed any problems with health or risk taking. Taste Great, but yeah uppers + downers is a bad idea To Poppy, I think I went to college with you and was perhaps involved in the debauchery...but don't make nearly what you make, and not everyone is as lucky as you, or dodges as many life bullets as you have. word. I am sorry to read the post about the brother who passed away, possibly related to the mixture of energy drinks and alcohol. That being said, there is an old saying...."everything in moderation" PS – Red Bull and grape flavored Three Olives vodka is maaawney!!! Patricia....Red Bull and vodka the same effect as cocaine? you probably have had neither because you clearly have no idea what you are talking about Lester, redbull and vodka didn't make you an alcoholic, I guess you've missed the step about taking responsibilitiy for your own actions. I'm a professional, a mom and a wife who every once in a while(about half a dozen times a year) is called on by friends to go out and celebrate a special occassion. Unless I'm at a party I don't ever drink (doesn't entice me) . Maybe as a product of my generation, I've been drinking this combo for almost a decade. This study has no control for the initial propensity for risk that the individuals natrually possess. It certainly doesn't make me more inclined to take any risks. What it does do for me is allow me to keep up with my non-parent friends who can stay up dancing until 5am. Otherwise, I'd pass out at 11pm (toddlers really make you tired, no need to make a study for that). I don't over-do it. Those who do would overdo it and take risks no matter what they were drinking. @johnna: that's absurd. If there is any truth to your post, then your brother most likely died because he had a congenital heart defect that may have been exacerbated by the caffeine and/or sugar in the energy drink. Glad to know that I only consumed a small qty of jagerbombs in my life – and never more than 1 in a single night. I no longer drink any sort of energy drink, they are just bad news all around. So.... Vodka and Red Bull is bad, but an Irish Coffee is okay? Huh. You need the alcohol mixers in order to drink the red bull – that stuff is just nasty – battery acid tasting. "An acquired taste." Sorry, no thanks. Moderation is key. Binge drinking is just plain stupid. When you have college students who think they will live forever, try to drink a keg themselves, or a liter of Jack Daniels at one sitting or ... your self-prescribed alcohol mix here ... then you will have problems. Yes, first time binge drinkers can die. Yes, some alcoholic drinkers can drink all they way all the time and nothing "serious" happens to them, yet others imitating them can die. George Burns drank and smoke cigars til he died. Thousands of others imitating his kind of lifestyle died much sooner. We may never know what kept him from having problems. I don't drink, but if I did, I'd have an XS Energy Drink and some good vodka. 14 flavors, little caffiene (6 oz coffee amt) but 5000% Vitamin B12. Yes, it could make a more awake drunk. But you could also drink the XS Energy without the booze and not have a sugar crash later. Because it doesn't have any sugar or carbs in it. Only 8 calories a can. And no acquired taste for battery acid required. www . jve . biz pwd: nutrition Most of these posts scare me to death for today's generation. I hope there aren't many out there like you. My preference is Tequila Bombs or Watermelon Crawls....a shot of tequila surrounded by the energy drink or 1/2 shot tequila and 1/2 shot watermelon pucker surrounded by energy drink. I usually drink about 12 of these on a "party" night. Feel real good all night and never feel sick the next day if I stop at 12. Anything after 12 can take a turn for the worse! This is news? 30 years ago, it was caffiene tablets from the back of High Times and power drinking. 20 years ago, it was speed and power drinking. 10 years ago, energy drinks came on the scene and power drinkers have made the transition official. Now we have a study that advises if you give caffiene or other herbal stimulants to a power-drinker, then you get a wide-awake drunk. I wonder once again how much tax money was spent to tell me what I already knew. Does a Wide-Awake drunk engage in more risky behavior? DUH.... Is there a likelihood of Alcohol poisoning and even death in these situations? again, DUH.... The more things change, the more they remain the same. What a ridiculous study. It's sad that people even consider this news. There is more caffeine in headache medicine than in a Red Bull. I agree that some of the larger energy drinks, like Monster and Rockstar have quite a bit of caffeine....but mixing it with alcohol isn't the problem. It's the alcohol! People have been mixing liquor with coca cola and coffee forever and this is no different. Caffeine and alcohol? Who would have *ever* thought of mixing those two? Anyone ever heard of "Rum & Coke" before? And to the people who are equating mixing alcohol and energy drinks to cocaine, wow, you could not be more wrong. It is not even close to the same thing. Not even a little bit. Hopefully they people get anxiety and depression and kill themselves before they cost all of money in the free health care they will require and get! Let's all be idiots and then make everyone else pay the price. BRILLIANT!!!! Kids that are 25 and younger in this country are absolutely useless anyway. Hopefully they wipe themselves out and we jump right to next generation. Afterall, it is the same people that have worshiped Britany Spears, Paris Hilton, The Hills, and energy drinks. I think we will be ok if they all end up in mental hospitals or dead. Risky behavior? I would think that's the least of your concerns when your mixing uppers and downers. I feel like we might see the effects of those nasty drinks in studies done years from now on my peers that party hard. Eating a healthy diet, exercise and proper breathing also gives you energy...all day long! Huh....I would think the mix would leave you with one heck of a hang over. The kind that feels like a spike in your brain. @ Poppy: diaf pls. k, thnx @ the rest of you: Chill out. You all are like watching people run around in circles pulling their hair out in a mad panic. omg omg this is hooooorible. We must lemming march and listen to these wise souls who tell us their correlational study is the gospel truth! Alcohol has been a source of risky behavior since the dawn of, well, liquor. I don't think adding a Red Bull or a Monster is going to make that any less true. I really get annoyed when people leave comments just to say, "This isn't news!" People need to be reminded once in a while if something isn't a good idea. A lot of people mix energy drinks with alcohol. As for myself, usually consume my energy drink an hour or so before beginning a night out to shake off a mood, a feeling of sloth. So maybe my timing is OK? I haven't noticed anything too unusual when I do this. It is wise to remember "everything in moderation", as someone above said. It is common sense, but how many of of really practice that? "Woolsey says the danger isn't specifically in the caffeine; it's in the combination of drinks with the other stimulants potentially being more dangerous because people haven't built up tolerances to them. Woolsey says many of these so called energy drinks contain unregulated herbal stimulants." Did all of you totally miss this part? You all keep going on about the caffeine. Read a story in its entirety, dont lock on one thing and run with it like a 5 year old. More junk "science" used to create sensational headlines. College kids do crazy stuff, they always have and always will. Unfortunately some of us will not live through it. There seems to be a lot of people in denial here. As somebody who has had a red bull/vodka combination – there is a lot of truth to this study. It truly makes you feel sober when you are digustingly NOT. Kudos to Ok State and Mizzou for trying to educate people –too bad that it's fallen on deaf ears.

coroner gave my family was that his heart `` just stopped '' , and it was most likely due to he had been drinking what you call `` energy cocktails '' with friends the night before ( red bull and vodka ) . drinking these things doesnt just affect your decision making skills , or cause anxiety disorders , it can kill you . please , everybody who reads this , remember uppers do not mix why ? this trend has happened who

We need a study to tell us things like this? My bad; I forgot that society no longer has common sense. 6 years ago my brother was found dead in his apartment. The only explanation the coroner gave my family was that his heart "just stopped", and it was most likely due to the fact that he had been drinking what you call "energy cocktails" with friends the night before (red bull and vodka). Drinking these things doesnt just affect your decision making skills, or cause anxiety disorders, IT CAN KILL YOU. PLEASE, everybody who reads this, remember uppers and downers DO NOT MIX Why? This trend has happened in the past too with other stimulants. Stimulants with depressants have a synergistic effect in some cases trippling the effect of one or the other which can have deadly consequences. The people using these combinations, one need to grow up and stop mixing drinks like little kids at a coolaid party and two wake up before they cannot wake up...they mix drinks for attention and some mystical edge that those flakes think they get from mixing energy drinks and alcohol....sad. Energy drinks are disgusting. Why would anyone mix them with alcohol? When i was in college we would routinly drink all night long taking caffine pills through out to stay up. Its a lot of fun, I had such good times in college, I miss it. We would also inhale aerosol room deoderizers. That just made you kinda pass out and fall down, so not as much fun. I found that if I drank all night with the caffine pills I could smoke a one hitter just before going to sleep and I wouldnt have a hangover when I woke up. I could start the process over when I woke up. I did this 5-6 nights a week on average. I graduated with a 3.4 gpa and now I have a great job making 93k per year. So there really isnt any harm in this behavior. Another misleading study. Forget that the people that drink energy drinks and alcohol together are just more riskier. Its the caffeine and alcohol combination that makes them morons. God forbid they are morons without the combination of the two. alcohol + energy drinks = a great time! Alcohol must be necessary to cut the awful taste of the energy drinks. One major flaw in this study. Are the people who partake in this risky behaviour, including mixing caffiene and alcohol, more prone to this type of behaviour to begin with? As a former "cherry bomb", vodka-red bull, and jager-bomb drinker, I can appreciate the feeling you get when you drink caffiene and liquor. I never did anything extra risky when clubing and drinking these beverages. I also am not prone to risky behaviour other than the rare binge drinking. Gee what do you know... more things that are bad for you!! What a bogus study. Too much of anything harmful to your body is going to do damage. I for one love the combo but only in moderation. Risky behavior... Give me a break! Driving your car or even going to a party or club is "risky" behavior. With all the sickos in the world today, no one is ever safe. Always be aware of your surroundings and always in moderation. This article reminded me that I had a 5 hr energy drink in my computer bag. Thanks! that just saved my afternoon. Also, I drank 2 – 5hr energies at a party last weekend and had a blast. Caffeine is what makes the world go round and alcohol makes the world a cooler place. So if my logic is correct the two combined are a match made in heaven. Drink on! Red bull and vodka is the modern, legal, "speedball," and we all know that caffeine + liquor simply equals a wide-awake drunk. So how is this riskier than just getting drunk and then trying to sober up by drinking black coffee? I agree with everyone who says that vodka plus Red Bull is just legal crack. We might as well give up on the War on Drugs right now. It's pointless to spend billions of dollars on fighting the cocaine cartels when you can just add vodka to Red Bull and get the same effect and the same damage to society from the perpetual overdoers. Nothing new – someone once thought it was 'fun' to mix barbituates with stimulants. The fact remains, risk increases, not decreases. It's always interesting to hear from those who justify questionable activity, whether or not it has been definitively determined to be risky. It usually begins with the phrase '...I like..', as if the ends, the effect, justifies the means, the unknown mixture, regardless of the actual risks, usually unknown. Well, some people like pit bulls, some like shooting AK's at wildlife, some like driving SUV's like sports cars, but, none of those are conducive to low risk, great decisions or desirable behavior. The operative word here is MAY. This is not a definitive study and, therefore, any conclusions are not empirical. Two of the worst hangovers I have ever had were the result of just 2 or 3 vodka-redbulls... No thanks, no more, that cured me. This indicates a link to Anxiety and Manic Depressive behavior. I used to drink energy drinks to help recover from the previous night. I then discovered that the energy drinks + alcohol were less expensive than plain energy drinks (go figure). These became my first drinks of the day...I am now in 12 step recovery. Who wants to live low risk their whole life? The entire USA is a country of risk/pain/consequence averse cowards. Im surprised the Amish dont take over the country. They probably would if it werent for the language barrier. "So there really isn't any harm in this behavior." – You're an ignorant piece of trash, please die. Ok, enough with people being all judgmental and comparing redbull and vodka to a freaking SPEEDBALL of heroin and cocaine. Um, not even close people. How many of you out there take your doctor-prescribed anti-anxiety pills with your morning coffee? Same thing. And to the person who said "pit bulls... [not] conducive to low risk, great decisions or desirable behavior" I have a pitbull. They are VERY loving and loyal dogs. Even a poodle who is raised wrong can cause great injury to a person. I think it's irresponsible to use owning a pitbull to try and make a point about reckless behavior. You are just spreading the hate. ANY dog raised in a sick environment can turn out dangerous. Sometimes I will have an energy beer, or do some various 'bomb' containing redbull and something 80-proof. Obviously when you're hyper and drunk, you might do stupid things. When you're drunk and tired, you might also do stupid things. I wish doctors and researchers would find a cure for cancer and AIDS and stop 'researching' all of these common sense things! Ridiculous. I like to start the night off with a energydrink and vodka mix. one or two to get me going and then I switch to beer. I have been doing this for years and have not noticed any problems with health or risk taking. Taste Great, but yeah uppers + downers is a bad idea To Poppy, I think I went to college with you and was perhaps involved in the debauchery...but don't make nearly what you make, and not everyone is as lucky as you, or dodges as many life bullets as you have. word. I am sorry to read the post about the brother who passed away, possibly related to the mixture of energy drinks and alcohol. That being said, there is an old saying...."everything in moderation" PS – Red Bull and grape flavored Three Olives vodka is maaawney!!! Patricia....Red Bull and vodka the same effect as cocaine? you probably have had neither because you clearly have no idea what you are talking about Lester, redbull and vodka didn't make you an alcoholic, I guess you've missed the step about taking responsibilitiy for your own actions. I'm a professional, a mom and a wife who every once in a while(about half a dozen times a year) is called on by friends to go out and celebrate a special occassion. Unless I'm at a party I don't ever drink (doesn't entice me) . Maybe as a product of my generation, I've been drinking this combo for almost a decade. This study has no control for the initial propensity for risk that the individuals natrually possess. It certainly doesn't make me more inclined to take any risks. What it does do for me is allow me to keep up with my non-parent friends who can stay up dancing until 5am. Otherwise, I'd pass out at 11pm (toddlers really make you tired, no need to make a study for that). I don't over-do it. Those who do would overdo it and take risks no matter what they were drinking. @johnna: that's absurd. If there is any truth to your post, then your brother most likely died because he had a congenital heart defect that may have been exacerbated by the caffeine and/or sugar in the energy drink. Glad to know that I only consumed a small qty of jagerbombs in my life – and never more than 1 in a single night. I no longer drink any sort of energy drink, they are just bad news all around. So.... Vodka and Red Bull is bad, but an Irish Coffee is okay? Huh. You need the alcohol mixers in order to drink the red bull – that stuff is just nasty – battery acid tasting. "An acquired taste." Sorry, no thanks. Moderation is key. Binge drinking is just plain stupid. When you have college students who think they will live forever, try to drink a keg themselves, or a liter of Jack Daniels at one sitting or ... your self-prescribed alcohol mix here ... then you will have problems. Yes, first time binge drinkers can die. Yes, some alcoholic drinkers can drink all they way all the time and nothing "serious" happens to them, yet others imitating them can die. George Burns drank and smoke cigars til he died. Thousands of others imitating his kind of lifestyle died much sooner. We may never know what kept him from having problems. I don't drink, but if I did, I'd have an XS Energy Drink and some good vodka. 14 flavors, little caffiene (6 oz coffee amt) but 5000% Vitamin B12. Yes, it could make a more awake drunk. But you could also drink the XS Energy without the booze and not have a sugar crash later. Because it doesn't have any sugar or carbs in it. Only 8 calories a can. And no acquired taste for battery acid required. www . jve . biz pwd: nutrition Most of these posts scare me to death for today's generation. I hope there aren't many out there like you. My preference is Tequila Bombs or Watermelon Crawls....a shot of tequila surrounded by the energy drink or 1/2 shot tequila and 1/2 shot watermelon pucker surrounded by energy drink. I usually drink about 12 of these on a "party" night. Feel real good all night and never feel sick the next day if I stop at 12. Anything after 12 can take a turn for the worse! This is news? 30 years ago, it was caffiene tablets from the back of High Times and power drinking. 20 years ago, it was speed and power drinking. 10 years ago, energy drinks came on the scene and power drinkers have made the transition official. Now we have a study that advises if you give caffiene or other herbal stimulants to a power-drinker, then you get a wide-awake drunk. I wonder once again how much tax money was spent to tell me what I already knew. Does a Wide-Awake drunk engage in more risky behavior? DUH.... Is there a likelihood of Alcohol poisoning and even death in these situations? again, DUH.... The more things change, the more they remain the same. What a ridiculous study. It's sad that people even consider this news. There is more caffeine in headache medicine than in a Red Bull. I agree that some of the larger energy drinks, like Monster and Rockstar have quite a bit of caffeine....but mixing it with alcohol isn't the problem. It's the alcohol! People have been mixing liquor with coca cola and coffee forever and this is no different. Caffeine and alcohol? Who would have *ever* thought of mixing those two? Anyone ever heard of "Rum & Coke" before? And to the people who are equating mixing alcohol and energy drinks to cocaine, wow, you could not be more wrong. It is not even close to the same thing. Not even a little bit. Hopefully they people get anxiety and depression and kill themselves before they cost all of money in the free health care they will require and get! Let's all be idiots and then make everyone else pay the price. BRILLIANT!!!! Kids that are 25 and younger in this country are absolutely useless anyway. Hopefully they wipe themselves out and we jump right to next generation. Afterall, it is the same people that have worshiped Britany Spears, Paris Hilton, The Hills, and energy drinks. I think we will be ok if they all end up in mental hospitals or dead. Risky behavior? I would think that's the least of your concerns when your mixing uppers and downers. I feel like we might see the effects of those nasty drinks in studies done years from now on my peers that party hard. Eating a healthy diet, exercise and proper breathing also gives you energy...all day long! Huh....I would think the mix would leave you with one heck of a hang over. The kind that feels like a spike in your brain. @ Poppy: diaf pls. k, thnx @ the rest of you: Chill out. You all are like watching people run around in circles pulling their hair out in a mad panic. omg omg this is hooooorible. We must lemming march and listen to these wise souls who tell us their correlational study is the gospel truth! Alcohol has been a source of risky behavior since the dawn of, well, liquor. I don't think adding a Red Bull or a Monster is going to make that any less true. I really get annoyed when people leave comments just to say, "This isn't news!" People need to be reminded once in a while if something isn't a good idea. A lot of people mix energy drinks with alcohol. As for myself, usually consume my energy drink an hour or so before beginning a night out to shake off a mood, a feeling of sloth. So maybe my timing is OK? I haven't noticed anything too unusual when I do this. It is wise to remember "everything in moderation", as someone above said. It is common sense, but how many of of really practice that? "Woolsey says the danger isn't specifically in the caffeine; it's in the combination of drinks with the other stimulants potentially being more dangerous because people haven't built up tolerances to them. Woolsey says many of these so called energy drinks contain unregulated herbal stimulants." Did all of you totally miss this part? You all keep going on about the caffeine. Read a story in its entirety, dont lock on one thing and run with it like a 5 year old. More junk "science" used to create sensational headlines. College kids do crazy stuff, they always have and always will. Unfortunately some of us will not live through it. There seems to be a lot of people in denial here. As somebody who has had a red bull/vodka combination – there is a lot of truth to this study. It truly makes you feel sober when you are digustingly NOT. Kudos to Ok State and Mizzou for trying to educate people –too bad that it's fallen on deaf ears.

we need a study to tell us things like this ? my bad ; i forgot that society no longer has common sense . so there really isnt any harm in this behavior over when i woke up it .

We need a study to tell us things like this? My bad; I forgot that society no longer has common sense. 6 years ago my brother was found dead in his apartment. The only explanation the coroner gave my family was that his heart "just stopped", and it was most likely due to the fact that he had been drinking what you call "energy cocktails" with friends the night before (red bull and vodka). Drinking these things doesnt just affect your decision making skills, or cause anxiety disorders, IT CAN KILL YOU. PLEASE, everybody who reads this, remember uppers and downers DO NOT MIX Why? This trend has happened in the past too with other stimulants. Stimulants with depressants have a synergistic effect in some cases trippling the effect of one or the other which can have deadly consequences. The people using these combinations, one need to grow up and stop mixing drinks like little kids at a coolaid party and two wake up before they cannot wake up...they mix drinks for attention and some mystical edge that those flakes think they get from mixing energy drinks and alcohol....sad. Energy drinks are disgusting. Why would anyone mix them with alcohol? When i was in college we would routinly drink all night long taking caffine pills through out to stay up. Its a lot of fun, I had such good times in college, I miss it. We would also inhale aerosol room deoderizers. That just made you kinda pass out and fall down, so not as much fun. I found that if I drank all night with the caffine pills I could smoke a one hitter just before going to sleep and I wouldnt have a hangover when I woke up. I could start the process over when I woke up. I did this 5-6 nights a week on average. I graduated with a 3.4 gpa and now I have a great job making 93k per year. So there really isnt any harm in this behavior. Another misleading study. Forget that the people that drink energy drinks and alcohol together are just more riskier. Its the caffeine and alcohol combination that makes them morons. God forbid they are morons without the combination of the two. alcohol + energy drinks = a great time! Alcohol must be necessary to cut the awful taste of the energy drinks. One major flaw in this study. Are the people who partake in this risky behaviour, including mixing caffiene and alcohol, more prone to this type of behaviour to begin with? As a former "cherry bomb", vodka-red bull, and jager-bomb drinker, I can appreciate the feeling you get when you drink caffiene and liquor. I never did anything extra risky when clubing and drinking these beverages. I also am not prone to risky behaviour other than the rare binge drinking. Gee what do you know... more things that are bad for you!! What a bogus study. Too much of anything harmful to your body is going to do damage. I for one love the combo but only in moderation. Risky behavior... Give me a break! Driving your car or even going to a party or club is "risky" behavior. With all the sickos in the world today, no one is ever safe. Always be aware of your surroundings and always in moderation. This article reminded me that I had a 5 hr energy drink in my computer bag. Thanks! that just saved my afternoon. Also, I drank 2 – 5hr energies at a party last weekend and had a blast. Caffeine is what makes the world go round and alcohol makes the world a cooler place. So if my logic is correct the two combined are a match made in heaven. Drink on! Red bull and vodka is the modern, legal, "speedball," and we all know that caffeine + liquor simply equals a wide-awake drunk. So how is this riskier than just getting drunk and then trying to sober up by drinking black coffee? I agree with everyone who says that vodka plus Red Bull is just legal crack. We might as well give up on the War on Drugs right now. It's pointless to spend billions of dollars on fighting the cocaine cartels when you can just add vodka to Red Bull and get the same effect and the same damage to society from the perpetual overdoers. Nothing new – someone once thought it was 'fun' to mix barbituates with stimulants. The fact remains, risk increases, not decreases. It's always interesting to hear from those who justify questionable activity, whether or not it has been definitively determined to be risky. It usually begins with the phrase '...I like..', as if the ends, the effect, justifies the means, the unknown mixture, regardless of the actual risks, usually unknown. Well, some people like pit bulls, some like shooting AK's at wildlife, some like driving SUV's like sports cars, but, none of those are conducive to low risk, great decisions or desirable behavior. The operative word here is MAY. This is not a definitive study and, therefore, any conclusions are not empirical. Two of the worst hangovers I have ever had were the result of just 2 or 3 vodka-redbulls... No thanks, no more, that cured me. This indicates a link to Anxiety and Manic Depressive behavior. I used to drink energy drinks to help recover from the previous night. I then discovered that the energy drinks + alcohol were less expensive than plain energy drinks (go figure). These became my first drinks of the day...I am now in 12 step recovery. Who wants to live low risk their whole life? The entire USA is a country of risk/pain/consequence averse cowards. Im surprised the Amish dont take over the country. They probably would if it werent for the language barrier. "So there really isn't any harm in this behavior." – You're an ignorant piece of trash, please die. Ok, enough with people being all judgmental and comparing redbull and vodka to a freaking SPEEDBALL of heroin and cocaine. Um, not even close people. How many of you out there take your doctor-prescribed anti-anxiety pills with your morning coffee? Same thing. And to the person who said "pit bulls... [not] conducive to low risk, great decisions or desirable behavior" I have a pitbull. They are VERY loving and loyal dogs. Even a poodle who is raised wrong can cause great injury to a person. I think it's irresponsible to use owning a pitbull to try and make a point about reckless behavior. You are just spreading the hate. ANY dog raised in a sick environment can turn out dangerous. Sometimes I will have an energy beer, or do some various 'bomb' containing redbull and something 80-proof. Obviously when you're hyper and drunk, you might do stupid things. When you're drunk and tired, you might also do stupid things. I wish doctors and researchers would find a cure for cancer and AIDS and stop 'researching' all of these common sense things! Ridiculous. I like to start the night off with a energydrink and vodka mix. one or two to get me going and then I switch to beer. I have been doing this for years and have not noticed any problems with health or risk taking. Taste Great, but yeah uppers + downers is a bad idea To Poppy, I think I went to college with you and was perhaps involved in the debauchery...but don't make nearly what you make, and not everyone is as lucky as you, or dodges as many life bullets as you have. word. I am sorry to read the post about the brother who passed away, possibly related to the mixture of energy drinks and alcohol. That being said, there is an old saying...."everything in moderation" PS – Red Bull and grape flavored Three Olives vodka is maaawney!!! Patricia....Red Bull and vodka the same effect as cocaine? you probably have had neither because you clearly have no idea what you are talking about Lester, redbull and vodka didn't make you an alcoholic, I guess you've missed the step about taking responsibilitiy for your own actions. I'm a professional, a mom and a wife who every once in a while(about half a dozen times a year) is called on by friends to go out and celebrate a special occassion. Unless I'm at a party I don't ever drink (doesn't entice me) . Maybe as a product of my generation, I've been drinking this combo for almost a decade. This study has no control for the initial propensity for risk that the individuals natrually possess. It certainly doesn't make me more inclined to take any risks. What it does do for me is allow me to keep up with my non-parent friends who can stay up dancing until 5am. Otherwise, I'd pass out at 11pm (toddlers really make you tired, no need to make a study for that). I don't over-do it. Those who do would overdo it and take risks no matter what they were drinking. @johnna: that's absurd. If there is any truth to your post, then your brother most likely died because he had a congenital heart defect that may have been exacerbated by the caffeine and/or sugar in the energy drink. Glad to know that I only consumed a small qty of jagerbombs in my life – and never more than 1 in a single night. I no longer drink any sort of energy drink, they are just bad news all around. So.... Vodka and Red Bull is bad, but an Irish Coffee is okay? Huh. You need the alcohol mixers in order to drink the red bull – that stuff is just nasty – battery acid tasting. "An acquired taste." Sorry, no thanks. Moderation is key. Binge drinking is just plain stupid. When you have college students who think they will live forever, try to drink a keg themselves, or a liter of Jack Daniels at one sitting or ... your self-prescribed alcohol mix here ... then you will have problems. Yes, first time binge drinkers can die. Yes, some alcoholic drinkers can drink all they way all the time and nothing "serious" happens to them, yet others imitating them can die. George Burns drank and smoke cigars til he died. Thousands of others imitating his kind of lifestyle died much sooner. We may never know what kept him from having problems. I don't drink, but if I did, I'd have an XS Energy Drink and some good vodka. 14 flavors, little caffiene (6 oz coffee amt) but 5000% Vitamin B12. Yes, it could make a more awake drunk. But you could also drink the XS Energy without the booze and not have a sugar crash later. Because it doesn't have any sugar or carbs in it. Only 8 calories a can. And no acquired taste for battery acid required. www . jve . biz pwd: nutrition Most of these posts scare me to death for today's generation. I hope there aren't many out there like you. My preference is Tequila Bombs or Watermelon Crawls....a shot of tequila surrounded by the energy drink or 1/2 shot tequila and 1/2 shot watermelon pucker surrounded by energy drink. I usually drink about 12 of these on a "party" night. Feel real good all night and never feel sick the next day if I stop at 12. Anything after 12 can take a turn for the worse! This is news? 30 years ago, it was caffiene tablets from the back of High Times and power drinking. 20 years ago, it was speed and power drinking. 10 years ago, energy drinks came on the scene and power drinkers have made the transition official. Now we have a study that advises if you give caffiene or other herbal stimulants to a power-drinker, then you get a wide-awake drunk. I wonder once again how much tax money was spent to tell me what I already knew. Does a Wide-Awake drunk engage in more risky behavior? DUH.... Is there a likelihood of Alcohol poisoning and even death in these situations? again, DUH.... The more things change, the more they remain the same. What a ridiculous study. It's sad that people even consider this news. There is more caffeine in headache medicine than in a Red Bull. I agree that some of the larger energy drinks, like Monster and Rockstar have quite a bit of caffeine....but mixing it with alcohol isn't the problem. It's the alcohol! People have been mixing liquor with coca cola and coffee forever and this is no different. Caffeine and alcohol? Who would have *ever* thought of mixing those two? Anyone ever heard of "Rum & Coke" before? And to the people who are equating mixing alcohol and energy drinks to cocaine, wow, you could not be more wrong. It is not even close to the same thing. Not even a little bit. Hopefully they people get anxiety and depression and kill themselves before they cost all of money in the free health care they will require and get! Let's all be idiots and then make everyone else pay the price. BRILLIANT!!!! Kids that are 25 and younger in this country are absolutely useless anyway. Hopefully they wipe themselves out and we jump right to next generation. Afterall, it is the same people that have worshiped Britany Spears, Paris Hilton, The Hills, and energy drinks. I think we will be ok if they all end up in mental hospitals or dead. Risky behavior? I would think that's the least of your concerns when your mixing uppers and downers. I feel like we might see the effects of those nasty drinks in studies done years from now on my peers that party hard. Eating a healthy diet, exercise and proper breathing also gives you energy...all day long! Huh....I would think the mix would leave you with one heck of a hang over. The kind that feels like a spike in your brain. @ Poppy: diaf pls. k, thnx @ the rest of you: Chill out. You all are like watching people run around in circles pulling their hair out in a mad panic. omg omg this is hooooorible. We must lemming march and listen to these wise souls who tell us their correlational study is the gospel truth! Alcohol has been a source of risky behavior since the dawn of, well, liquor. I don't think adding a Red Bull or a Monster is going to make that any less true. I really get annoyed when people leave comments just to say, "This isn't news!" People need to be reminded once in a while if something isn't a good idea. A lot of people mix energy drinks with alcohol. As for myself, usually consume my energy drink an hour or so before beginning a night out to shake off a mood, a feeling of sloth. So maybe my timing is OK? I haven't noticed anything too unusual when I do this. It is wise to remember "everything in moderation", as someone above said. It is common sense, but how many of of really practice that? "Woolsey says the danger isn't specifically in the caffeine; it's in the combination of drinks with the other stimulants potentially being more dangerous because people haven't built up tolerances to them. Woolsey says many of these so called energy drinks contain unregulated herbal stimulants." Did all of you totally miss this part? You all keep going on about the caffeine. Read a story in its entirety, dont lock on one thing and run with it like a 5 year old. More junk "science" used to create sensational headlines. College kids do crazy stuff, they always have and always will. Unfortunately some of us will not live through it. There seems to be a lot of people in denial here. As somebody who has had a red bull/vodka combination – there is a lot of truth to this study. It truly makes you feel sober when you are digustingly NOT. Kudos to Ok State and Mizzou for trying to educate people –too bad that it's fallen on deaf ears.

we need a study to tell us things like this ? my bad ; i forgot that society no longer has common sense my brother was found dead in the past too with other which can have deadly consequences .

If only it were the worst thing that a Roman Catholic priest has been caught doing. The Mexican celebrity magazine TVnotas recently published 25 paparazzi photos of the Rev. Alberto Cutié, the popular Miami Beach priest famous for his Spanish-language television and radio talk shows, cavorting amorously on a Florida beach with an attractive woman. Over a three-day period, the pictures also captured him kissing her in a bar. In one of TVnotas's "in fragranti" shots [Note to TVnotas copy editors: it's "in flagrante"] the woman wraps her legs around Cutié; in another, Cutié has a hand down her swimsuit, fondling her rear end. Because of the scandal, the Archdiocese of Miami says Cutié, 40, is no longer the administrator of his Miami Beach parish, and it has barred him from leading Sunday mass there. His media work seems up in the air now, and the popular website padrealberto.net has only a blue screen with a message from Cutié asking forgiveness. (See the 25 most influential evangelicals in America.) Most Catholics probably don't approve of Cutié's affair. Still, will they back the archdiocese? Cutié's punishment is understandable at first glance, at least for his hypocrisy if not for the betrayal of his oath of celibacy. To the Catholic Church, priestly ordination means a marriage vow to the church — the "bride of Christ." In a statement, Miami Archbishop John Favalora said Cutié's actions "cannot be condoned despite the good work he's done as a priest." (See pictures of a Catholic congregation fighting to save its church building.) But Cutie's penalty might elicit more than a few snickers from Catholics who have spent the past few decades watching the priestly perdition parade of sexual abuse, parish embezzlement and doctrinal intolerance. The Miami archdiocese has had to pay out millions of dollars in sexual-abuse settlements in recent years — including a case involving a former priest at Cutié's South Beach church, St. Francis de Sales. (One of Cutié's tasks, in fact, has been to heal the wounds inside that parish.) To his credit, Favalora is trying to restore public trust in his archdiocese and the Church. But so long as Cutié wasn't frolicking with a minor (female or male) or using parish funds to buy margaritas for his paramour, many parishioners may actually be relieved that their popular priest has a libido focused on a woman who has reached the age of consent.(Check out a story about the heartthrob of the Vatican.) What's more, one of the pillars of Cutié's popularity is his relationship counseling. To any Catholic who's had to suffer through a lecture on marriage from a celibate kid just out of seminary, Cutié's romantic romp might just make him a more appealing priest — more human, perhaps, than Catholic clergy who deny communion to divorcees, gays and anyone else who dares violate the Church's litany of "non-negotiable" rules. "He was doing this fairly out in the open," notes one Miami Catholic who knows Cutié well and has undergone marriage counseling with him. "Most priests who do this usually try to hide it, but this wasn't some dirty little tryst in the back of the parish residence. It doesn't appear to be just about sex; it's about intimacy, and he's always been able to help people understand which is more important." The attraction of the unidentified woman in the photos to Cutié isn't surprising, either. Cutié's last name is pronounced koo-tee-AY, but that hasn't stopped people from calling the handsome, telegenic priest "Father Cutie" — the kind of hunk-in-a-collar whom smitten Catholic schoolgirls often nickname "Father What-a-Waste." In 1999, when he burst onto the scene just four years after his ordination with his first television talk show on the Spanish-language Telemundo network, Cambia Tu Vida Con Padre Alberto (Change Your Life With Father Alberto), he remarked to the Miami Herald that celibacy is "a struggle, but it's a good struggle." It was a battle that Cutié was perhaps destined to lose, not just because of his good looks but his celebrity. In the chaste, pre-Vatican II culture of the 1950s, no one would have dared wonder if a priestly TV phenom like Bishop Fulton Sheen had a girlfriend. But today, the temptations for an attractive media star, ordained or not, are greater — especially in the narcissistic Gomorrah of South Beach. And Cutié was never a shy altar boy to begin with. Born in Puerto Rico to Cuban parents, he was a popular deejay as a teen, and he still likes disco music and getting buff in the gym. That's not to say, however, that Cutié is a liberal priest. His current television talk show, Hablando Con Padre Alberto (Talking With Father Alberto), is aired on the conservative Catholic network EWTN (Eternal World Television Network) founded by the engaging but dogmatically stern nun, Mother Angelica. Last December he blasted Playboy's Mexican edition for what he called a "blasphemous" cover photo that depicted a model as the Virgin Mary. On his shows on the Radio Paz (Radio Peace) network, and in his columns and books, such as Ama de Verdad, Vive de Verdad (Real Love, Real Life), Cutié usually toes the Vatican's doctrinal line on issues like abortion. Nonetheless, the Cutié scandal is sure to ratchet up debate over clerical celibacy in the Catholic Church, a spiritual ideal that seems to collide more often today with biological reality. (See the recent paternity-suit travails of Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, who has admitted to fathering a child, and is alleged to have sired others, while he was still a priest.) A bigger problem for the Church, however, may be Cutié's Oprah-like standing in the Latino community — the only demographic where U.S. Catholicism is experiencing growth. America's Catholic bishops, many of whom are widely accused of allowing the sexual abuse crisis to happen, must realize that Cutié is more well regarded among Catholics than they are, especially among Latinos, meaning the hierarchy will probably need to handle the tele-priest's future with special care. For his part, Cutié said in his statement that "the commitment I made to serve God will remain intact," a vague message that left many of his parishioners wondering if he plans to stay in the priesthood. Regardless, Cutié's Miami Catholic friend notes that the priest, and the Church, need to recognize "that there's another human being involved in this, the woman in the pictures, and if they're not sensitive to her as well they're looking at double the scandal." In his statement, Favalora said, "Scandals such as this offer an occasion for the Church on all levels to examine our consciences regarding the integrity of our commitments." He's right; but scandals like this also prompt Catholics to more closely and critically examine the battered integrity of their Church. And while they may not applaud Cutié for tasting forbidden fruit, they may not condemn him as harshly as the Church thinks they should either.

If only it were the worst thing that a Roman Catholic priest has been caught doing . The Mexican celebrity magazine TVnotas recently published 25 paparazzi photos of the Rev. Alberto Cutià © , the popular Miami Beach priest famous for his Spanish - language television and radio talk shows , cavorting amorously on a Florida beach with an attractive woman .

If only it were the worst thing that a Roman Catholic priest has been caught doing. The Mexican celebrity magazine TVnotas recently published 25 paparazzi photos of the Rev. Alberto Cutié, the popular Miami Beach priest famous for his Spanish-language television and radio talk shows, cavorting amorously on a Florida beach with an attractive woman. Over a three-day period, the pictures also captured him kissing her in a bar. In one of TVnotas's "in fragranti" shots [Note to TVnotas copy editors: it's "in flagrante"] the woman wraps her legs around Cutié; in another, Cutié has a hand down her swimsuit, fondling her rear end. Because of the scandal, the Archdiocese of Miami says Cutié, 40, is no longer the administrator of his Miami Beach parish, and it has barred him from leading Sunday mass there. His media work seems up in the air now, and the popular website padrealberto.net has only a blue screen with a message from Cutié asking forgiveness. (See the 25 most influential evangelicals in America.) Most Catholics probably don't approve of Cutié's affair. Still, will they back the archdiocese? Cutié's punishment is understandable at first glance, at least for his hypocrisy if not for the betrayal of his oath of celibacy. To the Catholic Church, priestly ordination means a marriage vow to the church — the "bride of Christ." In a statement, Miami Archbishop John Favalora said Cutié's actions "cannot be condoned despite the good work he's done as a priest." (See pictures of a Catholic congregation fighting to save its church building.) But Cutie's penalty might elicit more than a few snickers from Catholics who have spent the past few decades watching the priestly perdition parade of sexual abuse, parish embezzlement and doctrinal intolerance. The Miami archdiocese has had to pay out millions of dollars in sexual-abuse settlements in recent years — including a case involving a former priest at Cutié's South Beach church, St. Francis de Sales. (One of Cutié's tasks, in fact, has been to heal the wounds inside that parish.) To his credit, Favalora is trying to restore public trust in his archdiocese and the Church. But so long as Cutié wasn't frolicking with a minor (female or male) or using parish funds to buy margaritas for his paramour, many parishioners may actually be relieved that their popular priest has a libido focused on a woman who has reached the age of consent.(Check out a story about the heartthrob of the Vatican.) What's more, one of the pillars of Cutié's popularity is his relationship counseling. To any Catholic who's had to suffer through a lecture on marriage from a celibate kid just out of seminary, Cutié's romantic romp might just make him a more appealing priest — more human, perhaps, than Catholic clergy who deny communion to divorcees, gays and anyone else who dares violate the Church's litany of "non-negotiable" rules. "He was doing this fairly out in the open," notes one Miami Catholic who knows Cutié well and has undergone marriage counseling with him. "Most priests who do this usually try to hide it, but this wasn't some dirty little tryst in the back of the parish residence. It doesn't appear to be just about sex; it's about intimacy, and he's always been able to help people understand which is more important." The attraction of the unidentified woman in the photos to Cutié isn't surprising, either. Cutié's last name is pronounced koo-tee-AY, but that hasn't stopped people from calling the handsome, telegenic priest "Father Cutie" — the kind of hunk-in-a-collar whom smitten Catholic schoolgirls often nickname "Father What-a-Waste." In 1999, when he burst onto the scene just four years after his ordination with his first television talk show on the Spanish-language Telemundo network, Cambia Tu Vida Con Padre Alberto (Change Your Life With Father Alberto), he remarked to the Miami Herald that celibacy is "a struggle, but it's a good struggle." It was a battle that Cutié was perhaps destined to lose, not just because of his good looks but his celebrity. In the chaste, pre-Vatican II culture of the 1950s, no one would have dared wonder if a priestly TV phenom like Bishop Fulton Sheen had a girlfriend. But today, the temptations for an attractive media star, ordained or not, are greater — especially in the narcissistic Gomorrah of South Beach. And Cutié was never a shy altar boy to begin with. Born in Puerto Rico to Cuban parents, he was a popular deejay as a teen, and he still likes disco music and getting buff in the gym. That's not to say, however, that Cutié is a liberal priest. His current television talk show, Hablando Con Padre Alberto (Talking With Father Alberto), is aired on the conservative Catholic network EWTN (Eternal World Television Network) founded by the engaging but dogmatically stern nun, Mother Angelica. Last December he blasted Playboy's Mexican edition for what he called a "blasphemous" cover photo that depicted a model as the Virgin Mary. On his shows on the Radio Paz (Radio Peace) network, and in his columns and books, such as Ama de Verdad, Vive de Verdad (Real Love, Real Life), Cutié usually toes the Vatican's doctrinal line on issues like abortion. Nonetheless, the Cutié scandal is sure to ratchet up debate over clerical celibacy in the Catholic Church, a spiritual ideal that seems to collide more often today with biological reality. (See the recent paternity-suit travails of Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, who has admitted to fathering a child, and is alleged to have sired others, while he was still a priest.) A bigger problem for the Church, however, may be Cutié's Oprah-like standing in the Latino community — the only demographic where U.S. Catholicism is experiencing growth. America's Catholic bishops, many of whom are widely accused of allowing the sexual abuse crisis to happen, must realize that Cutié is more well regarded among Catholics than they are, especially among Latinos, meaning the hierarchy will probably need to handle the tele-priest's future with special care. For his part, Cutié said in his statement that "the commitment I made to serve God will remain intact," a vague message that left many of his parishioners wondering if he plans to stay in the priesthood. Regardless, Cutié's Miami Catholic friend notes that the priest, and the Church, need to recognize "that there's another human being involved in this, the woman in the pictures, and if they're not sensitive to her as well they're looking at double the scandal." In his statement, Favalora said, "Scandals such as this offer an occasion for the Church on all levels to examine our consciences regarding the integrity of our commitments." He's right; but scandals like this also prompt Catholics to more closely and critically examine the battered integrity of their Church. And while they may not applaud Cutié for tasting forbidden fruit, they may not condemn him as harshly as the Church thinks they should either.

The Archdiocese of Miami an - popular after a pictures of him cavorting with a woman

If only it were the worst thing that a Roman Catholic priest has been caught doing. The Mexican celebrity magazine TVnotas recently published 25 paparazzi photos of the Rev. Alberto Cutié, the popular Miami Beach priest famous for his Spanish-language television and radio talk shows, cavorting amorously on a Florida beach with an attractive woman. Over a three-day period, the pictures also captured him kissing her in a bar. In one of TVnotas's "in fragranti" shots [Note to TVnotas copy editors: it's "in flagrante"] the woman wraps her legs around Cutié; in another, Cutié has a hand down her swimsuit, fondling her rear end. Because of the scandal, the Archdiocese of Miami says Cutié, 40, is no longer the administrator of his Miami Beach parish, and it has barred him from leading Sunday mass there. His media work seems up in the air now, and the popular website padrealberto.net has only a blue screen with a message from Cutié asking forgiveness. (See the 25 most influential evangelicals in America.) Most Catholics probably don't approve of Cutié's affair. Still, will they back the archdiocese? Cutié's punishment is understandable at first glance, at least for his hypocrisy if not for the betrayal of his oath of celibacy. To the Catholic Church, priestly ordination means a marriage vow to the church — the "bride of Christ." In a statement, Miami Archbishop John Favalora said Cutié's actions "cannot be condoned despite the good work he's done as a priest." (See pictures of a Catholic congregation fighting to save its church building.) But Cutie's penalty might elicit more than a few snickers from Catholics who have spent the past few decades watching the priestly perdition parade of sexual abuse, parish embezzlement and doctrinal intolerance. The Miami archdiocese has had to pay out millions of dollars in sexual-abuse settlements in recent years — including a case involving a former priest at Cutié's South Beach church, St. Francis de Sales. (One of Cutié's tasks, in fact, has been to heal the wounds inside that parish.) To his credit, Favalora is trying to restore public trust in his archdiocese and the Church. But so long as Cutié wasn't frolicking with a minor (female or male) or using parish funds to buy margaritas for his paramour, many parishioners may actually be relieved that their popular priest has a libido focused on a woman who has reached the age of consent.(Check out a story about the heartthrob of the Vatican.) What's more, one of the pillars of Cutié's popularity is his relationship counseling. To any Catholic who's had to suffer through a lecture on marriage from a celibate kid just out of seminary, Cutié's romantic romp might just make him a more appealing priest — more human, perhaps, than Catholic clergy who deny communion to divorcees, gays and anyone else who dares violate the Church's litany of "non-negotiable" rules. "He was doing this fairly out in the open," notes one Miami Catholic who knows Cutié well and has undergone marriage counseling with him. "Most priests who do this usually try to hide it, but this wasn't some dirty little tryst in the back of the parish residence. It doesn't appear to be just about sex; it's about intimacy, and he's always been able to help people understand which is more important." The attraction of the unidentified woman in the photos to Cutié isn't surprising, either. Cutié's last name is pronounced koo-tee-AY, but that hasn't stopped people from calling the handsome, telegenic priest "Father Cutie" — the kind of hunk-in-a-collar whom smitten Catholic schoolgirls often nickname "Father What-a-Waste." In 1999, when he burst onto the scene just four years after his ordination with his first television talk show on the Spanish-language Telemundo network, Cambia Tu Vida Con Padre Alberto (Change Your Life With Father Alberto), he remarked to the Miami Herald that celibacy is "a struggle, but it's a good struggle." It was a battle that Cutié was perhaps destined to lose, not just because of his good looks but his celebrity. In the chaste, pre-Vatican II culture of the 1950s, no one would have dared wonder if a priestly TV phenom like Bishop Fulton Sheen had a girlfriend. But today, the temptations for an attractive media star, ordained or not, are greater — especially in the narcissistic Gomorrah of South Beach. And Cutié was never a shy altar boy to begin with. Born in Puerto Rico to Cuban parents, he was a popular deejay as a teen, and he still likes disco music and getting buff in the gym. That's not to say, however, that Cutié is a liberal priest. His current television talk show, Hablando Con Padre Alberto (Talking With Father Alberto), is aired on the conservative Catholic network EWTN (Eternal World Television Network) founded by the engaging but dogmatically stern nun, Mother Angelica. Last December he blasted Playboy's Mexican edition for what he called a "blasphemous" cover photo that depicted a model as the Virgin Mary. On his shows on the Radio Paz (Radio Peace) network, and in his columns and books, such as Ama de Verdad, Vive de Verdad (Real Love, Real Life), Cutié usually toes the Vatican's doctrinal line on issues like abortion. Nonetheless, the Cutié scandal is sure to ratchet up debate over clerical celibacy in the Catholic Church, a spiritual ideal that seems to collide more often today with biological reality. (See the recent paternity-suit travails of Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, who has admitted to fathering a child, and is alleged to have sired others, while he was still a priest.) A bigger problem for the Church, however, may be Cutié's Oprah-like standing in the Latino community — the only demographic where U.S. Catholicism is experiencing growth. America's Catholic bishops, many of whom are widely accused of allowing the sexual abuse crisis to happen, must realize that Cutié is more well regarded among Catholics than they are, especially among Latinos, meaning the hierarchy will probably need to handle the tele-priest's future with special care. For his part, Cutié said in his statement that "the commitment I made to serve God will remain intact," a vague message that left many of his parishioners wondering if he plans to stay in the priesthood. Regardless, Cutié's Miami Catholic friend notes that the priest, and the Church, need to recognize "that there's another human being involved in this, the woman in the pictures, and if they're not sensitive to her as well they're looking at double the scandal." In his statement, Favalora said, "Scandals such as this offer an occasion for the Church on all levels to examine our consciences regarding the integrity of our commitments." He's right; but scandals like this also prompt Catholics to more closely and critically examine the battered integrity of their Church. And while they may not applaud Cutié for tasting forbidden fruit, they may not condemn him as harshly as the Church thinks they should either.

Regardless , Cutià © 's Miami Catholic friend notes that the priest , and the Church , need to recognize '' that there 's another human being involved in this , the woman in the pictures , and if they 're not sensitive to her as well they 're looking at double the scandal .

If only it were the worst thing that a Roman Catholic priest has been caught doing. The Mexican celebrity magazine TVnotas recently published 25 paparazzi photos of the Rev. Alberto Cutié, the popular Miami Beach priest famous for his Spanish-language television and radio talk shows, cavorting amorously on a Florida beach with an attractive woman. Over a three-day period, the pictures also captured him kissing her in a bar. In one of TVnotas's "in fragranti" shots [Note to TVnotas copy editors: it's "in flagrante"] the woman wraps her legs around Cutié; in another, Cutié has a hand down her swimsuit, fondling her rear end. Because of the scandal, the Archdiocese of Miami says Cutié, 40, is no longer the administrator of his Miami Beach parish, and it has barred him from leading Sunday mass there. His media work seems up in the air now, and the popular website padrealberto.net has only a blue screen with a message from Cutié asking forgiveness. (See the 25 most influential evangelicals in America.) Most Catholics probably don't approve of Cutié's affair. Still, will they back the archdiocese? Cutié's punishment is understandable at first glance, at least for his hypocrisy if not for the betrayal of his oath of celibacy. To the Catholic Church, priestly ordination means a marriage vow to the church — the "bride of Christ." In a statement, Miami Archbishop John Favalora said Cutié's actions "cannot be condoned despite the good work he's done as a priest." (See pictures of a Catholic congregation fighting to save its church building.) But Cutie's penalty might elicit more than a few snickers from Catholics who have spent the past few decades watching the priestly perdition parade of sexual abuse, parish embezzlement and doctrinal intolerance. The Miami archdiocese has had to pay out millions of dollars in sexual-abuse settlements in recent years — including a case involving a former priest at Cutié's South Beach church, St. Francis de Sales. (One of Cutié's tasks, in fact, has been to heal the wounds inside that parish.) To his credit, Favalora is trying to restore public trust in his archdiocese and the Church. But so long as Cutié wasn't frolicking with a minor (female or male) or using parish funds to buy margaritas for his paramour, many parishioners may actually be relieved that their popular priest has a libido focused on a woman who has reached the age of consent.(Check out a story about the heartthrob of the Vatican.) What's more, one of the pillars of Cutié's popularity is his relationship counseling. To any Catholic who's had to suffer through a lecture on marriage from a celibate kid just out of seminary, Cutié's romantic romp might just make him a more appealing priest — more human, perhaps, than Catholic clergy who deny communion to divorcees, gays and anyone else who dares violate the Church's litany of "non-negotiable" rules. "He was doing this fairly out in the open," notes one Miami Catholic who knows Cutié well and has undergone marriage counseling with him. "Most priests who do this usually try to hide it, but this wasn't some dirty little tryst in the back of the parish residence. It doesn't appear to be just about sex; it's about intimacy, and he's always been able to help people understand which is more important." The attraction of the unidentified woman in the photos to Cutié isn't surprising, either. Cutié's last name is pronounced koo-tee-AY, but that hasn't stopped people from calling the handsome, telegenic priest "Father Cutie" — the kind of hunk-in-a-collar whom smitten Catholic schoolgirls often nickname "Father What-a-Waste." In 1999, when he burst onto the scene just four years after his ordination with his first television talk show on the Spanish-language Telemundo network, Cambia Tu Vida Con Padre Alberto (Change Your Life With Father Alberto), he remarked to the Miami Herald that celibacy is "a struggle, but it's a good struggle." It was a battle that Cutié was perhaps destined to lose, not just because of his good looks but his celebrity. In the chaste, pre-Vatican II culture of the 1950s, no one would have dared wonder if a priestly TV phenom like Bishop Fulton Sheen had a girlfriend. But today, the temptations for an attractive media star, ordained or not, are greater — especially in the narcissistic Gomorrah of South Beach. And Cutié was never a shy altar boy to begin with. Born in Puerto Rico to Cuban parents, he was a popular deejay as a teen, and he still likes disco music and getting buff in the gym. That's not to say, however, that Cutié is a liberal priest. His current television talk show, Hablando Con Padre Alberto (Talking With Father Alberto), is aired on the conservative Catholic network EWTN (Eternal World Television Network) founded by the engaging but dogmatically stern nun, Mother Angelica. Last December he blasted Playboy's Mexican edition for what he called a "blasphemous" cover photo that depicted a model as the Virgin Mary. On his shows on the Radio Paz (Radio Peace) network, and in his columns and books, such as Ama de Verdad, Vive de Verdad (Real Love, Real Life), Cutié usually toes the Vatican's doctrinal line on issues like abortion. Nonetheless, the Cutié scandal is sure to ratchet up debate over clerical celibacy in the Catholic Church, a spiritual ideal that seems to collide more often today with biological reality. (See the recent paternity-suit travails of Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, who has admitted to fathering a child, and is alleged to have sired others, while he was still a priest.) A bigger problem for the Church, however, may be Cutié's Oprah-like standing in the Latino community — the only demographic where U.S. Catholicism is experiencing growth. America's Catholic bishops, many of whom are widely accused of allowing the sexual abuse crisis to happen, must realize that Cutié is more well regarded among Catholics than they are, especially among Latinos, meaning the hierarchy will probably need to handle the tele-priest's future with special care. For his part, Cutié said in his statement that "the commitment I made to serve God will remain intact," a vague message that left many of his parishioners wondering if he plans to stay in the priesthood. Regardless, Cutié's Miami Catholic friend notes that the priest, and the Church, need to recognize "that there's another human being involved in this, the woman in the pictures, and if they're not sensitive to her as well they're looking at double the scandal." In his statement, Favalora said, "Scandals such as this offer an occasion for the Church on all levels to examine our consciences regarding the integrity of our commitments." He's right; but scandals like this also prompt Catholics to more closely and critically examine the battered integrity of their Church. And while they may not applaud Cutié for tasting forbidden fruit, they may not condemn him as harshly as the Church thinks they should either.

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If only it were the worst thing that a Roman Catholic priest has been caught doing. The Mexican celebrity magazine TVnotas recently published 25 paparazzi photos of the Rev. Alberto Cutié, the popular Miami Beach priest famous for his Spanish-language television and radio talk shows, cavorting amorously on a Florida beach with an attractive woman. Over a three-day period, the pictures also captured him kissing her in a bar. In one of TVnotas's "in fragranti" shots [Note to TVnotas copy editors: it's "in flagrante"] the woman wraps her legs around Cutié; in another, Cutié has a hand down her swimsuit, fondling her rear end. Because of the scandal, the Archdiocese of Miami says Cutié, 40, is no longer the administrator of his Miami Beach parish, and it has barred him from leading Sunday mass there. His media work seems up in the air now, and the popular website padrealberto.net has only a blue screen with a message from Cutié asking forgiveness. (See the 25 most influential evangelicals in America.) Most Catholics probably don't approve of Cutié's affair. Still, will they back the archdiocese? Cutié's punishment is understandable at first glance, at least for his hypocrisy if not for the betrayal of his oath of celibacy. To the Catholic Church, priestly ordination means a marriage vow to the church — the "bride of Christ." In a statement, Miami Archbishop John Favalora said Cutié's actions "cannot be condoned despite the good work he's done as a priest." (See pictures of a Catholic congregation fighting to save its church building.) But Cutie's penalty might elicit more than a few snickers from Catholics who have spent the past few decades watching the priestly perdition parade of sexual abuse, parish embezzlement and doctrinal intolerance. The Miami archdiocese has had to pay out millions of dollars in sexual-abuse settlements in recent years — including a case involving a former priest at Cutié's South Beach church, St. Francis de Sales. (One of Cutié's tasks, in fact, has been to heal the wounds inside that parish.) To his credit, Favalora is trying to restore public trust in his archdiocese and the Church. But so long as Cutié wasn't frolicking with a minor (female or male) or using parish funds to buy margaritas for his paramour, many parishioners may actually be relieved that their popular priest has a libido focused on a woman who has reached the age of consent.(Check out a story about the heartthrob of the Vatican.) What's more, one of the pillars of Cutié's popularity is his relationship counseling. To any Catholic who's had to suffer through a lecture on marriage from a celibate kid just out of seminary, Cutié's romantic romp might just make him a more appealing priest — more human, perhaps, than Catholic clergy who deny communion to divorcees, gays and anyone else who dares violate the Church's litany of "non-negotiable" rules. "He was doing this fairly out in the open," notes one Miami Catholic who knows Cutié well and has undergone marriage counseling with him. "Most priests who do this usually try to hide it, but this wasn't some dirty little tryst in the back of the parish residence. It doesn't appear to be just about sex; it's about intimacy, and he's always been able to help people understand which is more important." The attraction of the unidentified woman in the photos to Cutié isn't surprising, either. Cutié's last name is pronounced koo-tee-AY, but that hasn't stopped people from calling the handsome, telegenic priest "Father Cutie" — the kind of hunk-in-a-collar whom smitten Catholic schoolgirls often nickname "Father What-a-Waste." In 1999, when he burst onto the scene just four years after his ordination with his first television talk show on the Spanish-language Telemundo network, Cambia Tu Vida Con Padre Alberto (Change Your Life With Father Alberto), he remarked to the Miami Herald that celibacy is "a struggle, but it's a good struggle." It was a battle that Cutié was perhaps destined to lose, not just because of his good looks but his celebrity. In the chaste, pre-Vatican II culture of the 1950s, no one would have dared wonder if a priestly TV phenom like Bishop Fulton Sheen had a girlfriend. But today, the temptations for an attractive media star, ordained or not, are greater — especially in the narcissistic Gomorrah of South Beach. And Cutié was never a shy altar boy to begin with. Born in Puerto Rico to Cuban parents, he was a popular deejay as a teen, and he still likes disco music and getting buff in the gym. That's not to say, however, that Cutié is a liberal priest. His current television talk show, Hablando Con Padre Alberto (Talking With Father Alberto), is aired on the conservative Catholic network EWTN (Eternal World Television Network) founded by the engaging but dogmatically stern nun, Mother Angelica. Last December he blasted Playboy's Mexican edition for what he called a "blasphemous" cover photo that depicted a model as the Virgin Mary. On his shows on the Radio Paz (Radio Peace) network, and in his columns and books, such as Ama de Verdad, Vive de Verdad (Real Love, Real Life), Cutié usually toes the Vatican's doctrinal line on issues like abortion. Nonetheless, the Cutié scandal is sure to ratchet up debate over clerical celibacy in the Catholic Church, a spiritual ideal that seems to collide more often today with biological reality. (See the recent paternity-suit travails of Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, who has admitted to fathering a child, and is alleged to have sired others, while he was still a priest.) A bigger problem for the Church, however, may be Cutié's Oprah-like standing in the Latino community — the only demographic where U.S. Catholicism is experiencing growth. America's Catholic bishops, many of whom are widely accused of allowing the sexual abuse crisis to happen, must realize that Cutié is more well regarded among Catholics than they are, especially among Latinos, meaning the hierarchy will probably need to handle the tele-priest's future with special care. For his part, Cutié said in his statement that "the commitment I made to serve God will remain intact," a vague message that left many of his parishioners wondering if he plans to stay in the priesthood. Regardless, Cutié's Miami Catholic friend notes that the priest, and the Church, need to recognize "that there's another human being involved in this, the woman in the pictures, and if they're not sensitive to her as well they're looking at double the scandal." In his statement, Favalora said, "Scandals such as this offer an occasion for the Church on all levels to examine our consciences regarding the integrity of our commitments." He's right; but scandals like this also prompt Catholics to more closely and critically examine the battered integrity of their Church. And while they may not applaud Cutié for tasting forbidden fruit, they may not condemn him as harshly as the Church thinks they should either.

archdiocese of miami says cutié , 40 , is no longer the administrator of his miami beach parish , many parishioners may actually be relieved that their popular priest has a libido focused on a woman who has reached the

If only it were the worst thing that a Roman Catholic priest has been caught doing. The Mexican celebrity magazine TVnotas recently published 25 paparazzi photos of the Rev. Alberto Cutié, the popular Miami Beach priest famous for his Spanish-language television and radio talk shows, cavorting amorously on a Florida beach with an attractive woman. Over a three-day period, the pictures also captured him kissing her in a bar. In one of TVnotas's "in fragranti" shots [Note to TVnotas copy editors: it's "in flagrante"] the woman wraps her legs around Cutié; in another, Cutié has a hand down her swimsuit, fondling her rear end. Because of the scandal, the Archdiocese of Miami says Cutié, 40, is no longer the administrator of his Miami Beach parish, and it has barred him from leading Sunday mass there. His media work seems up in the air now, and the popular website padrealberto.net has only a blue screen with a message from Cutié asking forgiveness. (See the 25 most influential evangelicals in America.) Most Catholics probably don't approve of Cutié's affair. Still, will they back the archdiocese? Cutié's punishment is understandable at first glance, at least for his hypocrisy if not for the betrayal of his oath of celibacy. To the Catholic Church, priestly ordination means a marriage vow to the church — the "bride of Christ." In a statement, Miami Archbishop John Favalora said Cutié's actions "cannot be condoned despite the good work he's done as a priest." (See pictures of a Catholic congregation fighting to save its church building.) But Cutie's penalty might elicit more than a few snickers from Catholics who have spent the past few decades watching the priestly perdition parade of sexual abuse, parish embezzlement and doctrinal intolerance. The Miami archdiocese has had to pay out millions of dollars in sexual-abuse settlements in recent years — including a case involving a former priest at Cutié's South Beach church, St. Francis de Sales. (One of Cutié's tasks, in fact, has been to heal the wounds inside that parish.) To his credit, Favalora is trying to restore public trust in his archdiocese and the Church. But so long as Cutié wasn't frolicking with a minor (female or male) or using parish funds to buy margaritas for his paramour, many parishioners may actually be relieved that their popular priest has a libido focused on a woman who has reached the age of consent.(Check out a story about the heartthrob of the Vatican.) What's more, one of the pillars of Cutié's popularity is his relationship counseling. To any Catholic who's had to suffer through a lecture on marriage from a celibate kid just out of seminary, Cutié's romantic romp might just make him a more appealing priest — more human, perhaps, than Catholic clergy who deny communion to divorcees, gays and anyone else who dares violate the Church's litany of "non-negotiable" rules. "He was doing this fairly out in the open," notes one Miami Catholic who knows Cutié well and has undergone marriage counseling with him. "Most priests who do this usually try to hide it, but this wasn't some dirty little tryst in the back of the parish residence. It doesn't appear to be just about sex; it's about intimacy, and he's always been able to help people understand which is more important." The attraction of the unidentified woman in the photos to Cutié isn't surprising, either. Cutié's last name is pronounced koo-tee-AY, but that hasn't stopped people from calling the handsome, telegenic priest "Father Cutie" — the kind of hunk-in-a-collar whom smitten Catholic schoolgirls often nickname "Father What-a-Waste." In 1999, when he burst onto the scene just four years after his ordination with his first television talk show on the Spanish-language Telemundo network, Cambia Tu Vida Con Padre Alberto (Change Your Life With Father Alberto), he remarked to the Miami Herald that celibacy is "a struggle, but it's a good struggle." It was a battle that Cutié was perhaps destined to lose, not just because of his good looks but his celebrity. In the chaste, pre-Vatican II culture of the 1950s, no one would have dared wonder if a priestly TV phenom like Bishop Fulton Sheen had a girlfriend. But today, the temptations for an attractive media star, ordained or not, are greater — especially in the narcissistic Gomorrah of South Beach. And Cutié was never a shy altar boy to begin with. Born in Puerto Rico to Cuban parents, he was a popular deejay as a teen, and he still likes disco music and getting buff in the gym. That's not to say, however, that Cutié is a liberal priest. His current television talk show, Hablando Con Padre Alberto (Talking With Father Alberto), is aired on the conservative Catholic network EWTN (Eternal World Television Network) founded by the engaging but dogmatically stern nun, Mother Angelica. Last December he blasted Playboy's Mexican edition for what he called a "blasphemous" cover photo that depicted a model as the Virgin Mary. On his shows on the Radio Paz (Radio Peace) network, and in his columns and books, such as Ama de Verdad, Vive de Verdad (Real Love, Real Life), Cutié usually toes the Vatican's doctrinal line on issues like abortion. Nonetheless, the Cutié scandal is sure to ratchet up debate over clerical celibacy in the Catholic Church, a spiritual ideal that seems to collide more often today with biological reality. (See the recent paternity-suit travails of Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, who has admitted to fathering a child, and is alleged to have sired others, while he was still a priest.) A bigger problem for the Church, however, may be Cutié's Oprah-like standing in the Latino community — the only demographic where U.S. Catholicism is experiencing growth. America's Catholic bishops, many of whom are widely accused of allowing the sexual abuse crisis to happen, must realize that Cutié is more well regarded among Catholics than they are, especially among Latinos, meaning the hierarchy will probably need to handle the tele-priest's future with special care. For his part, Cutié said in his statement that "the commitment I made to serve God will remain intact," a vague message that left many of his parishioners wondering if he plans to stay in the priesthood. Regardless, Cutié's Miami Catholic friend notes that the priest, and the Church, need to recognize "that there's another human being involved in this, the woman in the pictures, and if they're not sensitive to her as well they're looking at double the scandal." In his statement, Favalora said, "Scandals such as this offer an occasion for the Church on all levels to examine our consciences regarding the integrity of our commitments." He's right; but scandals like this also prompt Catholics to more closely and critically examine the battered integrity of their Church. And while they may not applaud Cutié for tasting forbidden fruit, they may not condemn him as harshly as the Church thinks they should either.

because of the scandal , the archdiocese of miami is no longer the administrator of his miami beach parish , and it has barred him from leading sunday mass there has only a blue screen with a message from cutié asking forgiveness .

If only it were the worst thing that a Roman Catholic priest has been caught doing. The Mexican celebrity magazine TVnotas recently published 25 paparazzi photos of the Rev. Alberto Cutié, the popular Miami Beach priest famous for his Spanish-language television and radio talk shows, cavorting amorously on a Florida beach with an attractive woman. Over a three-day period, the pictures also captured him kissing her in a bar. In one of TVnotas's "in fragranti" shots [Note to TVnotas copy editors: it's "in flagrante"] the woman wraps her legs around Cutié; in another, Cutié has a hand down her swimsuit, fondling her rear end. Because of the scandal, the Archdiocese of Miami says Cutié, 40, is no longer the administrator of his Miami Beach parish, and it has barred him from leading Sunday mass there. His media work seems up in the air now, and the popular website padrealberto.net has only a blue screen with a message from Cutié asking forgiveness. (See the 25 most influential evangelicals in America.) Most Catholics probably don't approve of Cutié's affair. Still, will they back the archdiocese? Cutié's punishment is understandable at first glance, at least for his hypocrisy if not for the betrayal of his oath of celibacy. To the Catholic Church, priestly ordination means a marriage vow to the church — the "bride of Christ." In a statement, Miami Archbishop John Favalora said Cutié's actions "cannot be condoned despite the good work he's done as a priest." (See pictures of a Catholic congregation fighting to save its church building.) But Cutie's penalty might elicit more than a few snickers from Catholics who have spent the past few decades watching the priestly perdition parade of sexual abuse, parish embezzlement and doctrinal intolerance. The Miami archdiocese has had to pay out millions of dollars in sexual-abuse settlements in recent years — including a case involving a former priest at Cutié's South Beach church, St. Francis de Sales. (One of Cutié's tasks, in fact, has been to heal the wounds inside that parish.) To his credit, Favalora is trying to restore public trust in his archdiocese and the Church. But so long as Cutié wasn't frolicking with a minor (female or male) or using parish funds to buy margaritas for his paramour, many parishioners may actually be relieved that their popular priest has a libido focused on a woman who has reached the age of consent.(Check out a story about the heartthrob of the Vatican.) What's more, one of the pillars of Cutié's popularity is his relationship counseling. To any Catholic who's had to suffer through a lecture on marriage from a celibate kid just out of seminary, Cutié's romantic romp might just make him a more appealing priest — more human, perhaps, than Catholic clergy who deny communion to divorcees, gays and anyone else who dares violate the Church's litany of "non-negotiable" rules. "He was doing this fairly out in the open," notes one Miami Catholic who knows Cutié well and has undergone marriage counseling with him. "Most priests who do this usually try to hide it, but this wasn't some dirty little tryst in the back of the parish residence. It doesn't appear to be just about sex; it's about intimacy, and he's always been able to help people understand which is more important." The attraction of the unidentified woman in the photos to Cutié isn't surprising, either. Cutié's last name is pronounced koo-tee-AY, but that hasn't stopped people from calling the handsome, telegenic priest "Father Cutie" — the kind of hunk-in-a-collar whom smitten Catholic schoolgirls often nickname "Father What-a-Waste." In 1999, when he burst onto the scene just four years after his ordination with his first television talk show on the Spanish-language Telemundo network, Cambia Tu Vida Con Padre Alberto (Change Your Life With Father Alberto), he remarked to the Miami Herald that celibacy is "a struggle, but it's a good struggle." It was a battle that Cutié was perhaps destined to lose, not just because of his good looks but his celebrity. In the chaste, pre-Vatican II culture of the 1950s, no one would have dared wonder if a priestly TV phenom like Bishop Fulton Sheen had a girlfriend. But today, the temptations for an attractive media star, ordained or not, are greater — especially in the narcissistic Gomorrah of South Beach. And Cutié was never a shy altar boy to begin with. Born in Puerto Rico to Cuban parents, he was a popular deejay as a teen, and he still likes disco music and getting buff in the gym. That's not to say, however, that Cutié is a liberal priest. His current television talk show, Hablando Con Padre Alberto (Talking With Father Alberto), is aired on the conservative Catholic network EWTN (Eternal World Television Network) founded by the engaging but dogmatically stern nun, Mother Angelica. Last December he blasted Playboy's Mexican edition for what he called a "blasphemous" cover photo that depicted a model as the Virgin Mary. On his shows on the Radio Paz (Radio Peace) network, and in his columns and books, such as Ama de Verdad, Vive de Verdad (Real Love, Real Life), Cutié usually toes the Vatican's doctrinal line on issues like abortion. Nonetheless, the Cutié scandal is sure to ratchet up debate over clerical celibacy in the Catholic Church, a spiritual ideal that seems to collide more often today with biological reality. (See the recent paternity-suit travails of Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, who has admitted to fathering a child, and is alleged to have sired others, while he was still a priest.) A bigger problem for the Church, however, may be Cutié's Oprah-like standing in the Latino community — the only demographic where U.S. Catholicism is experiencing growth. America's Catholic bishops, many of whom are widely accused of allowing the sexual abuse crisis to happen, must realize that Cutié is more well regarded among Catholics than they are, especially among Latinos, meaning the hierarchy will probably need to handle the tele-priest's future with special care. For his part, Cutié said in his statement that "the commitment I made to serve God will remain intact," a vague message that left many of his parishioners wondering if he plans to stay in the priesthood. Regardless, Cutié's Miami Catholic friend notes that the priest, and the Church, need to recognize "that there's another human being involved in this, the woman in the pictures, and if they're not sensitive to her as well they're looking at double the scandal." In his statement, Favalora said, "Scandals such as this offer an occasion for the Church on all levels to examine our consciences regarding the integrity of our commitments." He's right; but scandals like this also prompt Catholics to more closely and critically examine the battered integrity of their Church. And while they may not applaud Cutié for tasting forbidden fruit, they may not condemn him as harshly as the Church thinks they should either.

because of the scandal , the archdiocese of miami says cutié , 40 , is no longer the administrator of his miami beach parish , and it has barred him from leading sunday mass there .

12/28/2015 AT 04:50 PM EST Like a lot of professional funny people, Beth Stelling is used to getting candid about her life offstage. Recently, the Los Angeles based-comedian started working one very personal, serious experience into her routine. on Monday to open up about a violent relationship with an ex boyfriend, sharing photos of her bruised arms and legs and explaining why she has decided to include discussions of the abuse in her stand-up. "Same girl in all of these photos (me). I've had an amazing year, and you've seen the highlights here, so these photos are an uncommon thing to share but not an uncommon issue," Stelling captions a collage of photos of her bruises and her onstage smile. The comic, who released her album this fall and has a Comedy Central special, was hesitant to openly talk about the abuse, especially within her professional world. "There are many reasons not to make an abusive relationship public, mostly fear. Scared of what people will think, scared it makes me look weak or unprofessional," she writes. "When friends or comics ask why we broke up, it's not easy or comfortable to reply; it doesn't seem like the appropriate thing to say at a stand-up show, a party or a wedding. It's embarrassing. I feel stupid. After being verbally, physically abused and raped, I dated him for two more months. It's not simple." Ultimately, Stelling couldn't exclude such a significant piece of her story from her onstage persona, even if it meant risking ridicule from the close-knit comedy community. "After I broke up with him, he said, 'You're very open and honest in your stand-up, and I just ask that you consider me when you talk about your ex because everyone knows who you're talking about.' And I abided. I wrote vague jokes because we both live in L.A., and I didn't want to hurt him, start a war, press charges, be interrogated or harassed by him or his friends and family. I wanted to move on and forget because I didn't understand," Stelling shares. "I don't want revenge or to hurt him now, but it's unhealthy to keep this inside because my stand-up is pulled directly from my life. It's how I make my living. My personal is my professional. That is how I've always been; I make dark, funny. So now I'm allowing this to be part of my story." Stelling says she's already started joking about the relationship and asked her followers to "have the courage to listen and accept." So far, the funny lady has been getting a positive response to her openness at the mic. "Already since talking about this onstage, many women have come to me after shows asking me to keep doing it," she says on Instagram. "Men have shown their solidarity."

12/28/2015 AT 04:50 PM EST Like a lot of professional funny people , Beth Stelling is used to getting candid about her life offstage . Recently , the Los Angeles based - comedian started working one very personal , serious experience into her routine . on Monday to open up about a violent relationship with an ex boyfriend , sharing photos of her bruised arms and legs and explaining why she has decided to include discussions of the abuse in her stand - up . ''

12/28/2015 AT 04:50 PM EST Like a lot of professional funny people, Beth Stelling is used to getting candid about her life offstage. Recently, the Los Angeles based-comedian started working one very personal, serious experience into her routine. on Monday to open up about a violent relationship with an ex boyfriend, sharing photos of her bruised arms and legs and explaining why she has decided to include discussions of the abuse in her stand-up. "Same girl in all of these photos (me). I've had an amazing year, and you've seen the highlights here, so these photos are an uncommon thing to share but not an uncommon issue," Stelling captions a collage of photos of her bruises and her onstage smile. The comic, who released her album this fall and has a Comedy Central special, was hesitant to openly talk about the abuse, especially within her professional world. "There are many reasons not to make an abusive relationship public, mostly fear. Scared of what people will think, scared it makes me look weak or unprofessional," she writes. "When friends or comics ask why we broke up, it's not easy or comfortable to reply; it doesn't seem like the appropriate thing to say at a stand-up show, a party or a wedding. It's embarrassing. I feel stupid. After being verbally, physically abused and raped, I dated him for two more months. It's not simple." Ultimately, Stelling couldn't exclude such a significant piece of her story from her onstage persona, even if it meant risking ridicule from the close-knit comedy community. "After I broke up with him, he said, 'You're very open and honest in your stand-up, and I just ask that you consider me when you talk about your ex because everyone knows who you're talking about.' And I abided. I wrote vague jokes because we both live in L.A., and I didn't want to hurt him, start a war, press charges, be interrogated or harassed by him or his friends and family. I wanted to move on and forget because I didn't understand," Stelling shares. "I don't want revenge or to hurt him now, but it's unhealthy to keep this inside because my stand-up is pulled directly from my life. It's how I make my living. My personal is my professional. That is how I've always been; I make dark, funny. So now I'm allowing this to be part of my story." Stelling says she's already started joking about the relationship and asked her followers to "have the courage to listen and accept." So far, the funny lady has been getting a positive response to her openness at the mic. "Already since talking about this onstage, many women have come to me after shows asking me to keep doing it," she says on Instagram. "Men have shown their solidarity."

Stelling says she 's the abuse into the story she her stand - up routine

12/28/2015 AT 04:50 PM EST Like a lot of professional funny people, Beth Stelling is used to getting candid about her life offstage. Recently, the Los Angeles based-comedian started working one very personal, serious experience into her routine. on Monday to open up about a violent relationship with an ex boyfriend, sharing photos of her bruised arms and legs and explaining why she has decided to include discussions of the abuse in her stand-up. "Same girl in all of these photos (me). I've had an amazing year, and you've seen the highlights here, so these photos are an uncommon thing to share but not an uncommon issue," Stelling captions a collage of photos of her bruises and her onstage smile. The comic, who released her album this fall and has a Comedy Central special, was hesitant to openly talk about the abuse, especially within her professional world. "There are many reasons not to make an abusive relationship public, mostly fear. Scared of what people will think, scared it makes me look weak or unprofessional," she writes. "When friends or comics ask why we broke up, it's not easy or comfortable to reply; it doesn't seem like the appropriate thing to say at a stand-up show, a party or a wedding. It's embarrassing. I feel stupid. After being verbally, physically abused and raped, I dated him for two more months. It's not simple." Ultimately, Stelling couldn't exclude such a significant piece of her story from her onstage persona, even if it meant risking ridicule from the close-knit comedy community. "After I broke up with him, he said, 'You're very open and honest in your stand-up, and I just ask that you consider me when you talk about your ex because everyone knows who you're talking about.' And I abided. I wrote vague jokes because we both live in L.A., and I didn't want to hurt him, start a war, press charges, be interrogated or harassed by him or his friends and family. I wanted to move on and forget because I didn't understand," Stelling shares. "I don't want revenge or to hurt him now, but it's unhealthy to keep this inside because my stand-up is pulled directly from my life. It's how I make my living. My personal is my professional. That is how I've always been; I make dark, funny. So now I'm allowing this to be part of my story." Stelling says she's already started joking about the relationship and asked her followers to "have the courage to listen and accept." So far, the funny lady has been getting a positive response to her openness at the mic. "Already since talking about this onstage, many women have come to me after shows asking me to keep doing it," she says on Instagram. "Men have shown their solidarity."

12/28/2015 AT 04:50 PM EST Like a lot of professional funny people , Beth Stelling is used to getting candid about her life offstage . '' Stelling says she 's already started joking about the relationship and asked her followers to '' have the courage to listen and accept .

12/28/2015 AT 04:50 PM EST Like a lot of professional funny people, Beth Stelling is used to getting candid about her life offstage. Recently, the Los Angeles based-comedian started working one very personal, serious experience into her routine. on Monday to open up about a violent relationship with an ex boyfriend, sharing photos of her bruised arms and legs and explaining why she has decided to include discussions of the abuse in her stand-up. "Same girl in all of these photos (me). I've had an amazing year, and you've seen the highlights here, so these photos are an uncommon thing to share but not an uncommon issue," Stelling captions a collage of photos of her bruises and her onstage smile. The comic, who released her album this fall and has a Comedy Central special, was hesitant to openly talk about the abuse, especially within her professional world. "There are many reasons not to make an abusive relationship public, mostly fear. Scared of what people will think, scared it makes me look weak or unprofessional," she writes. "When friends or comics ask why we broke up, it's not easy or comfortable to reply; it doesn't seem like the appropriate thing to say at a stand-up show, a party or a wedding. It's embarrassing. I feel stupid. After being verbally, physically abused and raped, I dated him for two more months. It's not simple." Ultimately, Stelling couldn't exclude such a significant piece of her story from her onstage persona, even if it meant risking ridicule from the close-knit comedy community. "After I broke up with him, he said, 'You're very open and honest in your stand-up, and I just ask that you consider me when you talk about your ex because everyone knows who you're talking about.' And I abided. I wrote vague jokes because we both live in L.A., and I didn't want to hurt him, start a war, press charges, be interrogated or harassed by him or his friends and family. I wanted to move on and forget because I didn't understand," Stelling shares. "I don't want revenge or to hurt him now, but it's unhealthy to keep this inside because my stand-up is pulled directly from my life. It's how I make my living. My personal is my professional. That is how I've always been; I make dark, funny. So now I'm allowing this to be part of my story." Stelling says she's already started joking about the relationship and asked her followers to "have the courage to listen and accept." So far, the funny lady has been getting a positive response to her openness at the mic. "Already since talking about this onstage, many women have come to me after shows asking me to keep doing it," she says on Instagram. "Men have shown their solidarity."

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12/28/2015 AT 04:50 PM EST Like a lot of professional funny people, Beth Stelling is used to getting candid about her life offstage. Recently, the Los Angeles based-comedian started working one very personal, serious experience into her routine. on Monday to open up about a violent relationship with an ex boyfriend, sharing photos of her bruised arms and legs and explaining why she has decided to include discussions of the abuse in her stand-up. "Same girl in all of these photos (me). I've had an amazing year, and you've seen the highlights here, so these photos are an uncommon thing to share but not an uncommon issue," Stelling captions a collage of photos of her bruises and her onstage smile. The comic, who released her album this fall and has a Comedy Central special, was hesitant to openly talk about the abuse, especially within her professional world. "There are many reasons not to make an abusive relationship public, mostly fear. Scared of what people will think, scared it makes me look weak or unprofessional," she writes. "When friends or comics ask why we broke up, it's not easy or comfortable to reply; it doesn't seem like the appropriate thing to say at a stand-up show, a party or a wedding. It's embarrassing. I feel stupid. After being verbally, physically abused and raped, I dated him for two more months. It's not simple." Ultimately, Stelling couldn't exclude such a significant piece of her story from her onstage persona, even if it meant risking ridicule from the close-knit comedy community. "After I broke up with him, he said, 'You're very open and honest in your stand-up, and I just ask that you consider me when you talk about your ex because everyone knows who you're talking about.' And I abided. I wrote vague jokes because we both live in L.A., and I didn't want to hurt him, start a war, press charges, be interrogated or harassed by him or his friends and family. I wanted to move on and forget because I didn't understand," Stelling shares. "I don't want revenge or to hurt him now, but it's unhealthy to keep this inside because my stand-up is pulled directly from my life. It's how I make my living. My personal is my professional. That is how I've always been; I make dark, funny. So now I'm allowing this to be part of my story." Stelling says she's already started joking about the relationship and asked her followers to "have the courage to listen and accept." So far, the funny lady has been getting a positive response to her openness at the mic. "Already since talking about this onstage, many women have come to me after shows asking me to keep doing it," she says on Instagram. "Men have shown their solidarity."

close-knit comedy community . `` i broke up with him , he said , ` you 're very open and honest in your stand-up , and i just ask that you consider me when you talk about your ex because everyone knows the 're talking about . ' and i abided . i wrote vague jokes because we both live in l.a. , and i did n't want hurt him now , the funny lady has been getting a positive response to her openness at the

12/28/2015 AT 04:50 PM EST Like a lot of professional funny people, Beth Stelling is used to getting candid about her life offstage. Recently, the Los Angeles based-comedian started working one very personal, serious experience into her routine. on Monday to open up about a violent relationship with an ex boyfriend, sharing photos of her bruised arms and legs and explaining why she has decided to include discussions of the abuse in her stand-up. "Same girl in all of these photos (me). I've had an amazing year, and you've seen the highlights here, so these photos are an uncommon thing to share but not an uncommon issue," Stelling captions a collage of photos of her bruises and her onstage smile. The comic, who released her album this fall and has a Comedy Central special, was hesitant to openly talk about the abuse, especially within her professional world. "There are many reasons not to make an abusive relationship public, mostly fear. Scared of what people will think, scared it makes me look weak or unprofessional," she writes. "When friends or comics ask why we broke up, it's not easy or comfortable to reply; it doesn't seem like the appropriate thing to say at a stand-up show, a party or a wedding. It's embarrassing. I feel stupid. After being verbally, physically abused and raped, I dated him for two more months. It's not simple." Ultimately, Stelling couldn't exclude such a significant piece of her story from her onstage persona, even if it meant risking ridicule from the close-knit comedy community. "After I broke up with him, he said, 'You're very open and honest in your stand-up, and I just ask that you consider me when you talk about your ex because everyone knows who you're talking about.' And I abided. I wrote vague jokes because we both live in L.A., and I didn't want to hurt him, start a war, press charges, be interrogated or harassed by him or his friends and family. I wanted to move on and forget because I didn't understand," Stelling shares. "I don't want revenge or to hurt him now, but it's unhealthy to keep this inside because my stand-up is pulled directly from my life. It's how I make my living. My personal is my professional. That is how I've always been; I make dark, funny. So now I'm allowing this to be part of my story." Stelling says she's already started joking about the relationship and asked her followers to "have the courage to listen and accept." So far, the funny lady has been getting a positive response to her openness at the mic. "Already since talking about this onstage, many women have come to me after shows asking me to keep doing it," she says on Instagram. "Men have shown their solidarity."

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12/28/2015 AT 04:50 PM EST Like a lot of professional funny people, Beth Stelling is used to getting candid about her life offstage. Recently, the Los Angeles based-comedian started working one very personal, serious experience into her routine. on Monday to open up about a violent relationship with an ex boyfriend, sharing photos of her bruised arms and legs and explaining why she has decided to include discussions of the abuse in her stand-up. "Same girl in all of these photos (me). I've had an amazing year, and you've seen the highlights here, so these photos are an uncommon thing to share but not an uncommon issue," Stelling captions a collage of photos of her bruises and her onstage smile. The comic, who released her album this fall and has a Comedy Central special, was hesitant to openly talk about the abuse, especially within her professional world. "There are many reasons not to make an abusive relationship public, mostly fear. Scared of what people will think, scared it makes me look weak or unprofessional," she writes. "When friends or comics ask why we broke up, it's not easy or comfortable to reply; it doesn't seem like the appropriate thing to say at a stand-up show, a party or a wedding. It's embarrassing. I feel stupid. After being verbally, physically abused and raped, I dated him for two more months. It's not simple." Ultimately, Stelling couldn't exclude such a significant piece of her story from her onstage persona, even if it meant risking ridicule from the close-knit comedy community. "After I broke up with him, he said, 'You're very open and honest in your stand-up, and I just ask that you consider me when you talk about your ex because everyone knows who you're talking about.' And I abided. I wrote vague jokes because we both live in L.A., and I didn't want to hurt him, start a war, press charges, be interrogated or harassed by him or his friends and family. I wanted to move on and forget because I didn't understand," Stelling shares. "I don't want revenge or to hurt him now, but it's unhealthy to keep this inside because my stand-up is pulled directly from my life. It's how I make my living. My personal is my professional. That is how I've always been; I make dark, funny. So now I'm allowing this to be part of my story." Stelling says she's already started joking about the relationship and asked her followers to "have the courage to listen and accept." So far, the funny lady has been getting a positive response to her openness at the mic. "Already since talking about this onstage, many women have come to me after shows asking me to keep doing it," she says on Instagram. "Men have shown their solidarity."

ultimately , stelling could n't exclude such a significant piece of her story from her onstage persona , even if it meant risking ridicule from the close-knit comedy community . '' open and honest in your stand-up , and i just ask that you consider me when you talk about your ex because everyone knows who you 're very open with him , he said , ` you 're already interrogated by him or his friends and family .