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The official cause of death for Davis Allen Cripe was a “caffeine-induced cardiac event causing a probable arrhythmia,” said Richland County Coroner Gary Watts. It was the result of the teen ingesting the caffeine from a large Diet Mountain Dew, a cafe latte from McDonald’s and an energy drink over the course of about two hours, Watts said.
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.
Yeah, it honestly doesn't sound like that much caffeine - not enough to kill a healthy person. I'm saying it's a great amount to drink, but again, don't we all see plenty of people drink this much caffeine within a small time frame and nothing happens.
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.
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.
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no thanks ..
