teen dies after drinking caffeine too quickly (Mountain Dew, McDonalds latte and an energy drink)

Cromulent said:
I gave up caffeine for a week and it was the worst feeling ever. Felt really depressed. Wasn't sure what the issue was at the time but after a cup of tea I instantly started feeling good again. I guess I have a problem.

I used to take 200mg caffeine pills when I was younger. Didn't even give it a second thought.
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Definitely addictive. I used to be on 7 mugs of coffee at work. Went cold turkey and felt like I was coming off crack. Even friends said I looked like a junky.
 
All caffeine is harmless if you're eating a steady diet of Cheetos and enjoying no sunlight, vegetables, or any human contact according to available basement surveys.
 
wow, not sure what caffiene in coffee is but I often have 3 cups in the first hour-hour and half of being at the office. Thats got to be getting on for 250-300mg in the first 90min let alone the proceeding cups throughout the rest of the day probably totalling 7/8 cups between 8 and 4 every day. Should I be dead?
 
I drank too much caffeine once, was kind of by accident though. I had an energy drink (which I never normally touch) met a friend for some coffee at starbucks then another friend shortly after and had another coffee.

Man I felt like absolute ASS....at least I think it was caffeine OD. I was feeling fine then all of a sudden utterly terrible/heart pounding.

Bear in mind I don't drink caffeine regularly, at that point in time I think I hadn't touched it in weeks.

wildman said:
in other news, arsonist played fire mage in wow, wow to be banned as it induces people to set fire to stuff.
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KEK
 
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dowie said:
perhaps - but the message is still the same - chugging energy drinks is probably a bad idea... they've been quite clear that it isn't the simply the quantity that was dangerous
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I used to drink energy drinks, a lot, 6 relentless sized cans a day, sometimes more, I had a heart attack in 2011, i was 41, i have never been diagnosed with any serious medical problems before that. Nobody blamed the energy drinks at the time, but i know they probably did no good, obviously i don't drink them now, oh and I am currently fighting cancer, i think i have won for now.

e: I'll have to give up strawberries, just in case they cause cancer, as i eat loads of them daily :)
 
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Arazi said:
I used to drink energy drinks, a lot, 6 relentless sized cans a day, sometimes more, I had a heart attack in 2011, i was 41, i have never been diagnosed with any serious medical problems before that. Nobody blamed the energy drinks at the time, but i know they probably did no good, obviously i don't drink them now, oh and I am currently fighting cancer, i think i have won for now.
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sorry to hear that

wildman said:
in other news, arsonist played fire mage in wow, wow to be banned as it induces people to set fire to stuff.
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bit pathetic tbh.. someone died in this instance and the link is real not imagined
 
Arazi said:
I used to drink energy drinks, a lot, 6 relentless sized cans a day, sometimes more, I had a heart attack in 2011, i was 41, i have never been diagnosed with any serious medical problems before that. Nobody blamed the energy drinks at the time, but i know they probably did no good, obviously i don't drink them now, oh and I am currently fighting cancer, i think i have won for now.

e: I'll have to give up strawberries, just in case they cause cancer, as i eat loads of them daily :)
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Next news paper headline 'Energy Drinks give you cancer and heart attacks'. Best of luck and all that jazz though. :D
 
Caffeine not only increases the heart rate but also the heart rate variability. Also, let's not forget that most of these energy drinks have taurine in too. A quick wiki of taurine suggests it may increase the strength and efficacity of heart muscle contractions. These facts together mean that cardiac failure shouldn't be entirely unexpected.

People being able to consume more caffeine than this unfortunate chap may have tolerance but may also have lower uptake of caffeine in the gut. Also, did they consume taurine alongside?
 
LD50 for caffeine is 150-200mg per Kg of bodyweight, so he'd have needed to consume about 13-18g of caffeine to be in with a 50% chance of overdosing. Clearly he's well below that, so it must have been something else. Probably a heart condition that hadn't been spotted yet.
 
stuie said:
wow, not sure what caffiene in coffee is but I often have 3 cups in the first hour-hour and half of being at the office. Thats got to be getting on for 250-300mg in the first 90min let alone the proceeding cups throughout the rest of the day probably totalling 7/8 cups between 8 and 4 every day. Should I be dead?
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you have likely built up a tolerance over time.

go in tomorrow and drink 3 coffees within the first hour but with 6 shots of coffee in each. then tell us all how you feel.

there are alcoholics out there that drink 30 units in the morning. that would kill most normal folk. however they need it to survive.

same reason why crackheads and dope fiends can take a lot more class A than someone else, etc. or some people smoke 30 spliffs a week and are fine whereas if someone else smokes 1 they are comatose for an evening.
 
Vonhelmet said:
LD50 for caffeine is 150-200mg per Kg of bodyweight, so he'd have needed to consume about 13-18g of caffeine to be in with a 50% chance of overdosing. Clearly he's well below that, so it must have been something else. Probably a heart condition that hadn't been spotted yet.
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LD50 amount treats it like a toxin and probably calculates how much is required before to cause irreversible damage to the organs which filter it from the blood. Given most LD50 amounts are calculated from testing on animals, i dont think you can use it to judge its risk on someones heart.
 
Avenged7Fold said:
LD50 amount treats it like a toxin and probably calculates how much is required before to cause irreversible damage to the organs which filter it from the blood. Given most LD50 amounts are calculated from testing on animals, i dont think you can use it to judge its risk on someones heart.
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Caffeine is a toxin, it's just most of us - this guy included - never get near toxic levels. Plenty of people could also consume 400mg of caffeine without suffering arrhythmia and dying. I suspect he had an undiagnosed heart condition and this would have got him sooner or later.
 
Whilst there may have been no pre-existing medical conditions, ultimately everyone will react differently to varying levels of caffeine, even over the same period of time. So whilst 400mg over 2 hours was fatal to this guy, to someone else, it might barely give them the jitters.
 
From such a small amount of caffeine it is likely there was an undiagnosed pre-existing heart condition.

"We're not saying that it was the total amount of caffeine in the system, it was just the way that it was ingested over that short period of time"
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The coroners statement is contradictory and quite frankly unscientific nonsense. To speak in terms of anything other than plasma level is meaningless.
 
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he's making a statement to the press/public - talking in terms of 'plasma level' would be fairly meaningless in that context
 
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