So, I don’t think that’s a valid test.” Our ruling: Partly false You’re looking at fundamentally different things. “When you drink it, your body metabolizes and breaks down its compounds, and then when you urinate, you have a different compound. “Pure Red Bull is going to have a different pH and a different acidity than actual urine,” Chai said.
While Red Bull may cause a false positive, the post shows the results of pure Red Bull poured into the container, rather than a urine sample of someone who has consumed the energy drink. Riboflavin is a form of vitamin B naturally present in some foods and exists as an additive in Red Bull, which contains 1.47 mg per serving.įact check: Fact check: Costco's Kirkland Signature vodka is not made by Grey Goose There have been reports of riboflavin being mistaken for marijuana according to an article in Missouri Medicine, the journal of the Missouri State Medical Association. There may be another culprit behind the false positive. There’s not amphetamine in the energy drink, but one of these amino acids may mimic the structure and so (the test) is just going to become positive if it detects a similar structure.”Ĭhai said that because there are a lot of potential things that can go wrong with an immunoassay that would lead to a positive result, laboratories could then conduct a follow-up confirmatory test to determine the identity of the actual drug. That’s how these tests commonly get fooled. “You’re not testing for the actual drug, you’re testing for a structure within the molecular composition of the drug. “A lot of these energy drinks have some sort of caffeine in it, and then they have essential amino acids,” he said. Peter Chai, an emergency medicine physician specializing in toxicology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.įact check: Whiskey dispensers existed, but never became office staples in the 1950s Urine drug tests, however, are considered the gold standard given ease in collection, low testing cost and ability to detect recent drug use.ĭespite the pros, the underlying methodology of the urine drug test - which uses immune system molecules called antibodies (also known as an immunoassay) - can be why a test returns a false positive for energy drinks, said Dr. Aside from urine, other biological samples such as hair, saliva or sweat may also be collected. The Facebook post pictures a urine drug test, a tool commonly used to monitor medication compliance, detect drug abuse or for employment screening purposes. Drug tests can vary widely depending on the drugs being tested and specimen types collected, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
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