Boy Hospitalized After Red Bull Overdose
Red Bull sold over 3.5 BILLION cans last year. Just take a moment or two to ponder that. 2007 sales figures increased 17% over the previous year.
However, I digress. A 15 year-old in the UK was taken to hospital with heart palpitations after drinking eight cans of Red Bull.
Eight cans is about 640mg of caffeine - which - to be honest is not a huge amount. Red Bull also contains 1000mg of Taurine, 60mg Glucuronolactone, and 27 grams of sugar per can.
So to get things straight - the overdosing teenager consumed 216 grams of sugar (that’s about 54 teaspoons) along with 8 grams of Taurine.
8 cans of anything is plain stupid.
It’s odd how caffeine makes the headlines - but we never see this: “Boy gets intoxicated after beer overdose”. Despite the fact that happens every single day (or hour). And despite the fact that 1,400 college students lose their lives each year due to alcohol-related injuries (source).
38 Comments
the boy himself could be considered accountable for his choice to consume 8 cans of red bull, but i wonder how a 15 year old acquired close to $20.00 to waste on energy drinks. what were his parents doing and why? did they, perhaps, just assume that children are born with the knowledge that caffeine has a lethal dosage and thusly decide not to discuss the dangers of ALL drugs including caffeine with their (more than old enough to understand the discussion) son?
I also know a kid who drank 8 Starbucks Double Shots in one day and had to be taken home from school. I think the average persons mentality with caffeine is, if 1 makes me feel good, 8 is going to feel DAMN good. Warnings somehow don’t matter to the less informed.
In the article, it saide France, Ukraine, and other nations had banned Red Bull because “concern over high levels of caffeine and adverse health effects.”
If countries are all of the sudden so concerned about the health of its people, then why don’t they ban cigarettes or alcohol, which are actually PROVEN to have horribe side effects. Also, what the heck was that kid thinking? 8 cans of Red Bull in one day is too much for anyone!! :0
My son had been doing 2 or more cans a day for about 8 months. He didn’t tell anyone. Suddenly he got an electrolyte imbalance and became very sensitive to caffeine. His blood pressure shot up high to 180/89. It’s the bottom number that had the doctor worried. If it hit 90, he would have had to go to the hospital. The numbers came down, then raced back up because he might have a cola. He now has to have no caffeine whatsoever, no coffee, no chocolate, no hot chocolate. He is better, but he isn’t able to enjoy what he once could enjoy. I’m glad he’s ok, but anyone abusing these new energy drinks should think twice. My son’s life is changed forever.
“It’s odd how caffeine makes the headlines - but we never see this: “Boy gets intoxicated after beer overdose”. Despite the fact that happens every single day (or hour). And despite the fact that 1,400 college students lose their lives each year due to alcohol-related injuries”
Perfect.
I’m a little curious. It sounds like it was the sugar that did him in, but I’ve always thought sugar to be harmless.
If the caffeine really did him in, then the kid had problems already. I’ve done 1.2 grams and felt nothing at the peak of my tolerance. The first time i did it I did about 400 mg’s. Not very many people will go into convulsions from only 600 mg’s.
The LD-50 is 10 Grams. 614 mg’s is really nothing in the scheme of things.
I used to be a caffeine pill nut, and I’ve kicked that habit and the tolerance, but I know you can push your caffeine intake up to probably about a gram before it starts getting really unpleasant.
And a Caffeine “overdose” is really nothing. You just start getting a stomach ache and feeling paranoid, with tons of energy.
So I’m curious. What did the doctors say was the cause?
Now that I read the comments, I’m even more curious. Am I some kind of ultra-specimen that can take a shit-load of caffeine? I’ll tell you how I did it.
The first few times I took two No-Doz and a Monster before class. That’s about 520 mg’s. I just got very hyper. I enjoyed it. I thought it was the closest I’d ever push myself to cocaine.
I eventually started taking three pills and a No Fear. That’s about 720 mg’s.
Eventually I got to four pills, and then gave up. I started researching on how to eliminate a tolerance. I found out you just drop it for about 2-5 days. A few headaches, but I was pretty damn successful.
I started back at the minimum dose and kept that going for a long time. I would only take it once a week to keep my tolerance low.
Eventually I somehow pushed it up to about eight pills over the summer… And didn’t feel anything. Eight pills is 1600 mg’s. That’s two hundred mg’s more than twice what that kid took. I thought I was doing a weak dosage when you compare that the LD_50 is 10 grams.
I eventually gave it up because I would never get the rush and always got terrible stomach ache’s and Diarrhea. It’s been a little over a year since I gave it up, but I remember how fun it was quite vividly.
Any thoughts?
Sorry to hear about your son Jan but really a few cans of RB over a day is not that much. RB is pretty weak. I guess he just developed a sensitivity to caffeine. I have a couple of energy drinks per day and I have no problems and I thrown in a couple of cups of coffee as well. This kid that drank 8 cans of RB is just stupid. Some energy drinks contain 500mg of caffeine per can. 620mg spread out over a day should not cause any problems. I have a question for everyone though. These countries that ban Red bull do they ban all energy drinks? How about starbucks. Coffee is stronger than a lot of energy drinks.
Heh. I’ve done 8 Red Bulls and 3 Phentermine within 9 hours.
Then again I’m a 42 y.o., very large woman and had to do a lot of physical stuff that evening. I only do it once every two weeks since it’s a reoccuring event. I just don’t have the energy on my own.
My heart rate gets up there, around 140, but then again my resting heart rate is around 85-90.
[...] A fifteen-year-old kid in the UK drank eight Red Bulls and had to go to hospital. Our friends at Energy Fiend break that down for you: [...]
600mg of caffeine at once, or within a short period of time is stupid. I took 600 mg of caffeine through a powdered energy drink before going to the gym once and thought I was going to have a heart attack. And my stomach also got messed up, I was also taking advil at the time for an injury and that and the caffeine gave me a stomach ulcer. Now 200-300 mg max is what I will drink at one time, And usually about 600 or a little more in a complete day. Everybodys tolerance with caffeine is different, but 600mg is a bad place to start to assess your tolerance.
im also confused…. i’ve had a total of 6 red bulls and 2 cups of coffee in one day i’m 24 and i felt the rush i thought it felt good and hoped to do it again sometime.. although later that day i had a stomach ache and headache so i decided i wouldn’t do that again… but i didn’t feel it was any different than other stomach aches i had before even though this was a higher dosage of caffeine i take normally, which is about an energy drink a day and 2 cups of coffee am i just more resistant than others??
Let’s remember that’s not table sugar in Red Bull. It’s pure GLUCOSE! This guy bombarded his system with 216 grams of the body’s most basic and easily digested fuel. There’s no way enough insulin came be made fast enough to store it away as fat. He was a major dumbass.
RED BULL IS HORRIBLE, THIS KID IS INSANE
Ive had 3 Redline RTD, and 2 Spike Shooters(total of 1350mg) within 3hours one day and it felt GREAT, until the stomach aches set in and I felt like death. 8 red bulls really isnt enough caffeine to send ‘most’ people into a dangerous state..It may have affected this person badly because of a low tolerance, or of course it may have nothing to do with the caffeine intake at all. By the article it doesnt seem to let us know anything about the boy such as, did he have anything to eat all day?? I know if I take a large amount of caffeine my body reacts different had I eaten much/anything throughout the day. Either way, there isnt much of a case there without knowing the other facts. Red Bull is weak, but if you plan on taking a high dosage of anything you need to first assess your tolerance.
Dude, thats dope. I love my energy drinks, but i would never do that.
.word.
nice, energy drinks are good, but i dont think it is something you need to drink all the time, but i will admit, i have to have my red amps! MMMMMMMM… tasty!
ccchccck.. *spit* whatever! energy drinks will kill you some day!!!! hahahahah TREVOR!
He went to the hospital from 8? That’s weak. I’m 14 and I drink 8 red bulls to wash down my bottles of caffeine pills before bed.
The new Monster “BFC” clearly says 1 per day (24 hours) i drank about 1 1/2 of those in about 1 hour
i usually have a very high tolerance to caffiene but the taurine in it killed me i consumed a total of 5000mg fo taurine in 1 hour, 10000mg of energy blend and 135g of suger i recommend it to anyone who wants a challange
This is to videocWk….
why do you take caffeine pills before bed?!!?!?!?!?
That doesn’t make any sense…
The whole point here is, overdosing on anything is stupid. Whatever your personal tolerance level is, it comes down to why you drink what you drink. Whether you grab an Adrenaline Rush to get through your overnight shift or suck down three Shooters and an RTD to buzz yourself stupid, too much of anything is generally bad, and can be damaging. Common sense.
But I agree that caffeine-related hospitalizations are over-publicized simply because energy drinks are relatively new compared to, say, alcohol. Kids will find anything and OD on it, in the same mentality Josh mentioned above. I say the media and PR should stop making the rest of us look bad when a few idiots hurt themselves with our casual drink.
I have had 8 cans of AMP Energy Drink in one day and all that was wrong with me was that i was a little hyper.
I never thought that energy drinks could be dangerous.
normally, i don’t drink caffeine (neither coffee nor cola nor any other stuff). but once in a while if i decide that i need to prevent myself from falling asleep i would pound an energy drink after another. Since I live in Germany the only stuff one can get is Red Bull or some of the cheap rip offs containing the same ingredients but being cheaper and in larger cans.
However, yesterday I thought i would need a boost of energy to write on a project i have, so i bought two 6 packs of red bull rip offs. In 5 hours I had drunk 5 cans each 500 ml. Having practically no tolerance against coffeine you can imagine how I felt… anxious, hot and then cold,having some minor palpitations…
Later I calculated what I had taken… 2,5l (more than half a gallon) which i drank had a total of about 770 mg’s of caffeine and over 270 gramms of sugar.
today i had a headache most of the time and minor stomach aches. Maybe it was because i had only 4 hours of sleep, but nevertheless i don’t think i will drink so much energy drinks in the near future. i did not collapse or blacked out, but it still feels somewhat nasty -.-
[...] killer, I think this quote from energyfiend.com defends it the best, (Taken from this EF article, Boy Hospitalized After Red Bull Overdose) "It’s odd how caffeine makes the headlines - but we never see this: ‘Boy gets [...]
Caffeine increases anxiety and can cause palpitations… the anxiety mixed with the palpitations would be enough to convince someone something was wrong with them.. but its just a stupid kid who THOUGHT he was ODing… people like that ruin all the fun stuff in life..
red bull taste good but 8 cans.. no… just no.
dude i had 2 spike shooters 1 16 ounce amp 1 24 ounce monster 1 12 ounce red bull and was fine this kid just doesnt have any tolerance
“It’s odd how caffeine makes the headlines - but we never see this: “Boy gets intoxicated after beer overdose”. Despite the fact that happens every single day (or hour)…”
What? Isn’t the reason for this obvious? It’s not reported because it’s not news. Overdoses from something readily available to children, and of whose consequences the public is not widely aware of is news.
[...] and advocacy groups lobby hard to ‘prove the point’ before any more tragedies occur, while media reports range from squishy and subjective to overblown sensationalism making it sound [...]
Too much of anything is bad. Think about it, too much oxygen, by hyperventilating, you could pass out. too much water, and you could die, it’s been reported. Too much sun, and you get a sunburn.
“paul February 26th, 2008 10:35 am
Let’s remember that’s not table sugar in Red Bull. It’s pure GLUCOSE! This guy bombarded his system with 216 grams of the body’s most basic and easily digested fuel. There’s no way enough insulin came be made fast enough to store it away as fat. He was a major dumbass.”
very true.
One time, i took about 790mg of caffeine, that is: 4 caffeine pills, and a java irish blend. after i drank the nasty thing, if I filled the bottle up with water, and took the residue off of the sides (i crushed the caffeine into a powder) i could’ve got every bit of caffeine, but I didn’t. If I did, however, that would be 960mg. whooee.
Its not about the Caffiene. i think in this case that caffiene is the cause for palpitations, However the real danger is Taurine in red bull that consumed at large amounts can lead to anxiety. These kind of dose of taurine are only used in Medical patients.
The countries that have Banded Red Bull state that it is due to the combination of Taurien, sugar, caffiene and glucuronolactone.
I didn’t read all the comments to see if this was already mentioned.. but “it’s odd how caffeine makes the headlines - but we never see this: “Boy gets intoxicated after beer overdose”…” You want to make energy drinks illegal? Alcohol does a lot of damage and its not illegal. I think the best you can hope for is an age limit for buying potent energy drinks.
1400 people die from alcohol injuries a year. And it’s legal.
How many from ecstasy? 70. And you can go to jail for life for possessing it.
Government hypocrisy knows no bounds.
i think that is his fault because who im there right mind would drink 8 cans i 1 day