slimvictor
Bluelight Crew
Does this sound like you? Two cups of coffee in the morning, a coffee break at 11 or so, another cup in the afternoon and a cup after dinner? That might be enough to interfere with sleep or even give some people the jitters, but it’s nowhere near an overdose. It may also be nothing compared to what some teenagers are consuming to deal with schoolwork or job pressures.
James Stone, a 19-year-old from Wallingford, Conn., died in 2006 after he took nearly two dozen NoDoz tablets. Each tablet has about 200 mg of caffeine – about twice that found in a cup of coffee. But while it would be near impossible to down 48 cups of coffee in a few hours, it’s relatively easy to pop a handful of small tablets.
Now the question is whether guzzling energy drinks might be as dangerous as popping No-Doz.
The Food and Drug Administration is investigating reports that five people died and one survived a heart attack after consuming energy drinks. It is not yet clear whether the drinks actually caused – or even contributed to - those adverse events, said FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess.
“So far there’s been no causal link,” Burgess said. “There could have been other products involved. We don’t know that yet and that’s why we’re taking this seriously and looking into it.”
The six reports were entered into the FDA’s system voluntary reporting system over an eight year period, with the first surfacing in 2004. This system doesn’t necessarily show that a food or drug caused a problem – people can file an adverse event report if, for instance, someone has a heart attack after taking a drug or getting a vaccination. The two events could be coincidental.
(...)
Caffeine is processed by the liver, so anything that stresses the liver can have the effect of keeping caffeine in the blood longer.This includes antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, asthma medications and even herbal supplements such as echinacea.
The body absorbs caffeine quickly. It shows up in the blood five minutes after someone eats or drinks it.
According to Karen Collins, a registered dietician at the American Institute for Cancer Research, it takes at least three hours to clear half the caffeine from the body, and 15 to 35 hours to eliminate it.
How would caffeine kill someone? It sparks the release of natural compounds called catecholamines, including norepinephrine, a stress hormone that can speed the heart rate. People who have died from documented caffeine overdose had irregular and rapid heart rates, seizures and sometimes choked on their vomit.
Per Holmgren of University Hospital in Linkoping, Sweden wrote a report in 2004 on four people who died of caffeine overdoses. Two took caffeine pills. Doctors don’t know how the other two overdosed. “The lethal blood level is considered to be 80–100 micrograms (of caffeine) per gram of blood, which corresponds to an intake of 50–100 tablets,” Holmgren and colleagues wrote in their report, published in Forensic Science International.
“An overdose of caffeine alone, intentional or not, might be deadly,” they wrote.
cont at
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/201...-kills-energy-drinks-under-the-spotlight?lite
James Stone, a 19-year-old from Wallingford, Conn., died in 2006 after he took nearly two dozen NoDoz tablets. Each tablet has about 200 mg of caffeine – about twice that found in a cup of coffee. But while it would be near impossible to down 48 cups of coffee in a few hours, it’s relatively easy to pop a handful of small tablets.
Now the question is whether guzzling energy drinks might be as dangerous as popping No-Doz.
The Food and Drug Administration is investigating reports that five people died and one survived a heart attack after consuming energy drinks. It is not yet clear whether the drinks actually caused – or even contributed to - those adverse events, said FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess.
“So far there’s been no causal link,” Burgess said. “There could have been other products involved. We don’t know that yet and that’s why we’re taking this seriously and looking into it.”
The six reports were entered into the FDA’s system voluntary reporting system over an eight year period, with the first surfacing in 2004. This system doesn’t necessarily show that a food or drug caused a problem – people can file an adverse event report if, for instance, someone has a heart attack after taking a drug or getting a vaccination. The two events could be coincidental.
(...)
Caffeine is processed by the liver, so anything that stresses the liver can have the effect of keeping caffeine in the blood longer.This includes antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, asthma medications and even herbal supplements such as echinacea.
The body absorbs caffeine quickly. It shows up in the blood five minutes after someone eats or drinks it.
According to Karen Collins, a registered dietician at the American Institute for Cancer Research, it takes at least three hours to clear half the caffeine from the body, and 15 to 35 hours to eliminate it.
How would caffeine kill someone? It sparks the release of natural compounds called catecholamines, including norepinephrine, a stress hormone that can speed the heart rate. People who have died from documented caffeine overdose had irregular and rapid heart rates, seizures and sometimes choked on their vomit.
Per Holmgren of University Hospital in Linkoping, Sweden wrote a report in 2004 on four people who died of caffeine overdoses. Two took caffeine pills. Doctors don’t know how the other two overdosed. “The lethal blood level is considered to be 80–100 micrograms (of caffeine) per gram of blood, which corresponds to an intake of 50–100 tablets,” Holmgren and colleagues wrote in their report, published in Forensic Science International.
“An overdose of caffeine alone, intentional or not, might be deadly,” they wrote.
cont at
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/201...-kills-energy-drinks-under-the-spotlight?lite
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