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Though I've never had a Monster (or any energy drink, as far as I can recall) I do drink a lot of coffee.
Per Monster's website, their product contains 92 mg of caffeine per 8 oz. A typical cup of coffee is 95 mg per the same 8 oz. Plenty of people - myself included (I weigh 185 lbs) - drink a lot of coffee.
So I call BS on the whole idea that drinking a lot of Monster is going to affect a normal person to any significant degree. These products sell the idea that it will make them 'wired' and people buy it, literally and figuratively. But it's just marketing.
I know of a couple people who ended up in the er after drinking *one* energy drink. Obviously not everyone is susceptible, but you can't limit it to just "unhealthy" people.
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.
exactly what I was thinking. the dosage doesn't even come close to being lethal unless there's some underlying health issue.
Being a large kid his heart is already working harder and you increase that work with energy drink that contains taurine and caffeine and that can cause major heart racing.
I stopped drinking Red Bull etc because I suddenly get this discomfort of heart racing so I don't drink it anymore.
The bigger the person, the harder the heart has to work to pump blood throughout larger body. Heart is the same size for someone 6'4" and someone 5'1" so go figure.
There was a store, actually a pharmacy in Maryland that tried to regulate energy drinks. It's been awhile since I heard about them doing it but it was 21 to buy say a Red Bull. Not only did the kids complain about it but the parents complain about it too. One woman I can recall said something that her teenage daughter needs caffeine for school and she couldn't afford Starbucks so she needs those energy drinks. Anyway the regulation with energy drinks failed and today the pharmacy sells them to everybody of all ages.
The energy drink craze was fueled by one factor. The negative information about soda. A lot of people gave soda up but switched to energy drinks. To me that is like giving up cigarettes but switch to Black & Mild cigars instead.
Yea, trade a devil you know for one you don't aye. Thing with e ergy drinks isn't the caffeine so much as all the other crap they put in them.. I tried one of the 4 Loco drinks...once..and it made me really nauseated, gave me a nasty headache, and just an unwell feeling. Those things run 12 to 14% alcohol and that with all the other weirdness plus the sugar just made for a crash and burn. Had much the same experience with a Monster. Even sans-serif the alcohol a d hour after I drank it it was Mach 2 into the ground.
I'm not one of the types that advocates for banning everything that's bad for us. But just like with anything else parents need to be parents and keep up with what their kids are doing. If little Bobbys trash in his room is overflowing with Monster cans and empty Nyquil bottles , or this sort of flotsam is in his backpack whatever, could be time to see wtf. Even be\er, just sit the kids down and talk about things.
My son was on a kick with Monsters for a while. He was getting migraines, slowing up and getting nauseated a lot. Come to find out he was downing 5 or 6 of the things a day. I didn't just I sit he listen to me (kids ALWAYS listen ..right?) I tokk him to the doctor and let her give him the skinny on top of what I told him. He stopped the Monsters, and was his old self again.
And with kids out there washing down medications with these things to cop a buzz, being a proactive parent seems prudent.
I saw this on Facebook. As I'm drinking my 3rd cup of coffee today, I pause to give thought, and realize that this could happen to most people. We are too addicted to caffeine. Most people can handle it, and I know in my body, that I'm pretty adjusted to caffeine, but still the risks are always there.
This seems like a perfect storm of excess meeting someone who couldn't handle the excess...
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.
4 Locos have not had caffeine in them since 2010. In late December 2010, a reformulated version of the drink was put on shelves. The new product had exactly the same design as the original, but the caffeine, guarana, and taurine (ingredients in the original drink) had been taken out of the formula.
You don't find 4 Locos stocked on the shelf with energy drinks in Pennsylvania. You have had to purchase them in a beer distributor since they are malt liquor. PA has recently loosened their liquor law restrictions and a few other place are now allowed to sell beer and wine. Just don't expect to go into any grocery store or gas station and find any type of alcohol beverages being sold.
Caffeine is bad. I stopped drinking caffeine drinks many years ago after a couple of trips to the emergency room. It was probably one of the best decisions I have ever made. My health has improved a lot since then.
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 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I don't think it should be banned, but I think that people should be educated about it. Drinking it one time a day probably won't hurt you, but if you start drinking it non-stop, you have a problem. I have been there, and done that. After several doctors warned me to stop drinking caffeine drinks, my first thought was that I had been drinking it since I was eight years old, and it hadn't killed me yet. Well actually it was killing me. I just didn't have anything to compare it to. Since I drank it multiple times every single day.
It's not caffeine, it's energy drinks. There have been dozens of stories of people dying from energy drinks. There is a whole lot more ingredients in those "proprietary blends" then just caffeine.
It's the caffeine in the energy drinks, among the other things.
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