Caffeine Overdose Symptoms: Facts and Fiction
How common is caffeine overdose?
With the plethora of caffeinated products in the marketplace, one could assume that overdosing on caffeine would be becoming quite common.
If we look at the statistics from The American Association of Poison Control Centers we find that, while it does exist, it isn’t as common as the Media would lead us to believe.
We published another article that shows that overdosing on Tylenol is a lot more common than overdosing on caffeine.
I think with most subjects there is truth and then there are half truths, here say, urban legends, media hype, and even fiction. Caffeine overdose is no exception. Let’s take an honest look at the subject and try to put all of the information into perspective, to determine if caffeine should be in the same category as any other drug overdose.
Caffeine Overdose Symptoms
There are some common symptoms that indicate too much caffeine consumption. These symptoms should be recognized and further caffeine intake should be stopped to avoid more serious and even life-threatening symptoms.
Sometimes people ingest massive doses of caffeine all at once and this is dangerous because it doesn’t give the body time to react with the normal warning symptoms that indicate too much caffeine is in your system. Here are the usual symptoms in order from the first ones to be exhibited to the severe, later stage ones.
- Jitters
- Increased heartbeat
- Nausea
- Anxiety
- Heart palpitations
- Insomnia
- Sweating
- Dizziness
- Vomiting
- Cardiac arrest
It’s hard to pinpoint an amount of caffeine that will cause these caffeine overdose symptoms to begin because people have different tolerance levels. Generally a dose between 300-500mg could produce some of the above mild to moderate symptoms, especially in those with no tolerance. Those with a caffeine allergy could have severe symptoms even after a very small dose.
Caffeine Overdose Documented Cases
Caffeine overdose does happen and has been documented. Here are some of the more recent cases easily found on Google resulting in death or hospitalization;
- 19 year old James Stone dies after taking 25 to 30 No Doz pills in 2007. (at least 2.5 grams of caffeine)
- 40 Seagulls die from caffeine overdose in Canada this year from eating used coffee grinds. (ok, that one is just funny, sorry)
- 17 year old Jasmine Willis, a Durham, UK waitress overdosed by drinking 7 double espressos in 2007. She was taken to the hospital, but recovered soon after. (that’s roughly 1.078 grams)
- In the late 1990′s an Australian women, with a heart condition died after consuming a guarana based shot from her local health food store. This product is no longer on the market. (10g/liter, ok that’s just nuts!)
- 2010 a 23 British man from Mansfield, England died after taking to 2 spoonfuls of pure caffeine powder washed down by an energy drink at a party. His death was ruled accidental.
- 2011 Fourteen-year-old Anais Fournier, died after she reportedly consumed two 24 ounce Monsters (480mg of caffeine) in a 24 hour period. Cause of death was a heart arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity. There seems to be some conflicting stories as to how much she really consumed and this seems true since 480mg in a 24 hour period isn’t a toxic amount.
Caffeine Overdose Facts
Luckily for us, we have mechanisms built into the human body that let us know we’ve had enough of something. This is true with caffeine overdose. Well before we are at a toxic level we experience side effects that prevent us from consuming more, ie. nausea and vomiting. Well before the 149 or so cans of Red Bull that it would take to kill an average adult male, vomiting would most certainly happen. For me at about can number 5!
In the overdose cases above we can see that what caused the deaths were extremely poor judgment, or an underlying medical condition. As for the girl, her body clearly let her know before she reached the toxic level. The seagulls were just being pigs and the world is fine with a few less.
Caffeine containing beverages are 2nd behind water as the most consumed drinks, so if caffeine overdose was really that common or that easy, we would have a load of statistics on our hands because of the billions of people who use the drug everyday. It’s important to note, however, that caffeine is a drug and should be respected and not abused. Since some people can have extremely low tolerance to caffeine, the could in theory overdose quite easily.
Conclusions
Instead of banning caffeinated products and protesting energy drinks, the best caffeine overdose prevention is education. That is part of our mission here at Energy Fiend, to educate the consumer about caffeine and help the consumer to be aware of the caffeine content of products available.
We promote giving consumers the right to make wise choices for both themselves and for their children. We also urge people to understand their safe caffeine limits in order to avoid accidental caffeine overdose.
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I’m 17 years old and don’t drink caffeine at all. The only caffeine I consume is in GU energy gels and that is a small amount. I can’t stand the taste of energy drinks and I think I am blessed to have this because I can go walking around school and it seems like everyone has a rockstar or monster and when they’re in class they’re either super tired STILL or super hyper… I don’t see the need for energy drinks or large amounts of caffeine if we all eat correctly but we are America….
That’s good Dan, I’m one of those people that always has a Rockstar with me. I didn’t start caffeine until a few months ago and now I literally cannot go a day without it. They don’t even really help anymore. My tolerance has made drinking an energy drink with 200 mg of caffeine and 60+ grams of sugar feel like what a candy bar would do, practically nothing, but if I don’t drink one I get terribly lethargic and down. So yeah don’t ever drink them they’re terrible for you, I’m starting to feel a little discomfort in my heart from time to time and will probably die of some cardiac problem.
Well, I’m 16 and I’ve been drinking coffee since I was alive and energy drinks since I was 12. If I don’t have a good dose of caffeine a day I start to live my life as though nothing had happened. It may be the life time devotion or it may be genetics but I’ve never felt the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal even when I quit caffeine entirely for about half a year. I consume caffeine again but, not on the regular anymore. Energy drinks are nothing more than another tasty beverage to me.
Hi,
Just would like to say that I am pregnant,so I don’t drink coffee anymore…
For those who are looking a good substitute for coffee, I can recommend a date coffee called dattero, it’s made from dates.
Cheers,
Karen.
I was able to take about 1.5-2.0 grams of caffeine in one night (about 4 hours time) it was 4 pills and 20 or so mountain dews. I did not feel any of the symptoms of overdose. It helped me stay alert and awake for the night I had. I ate a good amount of apples and steak that night so it wasn’t on an empty stomach.
I feel I may have built up a tolerance to caffeine because I was able to do this, even though on a normal day I will have around 100mg of caffeine (4-5 mountain dews).
My friend who is about twice my size took around 1 gram and he started vomiting and he felt terrible the entire day. (it was over about the same amount of time)
I believe this shows it is based on the individual, and not just size.
lm 2 months pregnant i just want to know if lucozade is safe to drink
@Pam, Lucozade has caffeine in it and I think most doctors recommend to limit caffeine consumption while being pregnant.
I hover around 3-5 Redline X-treme bottles a day at work. No jitters, no headaches.
Then again i have to down a bottle of burbon when i get home just to fall asleep. sooo, that coupled with chain smoking… god… I’m in trouble =P
Yo!? Im A 15 Year Old Boy From Inverness, Scotland, Uk. Im In Care And My Dad Died Two Weeks Ago. Today 22,December,2011, I Looked Up To My Dad Very Much. Since He Died I Had Enough, Weeks Later (Well Today) I Had 3 monster energy shots 2 Bottles Of Lucozade Energy And 2 Cans Of Monster energy. I Felt Very Very Weak About 1 Hour Later And Could Hardly Move. Felt Soo Dizzy And Everything Was Like Really Slow. I Dont Think Ill Do This Agen Im Puting A Word Out To ALL People if its not too late Do not try something like this. DHJC!
This site is awesome. Thank you guys for creating it and maintaining it…
I’ve worked in coffee shops, espresso has become like water to me. energy drinks, became soda. I no longer feel the burn out the next day with out coffee or energy drinks, and only once when I was younger did I have heart palpation from overdosing energy drinks but since then my body has built up a wonderful tolerance so I get to enjoy the drinks. I know they aren’t for everyone but I do love my espresso and energy drinks.
In 2009 when I was 18 I was a heavy user of caffeine. I have sleeping problems (not sleeping alot) and caffeine was what helped give me a boost so my body would not crash after nights of not sleeping.
However, it got to the stage where I was using caffeine in the same way as an illegal drug, taking more and more because I was not getting the same buzz.
I tried No Doz, caffiene drinks, supplements, chewing gum, etc.
I was consuming more and more until the night I took a deathly amount of No Doz (approx 29 – 32 no doz plus (have glucose)) tablets from failing to count how many I had already taken during the day (I would mix with food and drink; including energy drinks and, take by themselves).
I am still alive and my organs are still working.
However, on the day I took them I experienced all of the above… Usual symptoms as well as blacking out and in terms of vomit it was bloody. The only symptom I did not experience to my knowledge is cardiac arrest however, it is possible this happened.
I know I was pretty close to dying.
I now stay away from caffeine and if I do use it, it is in the occasional Blue V or Red Demon I buy down at the petrol station.
If I have any more than this I experience headaches and 6 to 8 of the symptoms above.
My story is true and idiotic.
On a funny side though I once read about some guy in the USA who got pulled up for driving erratically because he had drunken 20 cans of red bull (unsure of mls). Report said he thought everything was moving slower than him (kinda like speed). The report also stated he was lucky to be alive.
Today i’ve had 5 rockstars, 7 caffeine pills 200mg and a cup of coffee. Im not dead but I don’t recommend it I just really like how caffeine makes me feel
Like recently for the past 2 years, I have been drinking Rockstars, Mountain Dew, Coke, and Dr. Pepper a lot. And just recently, like the past 3 days, I have been feeling very dizzy, headaches, very tired even though I get like 8-10 hours of sleep a night. Hard time concentrating. And I’ve had to like go home from school because I’m feeling so crappy. I’m wondering and thinking that is it most likely caffeine thats doing this to me? I can’t really think of anything else.
lol im a major addict i drink them when i feel down or depressed and gets me back to happy I JUST DONT RECCOMEND STARTING THEM CUZ ITS VERY HARD to get off and never try drinking 10 energy drinks or so plus on top of like 4 sodas B.A.D but anyway cool site