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The medical examiner said it wasn't any one drink that did it; it was slamming down all three of them right after the other. He had nearly 500 mg of caffeine in his system and 300 mg would be enough to cause cardiac arrhythmia in the average person. And he was only 16 -- probably not yet his full adult size.
Two things to consider:
1. 145lb for a 16 year old is pretty heavy imo, especially if they are still growing and under 6 feet. I don't know if that's the average weight in the US, but it would make him overweight at that age for a kid. I think I was around 110-120lb at that age, but I was never fat, so I wouldn't know.
2. Maybe statistically it is 50% chance of dying at the dosage you indicated, but maybe he was part of that 0.01% statistic for much smaller doses, aggravated by the fact that he was a teenager and not an adult. (I am assuming the study you are sighting was conducted on adults). Out of hundreds of thousands people who drink a lot of caffeine daily, he just happened to "win" that low chance caffeine overdose probability lottery.
How on earth would you know this? I was that heavy at 12 and was under weight
These energy drinks are bad news. They make the with alcohol too. One is like 14% alcohol. People (and not just young people) use both the booze and non booze drinks in conjunction with Rx meds and over the counter like dyphenhydramine and Cough elixirs to cop a high. I'm thinking this youngster did probably have an underlying illness as well as dumping enough caffeine , taurine, ginseng and all the other stuff they put in those drinks to give a heroine addict insomnia. I've seen kids in the mornings just loading their backpacks with these things. It also possible this kid was downing these drinks everyday all day.
I tried one of the ones with alcohol...once. It was "only" a 12% , but they make them all the way to like 16%. It made me sick. An hour later I had a headache from hell, felt like I'd been beat with a single jack, and was pretty nauseated too. Both the alcohol and non are trendy especially with young people. All the rage on the party scene getting mixed with all sorts of lovely stuff.
My son told me it was trendy when he was in school for kids to slam a couple of these drinks with a bottle of Nyquil or handful of benadryl to catch a high before class. These drinks get abused, badly, alongside other stuff that's not exactly a Slurpee. If they get their hands on some Rx pain meds or benzodyazapines that's a seriously bad mix. Kinda hard to regulate the drinks, other than the alcohol ones, to the underage crowd.
They get their hands on the booze to. Long and short of it is its just dangerous to abuse stuff like this. The kids think their immortal, and believe this is a "safe" way to get high. It's not just kids either. The powers that be have known how harmful these drinks can be for a long time. This kid isn't the first victim. Pretty tragic stuff.
There is no positive benefits to caffeine. Although, experts say a cup of coffee is healthy for the antioxidants, but remember coffee, tea, etc. comes in decaf and provide the same benefit.
The article I read said he had a McDonalds Latte (142mg caffeine), a "large" Mt. Dew (lets say 24 oz, thus 108 mg caffeine), and an unspecified energy drink; for the sake of estimation, lets say it was one of the very popular Monster energy drinks (160 mg caffeine)
That would make for a total consumption of 410 mg of caffeine in one sitting.
The LD50 (a statistical dose which will kill 50% of ingesters) of caffiene is 150 mg per kg of body weight.
Assuming this young man was of average size, say 65 kg (about 145 lbs), he would have to have ingested 9,750 mg of caffeine in one sitting, or about 24 times as much as he took in. That would be about 8 lattes, 8 large Mt. Dews, and 8 monster energy drinks. And then, statistically, he would have only a 50% chance of actually dying.
I think there is another factor at play here. An undiagnosed heart problem, for example.
Good points! People consume this much caffeine all the time with no more side effects than a headache.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gantz
Two things to consider:
1. 145lb for a 16 year old is pretty heavy imo, especially if they are still growing and under 6 feet. I don't know if that's the average weight in the US, but it would make him overweight at that age for a kid. I think I was around 110-120lb at that age, but I was never fat, so I wouldn't know.
2. Maybe statistically it is 50% chance of dying at the dosage you indicated, but maybe he was part of that 0.01% statistic for much smaller doses, aggravated by the fact that he was a teenager and not an adult. (I am assuming the study you are sighting was conducted on adults). Out of hundreds of thousands people who drink a lot of caffeine daily, he just happened to "win" that low chance caffeine overdose probability lottery.
1. There are lots of 16 year old girls who weight more than 145 lbs.
2. There is no chance of dying at the dosage indicated unless there is undiagnosed heart condition.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cliffie
The medical examiner said it wasn't any one drink that did it; it was slamming down all three of them right after the other. He had nearly 500 mg of caffeine in his system and 300 mg would be enough to cause cardiac arrhythmia in the average person. And he was only 16 -- probably not yet his full adult size.
Wrong. Where are you getting your information?
Quote:
Originally Posted by NVplumber
These energy drinks are bad news. They make the with alcohol too. One is like 14% alcohol. People (and not just young people) use both the booze and non booze drinks in conjunction with Rx meds and over the counter like dyphenhydramine and Cough elixirs to cop a high. I'm thinking this youngster did probably have an underlying illness as well as dumping enough caffeine , taurine, ginseng and all the other stuff they put in those drinks to give a heroine addict insomnia. I've seen kids in the mornings just loading their backpacks with these things. It also possible this kid was downing these drinks everyday all day.
I tried one of the ones with alcohol...once. It was "only" a 12% , but they make them all the way to like 16%. It made me sick. An hour later I had a headache from hell, felt like I'd been beat with a single jack, and was pretty nauseated too. Both the alcohol and non are trendy especially with young people. All the rage on the party scene getting mixed with all sorts of lovely stuff.
My son told me it was trendy when he was in school for kids to slam a couple of these drinks with a bottle of Nyquil or handful of benadryl to catch a high before class. These drinks get abused, badly, alongside other stuff that's not exactly a Slurpee. If they get their hands on some Rx pain meds or benzodyazapines that's a seriously bad mix. Kinda hard to regulate the drinks, other than the alcohol ones, to the underage crowd.
They get their hands on the booze to. Long and short of it is its just dangerous to abuse stuff like this. The kids think their immortal, and believe this is a "safe" way to get high. It's not just kids either. The powers that be have known how harmful these drinks can be for a long time. This kid isn't the first victim. Pretty tragic stuff.
Energy drinks do not have alcohol. They could not be sold in stores without a liquor license if they had 14% alcohol.
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