What time frame for the Death by Caffeine Calculator
The one question, by orders of magnitude, that gets asked here more than any other is: “It says that 10 bottles would kill me, but is that over a month, a day, a lifetime?!”
Let’s apply some common sense to this.
If you died after a lifetime consumpution of 200 cans of soda, most Americans wouldn’t make it past age 14. That’s clearly not the answer.
If you died after 200 cans of soda in a month, well, most of the loyal readers here might not have made it past age 30. It’s painfully easy to drink 6 cans daily, especially if you’re trying to stay awake to finish a project. Conversely, it’s about 142 cups of coffee for me. That’s under 5 per day. I can drink more than that with few side effects. It’s not monthly.
Weekly? That’s just a stupid measurement.
Daily? That’s actually believable. If you managed to ingest that much caffeine in one day, you won’t be feeling so hot. In fact you may be in serious trouble. Not everyone’s liver works at the same speed, and some people have reported feeling the effects of caffeine for a full 12 hours – for most people this is more like 4-5 hours.
Here’s the answer: IT’S HOW MUCH YOU HAVE TO HAVE IN YOUR SYSTEM AT ONE TIME.
Yes, it means that it’s practically impossible to kill yourself with caffeine. Practically. Don’t actually try it! After 1 gram, you’ll be a sad panda. If you manage to even challenge the number, you’ll be a schizophrenic, crazed panda, or a passed out panda. And if you’re passed out, you might get your wallet stolen.
94 Comments
That just means that after 4 hours, half of whats in your system will be gone. So if you take 400 mg wait 4 hours then take another 400 the total in your system would be 600 not 400.
i drink 10 cups of coffee
The half-life is true, Scott, but “in your system at one time” does not mean how much you’d have to consume in 4 hours. It’s how you much you’d have to have in your system AT ONE TIME, i.e. INSTANTANEOUSLY. Just because the half-life is 4 hours doesn’t mean it all just hangs around until 4 hours pass then it magically disappears from the body; it’s constantly being broken down.
Isn’t this the LD50 (lethal dose 50) of caffiene? That would mean you would have a 50% chance of dying if you had that much. There is a big chance that you would risk serious injury, or permanent disability even if you had much, much less than this. According to Erowid, anything over 3 grams (6 Starbucks grand coffees downed in succession) could kill you. Heck, I bet you could get hospitalized for less than that. I’ve heard of teen girls downing 16 (200mg) caffeine pills and kicking the bucket. That ends up being a little over 3 grams.
So, basically it would be pretty impossible to accidentally die of caffeine intake. No one would drink that much caffeine unless it was on a dare or part of a hazing ritual. But, hazing usually is alcohol not caffeine. If for some odd reason they were using caffeine the “victim” would pass out before they finished.
that’s freaky
Is it possible to drink 6 Red Bulls in 10 minutes and die?
Possibly, but I’ve done so with no ill effects.
The fluid would get you before the caffine. Your brain would swell and, well, you die.
0.9 grams of caffine was put into a syringe by one infrequent drug user for a new drug user.
That was the first & last time for the new drug user; dead within 4 minutes.
So, now ya now.
Mountain Dew is my down-fall O_o . . . . Lol, I never knew about how much caffeine can affect you until I visited this website! This site is very informative.
one time i ate an entire box of monster………..for a year
twice
-gaps-
Death?
Z O M G
coffee is my downfall.^^
Good grief, I may have been dead since finals week 1958 and not known it. I even smoked Galoise in those days (just showing off) which probably amplified the caffeine effect by a factor of 10. From now on it’s Ovaltine for me, and with enough labels I can send for the Captain Midnight decoder whistle which may come in handy in the days ahead, particularily if they bury me prematurely due to this caffeine coma I feel coming on.
o.o
I’m probably gonna die soon.
I’m only 11 and I drink energy drinks like a fish drinks water.
Well, that explanation makes perfect sense… but uh, the crazed panda thing sounds like fun. 903 cans of Socko… Here I come. (Damn that would be an expensive suicide! 903cans*$2.50each=$2257.5 total.. Yikes!)
P.S. Thanks for all the info and the site as a whole. Very informative, and is the catalouge of information I have been searching for.
Nevermind.. I re-checked.. it’s only 93 cans… so only $232.5 total… still expensive… but more affordable and perhaps novel.
*Please note: I’m really not suicidal.. Just one of those “what ifs” that often freak people out, so it’s fun to use.
My biology major roomate has informed me that the half-life of caffeine is approx. 4 hours. So it’s effectively a 4 hour window.