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’ve had caffeine overdoses- and caffeine may not seem like a big deal, but take enough and it’s the worst feeling in the world. For some people, it means cold sweats, anxiety, and convulsions. For me, it means weak shakiness, rapid, pounding heartbeat, an odd kind of pressure all over- and constant, uncontrollable vomiting that won’t quit; my gag reflex won’t stop even when there’s nothing left to throw up. Literally, an unending barrage of heaving. Not fun. And one has to wait for it to wear off. This won’t occur after a few cups of coffee, but watch out for caffeine pills- also diet supplements with caffeine (or any type of stimulant, “xanthine” is basically the same)and watch out for mixing uppers like caffeine with downers like alcohol.
So I like to take a certain workout supplement for extra energy (not caffeine). I buy my supplements in bulk so I happened to have similar looking white bags, one filled with the supplement and one filled with anhydrous caffeine powder. One day I messed up (very stupid) and mistook the bag of caffeine for my regular workout supplement. I ended up measuring out a little over four grams of what I thought was the supplement, mixing it in a large cup of water, and slamming down the concoction. Lucky for me, not all the caffeine dissolved in the water. If caffeine were a less hydrophobic molecule, I probably wouldn’t be typing this today. I estimate that I took somewhere between three and three and a half grams of pure caffeine within 5 minutes.
Two hours later I shook violently and moaned painfully between sessions of vomiting. I prayed for death but the sweet solace never came as I proceeded to stare bug-eyed and delirious at the ceiling for the next fourteen hours. Sleep was a thing of myth. I wouldn’t wish that feeling on the worst of my enemies. Don’t OD on caffeine.
dead seagulls
ho ho ho
very funny:(
this all sounds like bullcrap
I think I am experiencing dehydration, nausea and jitteryness as I speak. 4 shots of espresso may have been a bit too much in 1 hour. Especially considering that I never drink energy drinks. I’ve had one full throttle this year, and rarely drink coffee. I’ve been downing water like there’s no tomorrow, but my head feels like it’s drowning. If poor judgment doesn’t kill me, my final exams will.
I have drinkin about 10 monsters all in the same hour… and i didnt feel any of these side affects you all are talking about, does that mean there is something wrong with me? i drink 4 monsters b4 every basketball game i play and all that happens is i steal the ball more. no extra sweating or anything… ive taken 4 caffeine pillls of 80mg each and washed it down with two monsters and still nothing. i barely got perked up
@Matt, some people can actually have type of natural immunity to caffeine.. You must be one of those rare people…
im 29 yrs old and last yr i had a caffiene overdose. i took 4 five hr energy shots right before work cuz i was so tired. i got to work that mornin and i didnt feel right they called my husband to come get me and he did i felt like i was dieing but at that point didnt know what was going on i always took 3 to 4 of the shots a day and had been for almost 2 years. well to make the story short i have no kept caffiene. out of my body and i now have a very high anxiety disorder that effect my life everyday as a wife a mother of 3 and as a boss
So Michelle, basically you ignored the warning on the bottle to consume no more that 2 shots a day?
You just need to pay attention to how you drink energy drinks. I’ve been drinking two and three energy drink a day. I do not claim to be the healthiest person alive. And im propably going to end up with a kidney stone the size of a grape fruit. BUT, you body will filter the caffeine. It you drink it over a period of time the worse you will get is the gutters or an upset stomach. The overdose cases are were they decide to take 1000mg in one sitting nd your body can process it so it all hits you at once.
ive had 1000mg of caffeine pills in one swallow and never over dosed. It is not possible to overdose on energy drinks so go wild!
I don’t know where this website is getting its facts from, but a friend of mine passed away in 2005 from a caffeine overdose, yes just caffeine. He worked at starbucks and on his way out he had made two venti size glasses of expresso with only about 15-20 shots each and drank both on his drive home… when he got upstairs to his room his heart ruptured and he died right there on the floor…. he had no prior heart problems and did not use other drugs. Yes you die from caffeine… and its not as rare as this website makes it seem… eat a bottle of nodoz… you will die… not to mention the 1000′s of people allergic to caffeine who could die with a dose of as little as 150mgs… or the thosands of people with neocartiagenic problems and other heart murmors or diseases…
Sorry to hear about your friend, but it’s still not very common. We analyzed the national poison control centers data here. http://www.energyfiend.com/2011/05/is-energy-drink-overdose-in-teens-really-a-problem It shows that a lot more people overdose on Tylenol than caffeine. We aren’t saying it doesn’t happen but we need to keep things in perspective and not let the sensationalism of the media distort the facts.. Your friend consumed up to 40 shots in a matter of minutes that’s 3200mg of caffeine that’s way beyond what would be considered safe.
Don’t listen to anyone that says you can’t overdose on caffeine. And it doesn’t take as much as you think to cause severe effects. I had about 6 or 7 pops a day for two days and ended up having to go to the ER from tachycardia and extreme trembling. It took 2 saline bags to get me up to somewhat normal hydration levels. And I was drinking water and juice along with the pops so it’s not from being stupid. It’s not bullcrap and it’s not funny to go through that.
Over the course of an hour and a half, when I worked at a coffee, shop I downed aprox. 26 shots of espresso on a whim/bet. I didn’t die. I just had extreme cold sweats along with some vomiting. It was all cool within like an hour or so.
Some people just can’t handle their caffeine and to them I say GET STRONGER!
Matt is full of crap. Having watched him play this explains why he is soo bad. Caffeine has ruined his brain
I’ve experienced two caffeine overdoses, and am recovering from one now as i type this. The first time was the worst experience of my life. I don’t weigh very much, and i’d drank a bottle of mountain dew and 2 doctor peppers. Late that night, i broke out into a cold sweat, and my heart started to pound very fast and hard. My muscles jerked and twitched, my mouth went dry, and my stomach felt awful. The effects subsided a little later the next morning, but i still felt very shaky and my heart still fluttered. I hadn’t slept in 16 hours, so that night i was exhausted, and even though i wasn’t completely over it, i was able to sleep, even if it wasn’t very sound. When i got over it, i swore to myself i’d be much more careful. This second time, i don’t know what happened; i only had a few sips of coca-cola, and i’m having the same symptoms-only not as severe. I guess i just have a low tolerance for caffeine, so i’ll have to cut it out of my diet completely now. I couldn’t stand going throught this again!
Hi Jess- It sounds like you may have a caffeine allergy http://www.energyfiend.com/caffeine-allergy-top-20-symptoms
7 months I had a crazy experience from caffeine overdose. In less than 3 days I had drinked 14 and a half of energy drinks. I had some Rockstar 2x drinks, which has 250mg of caffeine in them, I also had some Rockstar Pink which has 120mg, and some Rockstar Recovery which has 80mg caffeine. I had some of the symptoms that were listed and I also had numbness in my entire body.At the I was taken to the hospital, and that’s basically my story.