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Good points! People consume this much caffeine all the time with no more side effects than a headache.
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.
Wrong. Where are you getting your information?
Energy drinks do not have alcohol. They could not be sold in stores without a liquor license if they had 14% alcohol.
It's sold as a malt beverage. Their called Four Locos. They have the same stuff in them as the energy drinks. Caffeine, taurine, ginseng etc. You find them in the beer section. They're not marketed or sold as an energy drink, but all they are is an energy drink with alcohol. And they are labeled as containing alcohol. Read a couple articles on the stuff. There's been talk rumbling out of the FDA and such about getting them pulled. If you take an energy drink and dump a healthy double shot of vodka in it, you've got the same thing pretty much as one of these "malt beverages".
And of course the store needs a liquor license to sell them and like I said, they are not stocked with the regular energy drinks. Surprised you haven't heard of the things. At any rate, there had to have been more than just the caffeine at work with this kid at subject here. Plus they put more stuff in the energy drinks than just caffeine. Things that can and will interact with other either Rx or OTC meds in an unpleasant way. To put it mildly. People are mixing both alcoholic and the non alcoholic drinks with whatever they can get their hands on that will give enhanced effects.
Who knows what a detailed tox screen would show on this youngster. And if he was consuming the energy drinks like he did in the report every single day he quite possibly did some cardiac damage that wasn't detected and if he was mixing in other stuff the odds get better.
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.
This is no time for caution, all energy drinks must be banned and we ought to get rid of those MacDonalds killer lattes too. We're all gonna die >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It's sold as a malt beverage. Their called Four Locos. They have the same stuff in them as the energy drinks. Caffeine, taurine, ginseng etc. You find them in the beer section. They're not marketed or sold as an energy drink, but all they are is an energy drink with alcohol. And they are labeled as containing alcohol. Read a couple articles on the stuff. There's been talk rumbling out of the FDA and such about getting them pulled. If you take an energy drink and dump a healthy double shot of vodka in it, you've got the same thing pretty much as one of these "malt beverages".
And of course the store needs a liquor license to sell them and like I said, they are not stocked with the regular energy drinks. Surprised you haven't heard of the things. At any rate, there had to have been more than just the caffeine at work with this kid at subject here. Plus they put more stuff in the energy drinks than just caffeine. Things that can and will interact with other either Rx or OTC meds in an unpleasant way. To put it mildly. People are mixing both alcoholic and the non alcoholic drinks with whatever they can get their hands on that will give enhanced effects.
Who knows what a detailed tox screen would show on this youngster. And if he was consuming the energy drinks like he did in the report every single day he quite possibly did some cardiac damage that wasn't detected and if he was mixing in other stuff the odds get better.
I'm pretty sure they removed the caffeine many years ago from the Four Loko products
Quote:
Phusion Projects reformulated Four Loko, removing not only the caffeine but taurine and guarana as well, after the Food and Drug Administration warned last fall that adding caffeine to malt beverage is unsafe.
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.
Improved physical/athletic performance
Improved alertness/reaction time
Reduction in fatigue
Mood lifting (in some people)
These could all be considered benefits of caffeine. That is not to say caffeine has no risk factors or potential for abuse, but to say there are no benefits is simply incorrect.
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.
I had thought he drank an entire 2 liter bottle of Mtn. Dew, but I could be wrong about that.
At any rate, what I saw on the news was that the recommended daily intake of caffeine for someone his age is just 100 mg, so with the combination of drinks that he had consumed, he was way over that.
The news report I saw also said that a normal 8 oz cup of coffee has 130 mg of caffeine in it.
Personally I don't really understand this energy drink craze anyway, especially with teens. Eat the right foods, get enough sleep and regular exercise and you shouldn't need energy drinks or other heavily caffeinated beverages to make it through the day.
I'm in my fifties and I've never had a Red Bull, Monster or any of those type of drinks. One cup of coffee in the morning and at most an occasional cup in the afternoon is all I need. No reason someone decades younger than me should need to be drinking more than that.
Last edited by manyroads; 05-18-2017 at 10:34 AM..
At any rate, what I saw on the news was that the recommended daily intake of caffeine for someone his age is just 100 mg, so with the combination of drinks that he had consumed, he was way over that.
The recommended daily intake of caffeine is more than likely based on factors other than lethality since under normal circumstances it is quite difficult to consume a couple of gallons of coffee in under an hour. The negative effects of caffeine are not limited to acute toxicity.
The amount of caffeine the young man consumed would normally indicate increased heart rate, restlessness, nausea, and a pounding headache. Normally, one would have to consume much more to risk death.
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.
I'm sorry, this is wrong on every level. A SINGLE No-Doz extra strength caffeine pill has 200 mg of caffeine. Starbucks features NUMEROUS coffees with over 400 milligrams of caffeine in a single 20 oz venti size cup and there are people who drink these all day long.
He did not die from caffeine without a pre-existing condition. Period.
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