Since then this post has received over 190 comments from mostly those who have experienced some type of adverse reaction to caffeine.

I have painstakingly sifted through all those comments and have derived the top 20 caffeine allergic reactions in order from most common to least common. Note that this is entirely anecdotal evidence so don’t take it as gospel, but rather consider these caffeine allergy symptoms as possible since they were reported by a number of people.

Also, there is a fine line between caffeine sensitivity and allergy, but overall we’re dealing with the body not being able to correctly process the caffeine molecule so whether you want to call that sensitivity or allergy it’s up to you. In most cases these symptoms were reported after only having a little to moderate amount of caffeine.

1. Skin problems such as hives, eczema, rashes, acne, severe itching.
2. Headaches/ migraines.
3. Anxiety and panic attacks.
4. Can’t focus or concentrate
5. Tongue, glands, or throat swelling.
6. Heart racing/ palpitations.
7. Angry, irritable, bad mood.
8. Fatigue.
9. Dizziness.
10. Extreme jitters.
11. Chest Pain.
12. Depression.
13. Numbness in face, hands, or feet.
14. Muscle pain.
15. Shortness of breath/ tightness of chest.
16. Delusions/ hallucinations.
17. Flu/ cold like symptoms.
18. Vision problems.
19. Cold sweats.
20. Eyes swollen shut.

Most people reported several of the above symptoms and some of the caffeine allergy symptoms were quite bizarre. The ones that take the cake were itchy ears and anus suffered by one poor soul and a sweaty butt crack reported by another……..

With the plethora of caffeinated products in the market place, one could assume that overdosing on caffeine would be becoming quite common.

I think with most subjects there is truth and then there are half truths, here say, urban legends, media hype, and even down right lies. Caffeine overdose is no exception. Let’s take an honest look at the subject and try to put all of the information into perspective.

Caffeine Overdose Documented Cases

Caffeine overdose does happen and has been documented. Here are some of the cases easily found on Google;

• 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!)

I’m sure there are more cases, but they certainly aren’t on the first few pages of Google and I think we get the idea.

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. 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 easy we would have a load of statistics on our hands because of the billions of people who use the drug everyday. The fact is we don’t and the stats we do have on caffeine overdose are few and far between. In fact about 2800 people die a year from choking in the USA alone from eating normal healthy foods. We don’t see the media hyping this up and legislators calling for the ban of solid food.

Conclusions

Instead of banning products and protest, 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. This way the irrational fear of caffeine overdose that seems to be fed and hyped by the media will be put to rest.

As the safety of an energy drink debate rages on we thought we would take a look at the other side of the issue. Since we are huge energy drink fans, its easy to preach their greatness and forget that we are putting chemicals into our body in sometimes huge quantities.

We will take a look at the most common ingredients and list the potential side effects from ingesting them through your favorite energy drink.

Caffeine

Of course this is the most common energy drink ingredient and most of you know the side effects, but the list wouldn’t be complete without it.

• Dizziness, irritability, nausea, nervousness, jitters.
• Allergic reactions can include; rash, hives, itching, difficulty breathing, tightness in the chest, swelling of the (mouth, face, lips, or tongue),diarrhea, shakiness, trouble sleeping, vomiting.
• Headache and severe fatigue from withdrawal.
• Breast shrinkage in females.

It’s hard to pin point a safe dose because it varies from person to person and tolerance. Between .5 grams to 1 gram in a 24 hour period will probably result in some of the above side effects.

Taurine

As of 2008, no side effects from Taurine in energy drinks have been documented.

B Vitamins

• More than 35mg of Thiamine (B3) can cause flushing of the skin. Intake of 3000mg or more can result in liver toxicity.
• More than 100mg of B6 can cause sensory nerve problems (burning sensation) or skin lesions.

Inositol

No known side effects have been reported, but ingesting large quantities has been linked to diarrhea.

Ginseng

• Some studies have linked it to sleeplessness, while others refute this.
• Other possible symptoms include; nausea, diarrhea, headaches, nose bleed, high blood pressure, low blood pressure, and breast pain.

Glucuronolactone

While no side effects have been reported there’s still debate on its safety which has lead Canada, England, Germany, and France from allowing it in non-prescription products.

Artificial sweeteners

If you like the sugar-free variety there is ongoing debate over the safety of these. Here’s  good article from diet-blog on the subject.

Ginkgo Biloba

• nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, dizziness, heart palpitations, and restlessness.
• Can interact with other medication such as blood thinners and anti-depressants.

L-Carnitine

• vomiting, nausea, headache, diarrhea, stuffy nose, restlessness and sleeping difficulty.

Its important to note with these energy drink side effects that many ingredients have similar negative effects, so with much of the information being anecdotal from patients it’s hard to say which ingredient actually caused the problems if the patient was ingesting several combinations of these at one time.

I think, overall, the evidence supports the safety of energy drinks within the context of moderation and knowing your body i.e. allergies, tolerance etc. If you drink responsibly you most likely will avoid energy drink side effects.

Sources:

wikipedia.org
drugs.com
nutritional-supplements-health-guide.com
Bodybuiling.com

1. Worst coffee alternative: Rockstar Original.

• 280 Calories
• 62 grams of sugar
• Equivalent to eating 32 jelly beans at once

However, if they would have checked our Sugar in Drinks page they would have seen that it’s actually Rockstar Punched Guava that takes the cake with 102 grams of sugar!

2.  Worst to go coffee: Mcdonalds Large Mocha

• 400 Calories
• 14 fat grams
• 49 grams of sugar
• Same as eating six Fudgsicles

3. Worst Hot Coffee: Starbucks Venti White Chocolate Mocha

• 580 Calories
• 22 fat grams
• 75 grams of sugar
• Like eating six tablespoons of mayo

4. Worst frozen coffee drink: Large Dunkin’ Donuts frozen cappuccino with whole milk

• 610 Calories
• 8 grams of fat
• 105 grams of sugar
• Same as eating 4 Twinkies

5. Worst Ice Cream based Coffee Drink: Cold Stone Creamery Gotta-Have-It-sized Lotta Caramel Latte

• 1790 Calories
• 90 Grams of Fat
• 175 sugar grams
• Like eating 10 slices of thin crust pizza.

Do you worry about the Calories when you’re getting your caffiene fix?

However, with choice comes responsibility and unfortunately it’s the majority that suffers for the minorities lack there of.

A 15 year old girl passed out at her High School in Wellington, New Zealand shortly after drinking a 60ml NOS Powershot which she bought from a local dairy before school. The dairy immediately pulled the shot from their shelves.

I’ haven’t seen NOS in stores here yet, but according our database NOS Powershot only has 125mg of caffeine. The girl said that her heart was beating fast before she collapsed.

Does anyone else smell fish here? There has to be more to this story and something the teen didn’t disclose. Did she have an underlying medical condition? An allergy to caffeine or other ingredient? Did she pop an illegal substance prior to drinking the shot?

Unfortunately, we will probably never know and the damage has been done. People will assume that NOS is dangerous as well as other products which will continue to hamper more choice in the Southern Hemisphere.

What are your views concerning this situation?

Update 1/10/09 : The NOS shot mentioned in this post is not American based NOS Powershot but New Zealand Made NOS Liquid Energy Shot.

Do you want to loose 100 pounds in 8 months?

Do you enjoy drinking 10 to 14 cans of Red Bull a day?

Do you thrive on up to 1120mg of caffeine daily?

Then the Red Bull Diet is for you. According to a news story out of New Zealand an Auckland woman did just that! She claims that she would only eat at times a hand full of cereal a day along with her 14 cans of Red Bull. She started drinking this gradually and began noticing the appetite suppressing qualities of the drink so soon she was drinking up to 14 cans daily.

Before you get all excited and start ordering Red Bull by the case you may want to note that the 23 three year old woman also;

• Was sent the hospital with a heart attack.
• Now has a heart murmur.
• Has severe pain and cramping in her stomach and bowel.
• Has anxiety attacks.

So you may want to join Weight Watchers instead as this woman has now switched to them and not reccomending her Red Bull Diet Plan.

Vodka Red Bull quickly became the go to cocktail among party goers who wanted to be able to party longer and since then, there have been all kinds of drinks invented with other energy drink  brands trying to get their piece of the pie.

A study out of Wake Forest Medical Center has been looking into this energy drink mixed with alcohol fad in order to see what negative effects it has created. The study revealed the following;

• Students who drank the mix were likely to be come more intoxicated and become intoxicated twice as often.
• Students were twice as likely to be injured on this concoction.
• They were twice as likely to ride with a drunken driver.
• They were also twice as likely to be taken advantage of sexually or take advantage of someone else.

The researchers believe that the high doses of caffeine mask your body’s natural ways of letting you know you’ve consumed too much alcohol, therefore, people tend to drink way more than they should.

This really was clever marketing on Red Bull’s behalf and I can see why the alcohol industry was quick to embrace it. If you can somehow bypass the body’s  natural defense mechanisms concerning alcohol tolerance, then you can increase your bar sales by almost double.

What do you think about theses “party all night” cocktails?

1. Have you noticed the growth of man boobs since drinking energy drinks?
2. Has your  shaving strangely cut down to once a month?
3. Can you sing along with Michael when you hear song “Billy Jean”?
4. Do you cry for no reason and then the next minute giggle like a school girl?
5. Have you experienced unexplained shrinkage?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, your beloved Energy Drinks could be turning you into a women. Now don’t get me wrong, women are great and all, but most guys don’t want to become one, right?

Well it appears Energy Drinks are testing positive for  the chemical, Bisphenol A, which mimics the hormone estrogen. This chemical is often used to line the inside of cans and new testing performed  in Canada showed alarming levels of this chemical in the drinks themselves.

This chemical is known to cause birth defects, but it is unclear if it really causes damage in adults. However, it’s something to be aware of and guys if you have any of the above symptoms you may want to have your hormone levels checked!

Source: TheDailyGreen.com

A few months ago we wrote about how a study reported that women who drank six or more cups of coffee a day had less risk of cancer, stroke, and heart disease.

Well bad news ladies, all that coffee may be healthy, but it has been shown to shrink breast size.

A study out of Sweden found that women who drank three or more cups of coffee a day had some breast shrinkage.

Helena Jernstroem, of Lund University explained that although some shrinkage was noted the breasts wouldn’t eventually disappear, but only shrink slightly. Also, it only shrinks the breasts of women with a certain gene.

Oh, and by the way guys, if you are worried about the shrinkage of parts of your anatomy because of caffeine, the research showed that it actually increases size.

Of your man boobs that is……. Sorry!

Rats, roaches, ants, bacteria, viruses, and perhaps even various body fluids could have come in contact with that can top since it left the factory.

Well, now that you’re totally grossed out, energy fiend found out that there’s a new energy drink that’s the first to use a sanitary can top seal. American Energy Drink, yet another patriotic energy drink, wants to not only energize you, but also prevent you from getting the flu, anthrax, bubonic plague, yellow fever, ebola and many other deadly diseases.

Ok, I may be a little sarcastic, but there is some truth to this. I believe a few years ago a lady got quite sick from a contaminated soda can and if you wipe most cans with a white cloth some black residue will appear.

Unfortunately, I think there might be some ulterior motives here. When I looked at the website I got the impression that this is a way for drink companies to possibly make some extra revenue by advertising other products on these sanitary toppers.

I couldn’t find out anything about the drink itself, so I’ll have to check into that later, but it looks like it will be released in the Southeast, USA first.