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George Takei

Everyone has their own system.

A socail post from @ceasarslegion that says: My dad paypals me 20 bucks every exam season "for red bull and snickers" because he swears by a trick he used to do in college where he would chug a red bull and eat a snickers in the exam hall before every single one of his exams and he did well on all of them. Legitimately swears to this day that it works and makes me do it. The first time i tried it i also knocked that exam out of the park. It would take 2 more years for either of us to figure out that we both had low blood pressure and what all that caffeine and sugar was making us experience was known as "normal blood pressure allowing us to concentrate better." My dad still swears that it was the red bull and snickers and not the medical equivalent of using the wrong equation and getting the right answer.
24 November at 18:00 | Open on universeodon.com
11 comments
Infrapink (he/his/him)

@georgetakei I mean... it *is* the Red Bull and Snickers, dad just doesn't understand the mechanism.

24 November at 18:08 | Open on mastodon.ie
toxtethogrady

@georgetakei In my day, we did not have Red Bull, but we had Snickers bars. In my early career, I found that a Snickers bar at 3pm in the afternoon picked me up for the rest of the day. So I bought boxes of them to keep in a desk drawer...

24 November at 18:11 | Open on universeodon.com
W. Blake Gray

@georgetakei But there are more effects of caffeine than simply those on blood pressure.

So the poster is no more certain to be correct than his father.

The specificity of Snickers is unlikely, but a sugar-based snack with peanuts in it might give a slightly longer energy boost than, say, a Milky Way.

24 November at 18:11 | Open on federated.press
Mike Hanley
Tristan Colgate-McFarlane

@georgetakei that fact that someone who did their exams when RedBull existed, can have a child of exam-taking age tells me things that I do not wish to hear.

24 November at 18:48 | Open on toot.community
ClickyMcTicker

@tmcfarlane @georgetakei Red Bull came out in 1987. Soon enough there will be people capable in college of saying their grandparents drank it in college.

24 November at 18:54 | Open on hachyderm.io
Tristan Colgate-McFarlane

@ClickyMcTicker @georgetakei released in the UK in '93 (still way earlier than I was aware of). It was all Quatro and Umbongo when I were a lad! Apparently they are stopping Old Jamaica Ginger Beer now. My childhood has been cancelled

24 November at 19:01 | Open on toot.community
Lou Thomas

@georgetakei

As ceasarslegon probably knows, taking a large dose of sugar and caffeine may not be the most healthy of practices!

He might want to take a look at the supplement vinpocetine as a possible alternative. This is a phosphodiesterase type 1 inhibitor that dilates vasculature in the head area, resulting in more blood reaching the brain.

It's not for everyone, since among other side effects, it thins the blood somewhat, which can be dangerous if one has a tendency toward hemorrhagic stroke, or if one is being treated with blood thinners already. And although it is available over the counter in the U.S., in some other nations it requires a prescription (and is sold under the name Cavinton). So it is serious medicine and a doctor should definitely be consulted before one should consider its use, to be sure there are no negative interactions with current medications or a patient's specific conditions.

I have no medical training myself--just passing along what I've read about a supplement that I am currently using myself.

I would only add that a condition of low blood pressure to the point that it affects brain function might possibly cause subtle brain damage over time through temporary episodes of oxygen deprivation during those times when the brain is not getting enough blood.

@georgetakei

As ceasarslegon probably knows, taking a large dose of sugar and caffeine may not be the most healthy of practices!

He might want to take a look at the supplement vinpocetine as a possible alternative. This is a phosphodiesterase type 1 inhibitor that dilates vasculature in the head area, resulting in more blood reaching the brain.

24 November at 19:37 | Open on hear-me.social
Susibryant

@georgetakei I used to bring pepsi and chocolate with me to take exams in the 90s, which I felt helped. I also have low blood pressure, but would never have connected the 2. Also, getting extra oxygen by running to your exam, gives your brain a boost.

24 November at 19:46 | Open on mastodon.social
Pat

@Susibryant @georgetakei does anyone else recall Welch's grape juice "valley of fatigue" commercials? Same concept, I think.

24 November at 20:03 | Open on ohai.social
kampfschwaetzer

@georgetakei Yes, that's exactly how superstition and esotericism work. It is generalized from one case to all. A look in a math book might help: Full-scale induction works differently.
Science ruls

24 November at 21:13 | Open on social.tchncs.de
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