If you drink caffeinated beverages, you may have experienced your heart racing from drinking far too much. This is the first sign of a caffeine overdose. Maybe you have experienced a massive headache and irritability when you go without your morning cup of coffee. This is caffeine withdrawal.

Few people stop to recognize that caffeine is an addictive and dangerous drug that we pump into our bodies every time we need a boost of energy to meet a deadline. Our society has normalized this as part of a daily routine.

By downplaying the potency of caffeine, people do not realize that it’s possible to die from consuming too much. Here are 10 stories of people who have died from a caffeine overdose.

10 Latte, Mountain Dew, Energy Drink

A 16-year-old named Davis Cripe was a lot like many kids in high school in South Carolina. He was a healthy and happy guy who played the drums and stayed out of trouble.

His school allowed the kids to leave during their lunch break, and he owned his own car. So he drove to McDonald’s and bought a cafe latte. He downed a Mountain Dew while he ate his food and chugged an energy drink in a few gulps before he walked into art class.

The high levels of caffeine increased his heart rate so much that Cripe had a heart attack and collapsed on the floor of the classroom. The teacher called 911, but it was already too late. A representative from the FDA spoke about Cripe’s death, saying that the issue was too much caffeine in such a short period of time. This could happen to almost anyone, even without a preexisting heart condition.^[1]

9 5-Hour Energy

People who don’t want the excess calories from drinking a sugary energy drink or coffee may think that chugging an energy shot mixed with vitamins and caffeine is the solution for staying awake at work or school. However, these products are so small that people underestimate just how powerful they truly are.

From 2009 to 2012, 5-hour Energy drinks may have killed 13 people and sent an additional 33 to the hospital. Dr. Sean Patrick Nord, USC director of the Section of Toxicology, has compared drinking several energy shots per day to consuming 30–40 cups of coffee. If a person has more than one in a short period of time, it’s really not surprising if the energy drinks kill him.^[2]

The company that makes 5-hour Energy shots dismisses these stories as just “claims” that their drinks caused people’s caffeine overdoses and has refused to change the formulas of their products. Manoj Bhargava, the founder and CEO, said that people should use these products as directed. Comparing energy shots to water, Bhargava said, “If you have too much [water], you drown.”

8 FCKD UP And Four Loko

In the United States, mixing caffeine and alcohol in the drink Four Loko caused several young people to begin acting crazy. Some of them even died. These drinks are high in alcohol content. But they come in different fruity flavors, so they are easy to drink quickly. The addition of caffeine makes someone drunk more quickly and can trigger personality changes.

Even for someone with a high alcohol tolerance, just one Four Loko is enough to get someone very drunk. For young people who have no idea what they are doing, it’s easy to get carried away.

In 2010, Four Loko came under investigation by the US Food and Drug Administration. As a result, Phusion Projects, which makes Four Loko, removed the caffeine from their alcoholic beverages.

This was prompted by the death of 20-year-old Jason Keiran, who was drinking at a college party. He had three Four Lokos, which is like drinking 18 light beers and several cups of coffee. The caffeine-alcohol combo caused him to fall into a manic state, and he shot himself. Keiran’s family sued the company.^[3]

Maybe the Canadian drink company Geloso Group, makers of the drink FCKED UP, didn’t get the memo about what happened with Four Loko because a young girl from Quebec died in 2018 from the caffeine-alcohol mix in FCKED UP. Athena Gervais was just 14 years old.

She had gone to an outdoor party in the woods behind her school and consumed some FCKED UP. The drink caused her to act strangely, and she went missing shortly afterward. Her body was found in a stream a few days later.

After Gervais’s death, Geloso Group stopped making FCKED UP.

7 No Doze

Nineteen-year-old James Stone was determined to get a job in 2007. He felt that he needed caffeine to stay awake and power through sending out as many online applications as possible. He began taking No-Doz caffeine tablets at his parents’ home to help him stay awake. There was no warning label on the product about limiting consumption of the pills. It just said that it was like drinking a cup of coffee.

So, when one pill did not feel like it was giving him the results he wanted, Stone took 25–30 tablets in a short period of time. After a little while, he didn’t feel well. He got up to use the bathroom and collapsed on the floor from a heart attack.

A spokeswoman for Novartis, the maker of No-Doz, said that James Stone’s was the first recorded death from taking their product and that No-Doz is FDA approved and safe. After some digging, Stone’s doctor found that at least one other young adult had died from consuming an entire bottle of No-Doz on a dare in 1998.^[4]

6 Monster Energy

As caffeine increases your heart rate, it’s not a good idea to do any exercise right after consuming it. However, Monster Energy drinks often advertises with pro skaters and other athletes who appear to drink these products and immediately engage in physical activity afterward. Not only is this giving teenagers the message that this is okay, but it even encourages the same behavior, as if the drinks will enhance athletic performance.

In 2015, 19-year-old Dustin Hood drank three-and-a-half cans of Monster Energy drinks in a 24-hour period and then went to play a basketball game.^[5] When combined with the exercise, the amount of caffeine that he consumed was enough to give him cardiac arrhythmia according to a lawsuit filed by his father. Dustin collapsed during the game and died in the hospital.

This is not the only time that Monster Energy has come under fire for marketing to teenagers. In 2012, they were sued for the death of a 14-year-old girl who consumed only two cans.

The company has also been the subject of a class action lawsuit for promoting their drinks as regular soft drinks or beverages even though the products are classified as dietary supplements with the FDA. This classification allows the company to avoid listing ingredients on the product and complying with other consumer safety regulations as required by the FDA for standard beverages.

5 Coffee Cancer Risk

Most defenders of caffeine will say that the drug is only an issue when someone consumes energy drinks because coffee is so much safer, right? Not so much.

In reality, one 12-ounce cup of Starbucks coffee is like drinking three cans of Red Bull. The frightening part is that 12 ounces is Starbucks size “tall,” which is synonymous with a small. It goes all the way up to trenta, which is 31 ounces. Don’t worry. It gets worse.^[6]

In March 2018, a California court found that a chemical called acrylamide is formed when coffee beans are roasted and that acrylamide has been linked to a risk of getting cancer. The nonprofit Council for Education and Research on Toxics had filed a lawsuit to get a warning label added to coffee cups by California retailers like Starbucks.

Of course, the companies are continuing to fight this in court because they are afraid it will hurt their bottom line. Not all experts agree with the judge’s decision.

4 An Experiment Gone Awry

As previously mentioned, mixing caffeine and exercise is dangerous. In 2015, researchers at Northumbria University wanted to conduct an experiment to see just how much caffeine a human body can take while working out.

Sports science majors Luke Parkin and Alex Rossetta were administered caffeine powder that was the equivalent of 300 cups of coffee. Then they worked out while hooked up to a heart monitor. Considering how many people have died after consuming much smaller amounts, it’s not surprising that the students began to show signs of a serious overdose.

They were rushed to the hospital. Thankfully, Parkin made a full recovery. But Rossetta’s brain was damaged after the experiment, and he now suffers from short-term memory loss.

The school made a formal apology in the media, and they were fined £400,000 for their mistake. It was concluded that the researchers who conducted the experiment had absolutely no idea what they were doing and should have never been running that test in the first place.^[7]

3 Mystery Energy Drink

Even when sitting still, riding a motorcycle can make your heart race. A 28-year-old amateur motocross racer had consumed 7–8 cans of an unnamed energy drink in 2007 just before he got on his bike.

He won some of the races. After his second race, however, he developed a dull ache in his chest. Since he was so young, he didn’t realize that he was having a heart attack. He continued to race and eventually collapsed.

At the hospital, the doctors concluded that there was no discernible reason for his heart attack except for the energy drinks. They performed a cardiac catheterization and released him six days later. The medical report did not specify which energy drink was to blame for the heart attack, but he came very close to dying from the excess caffeine.^[8]

Yes, we know this one didn’t die. But we thought it was important to let you know how easily you can miss the signs of a heart attack from too much caffeine when you think you’re too young or too healthy to die.

2 Bullet Energy Drink

You may not have heard of the energy drink called “Bullet,” but it is a cheap and popular caffeinated beverage in several countries, including Nigeria. In 2014, a man named Elijah Nwankwo, who was living in the state of Ebonyi, accepted a $100 bet from one of his friends that Elijah could not consume eight Bullet energy drinks by himself.

Nwankwo took on the challenge and began chugging them one after another. He collapsed and slipped into a coma. His friends rushed him to the hospital, but it was too late. He lost the bet—and his life.^[9]

There is very little information on Bullet online, and there doesn’t seem to be requirements to disclose just how much caffeine is in these drinks. Just like everywhere else in the world, the company has paid athletes to pose holding cans of their products and pushes consumers to buy multipacks.

1 Unnamed Man In Japan

In 2015, a man in his twenties was working at a 24-hour gas station in Japan. His shift was from midnight until 6:00 AM. He needed to stay awake during the day and go back into work that night. He figured that he could pull this off if he drank enough caffeine. Unfortunately, he died of an overdose.

Researchers at Fukuoka University performed an autopsy. This was the first case of a caffeine overdose death in Japan, so it came as a shock to many Japanese medical researchers. Many were not aware that it was possible to die of a caffeine overdose. They have no idea just how many drinks the victim consumed.^[10]

After this news came out, one Japanese energy drink company voluntarily warned people not to consume too many in a short time and not to mix energy drinks with alcohol.

Shannon Quinn is a writer from the Philadelphia area. You can check out her website or find her on Twitter.

If you asked people what the world’s most popular drug is, what would the most common answer be? Many people will say marijuana, or cannabis if they’re pretentious potheads. There will be some people that get closer by saying tobacco or alcohol. Probably fewer than say weed, because when most of us hear the word drug we think of illegal drugs. However, none of these are correct. The right answer: caffeine. We don’t think of drinking coffee as doing drugs, but that’s what it is. So read on to find out more about the only recreational drug that your parents will encourage you to take with that Starbucks gift card they send you at Christmas.

10. It Makes You Feel Good

The main reason that people take drugs is because they make the user feel good. Drugs can make us feel so good that they’re dangerous. Some people are willing to take them despite the side effects and risks. The lows and highs for coffee aren’t quite as extreme as heroin, but as you’ll see they do exist. Let’s start with the high.

Caffeine consumption stimulates the release of the chemical dopamine, which leads to euphoria. Other drugs that rely on dopamine include cocaine and ecstasy. Recent research has shown that caffeine also acts on the same neurotransmitters that marijuana does. So, that buzz you feel when you have your first cup of joe in the morning is caused by chemicals being released in your brain’s reward system. In addition to the rise in productivity, this is another one of the positive effects of caffeine consumption.

9. It Can Have Side Effects

Like most things in life, caffeine can have some nasty side effects, especially if consumed to excess. Most of us know that it can cause insomnia, nervousness, and anxiety. However, there are other negative possibilities as well. These are much more rare, but they do occur. In some people, caffeine may cause stomach problems, nausea, vomiting, headaches, chest pains, and increased heart rate.

There are also some people who should take extra caution. It can sometimes make anxiety disorders or bipolar disorder worse. It’s also probably good to avoid it if you are pregnant or if you are a child. It also can make certain problems worse, like glaucoma, epilepsy, and high blood pressure. If you have something like that that impacts your life, make sure you talk to your doctor, or more realistically, look it up online. Again, these effects are rare but it’s good to at least keep them in mind.

8. You Build Up a Tolerance

Has this ever happened to you? You do something fun you’ve never done before, and the first time you do it it’s incredibly intense and memorable. The next time you do it, it’s still really, really good, but maybe not quite as intense. But you still really like it, so you do it a lot. And after a while, it’s still kind of fun but it’s not the same. You enjoy it, but not as much. You just built up a tolerance.

That’s what happens when you consume a substance often. And this happens with caffeine as well as with other drugs. In one study, subjects became desensitized to the effects of caffeine in the first four days of consumption. This tolerance building is why you tend to need more over time in order to feel the same effects. The best way to keep your tolerance low is to keep your consumption levels low. And if you feel you’re drinking too much, you can always take a few days off. But, that might be hard because…

7. It Can Cause Withdrawal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0HaQmahq4o

When someone tries to quit taking a hard drug, let’s say heroin, there are often withdrawal symptoms. Part of the reason it’s hard to quit is because the drug makes us feel good, but another reason is because stopping feels so bad. This is the case with caffeine for many people.

Attempting to stop consuming caffeine can lead to withdrawal symptoms. Caffeine use releases adrenaline, which causes an energy boost. But this energy boost wears out eventually, and many people decide that means it’s time for more caffeine. But overconsumption can wear down your adrenal gland, making you dependent on the adrenaline boost provided by caffeine. This leads to withdrawal symptoms ranging from headache to constipation to depression. Luckily, these are usually milder than the withdrawals experienced by heroin addicts and will usually go away within a week or so. Whew!

6. You Can Overdose On It

Most things should be enjoyed in moderation, if at all. Caffeine has tons of health benefits, but too much of a good thing can turn into a bad thing. According to the Mayo Clinic, up to 400 mg of caffeine per day is safe in healthy adults. But, this amount differs based on your age, weight, and sex. Caffeine overdose usually only leads to unpleasant symptoms that go away once the caffeine is flushed out of your body. So, most of the time, it’s not that bad.

Milder symptoms include dizziness, diarrhea, and fever. But you should go to the doctor if you experience trouble breathing, vomiting, or convulsions. It’s probably best you go to the doctor after that whether you drank any caffeine or not. To avoid all this, keep your daily caffeine level below 400 mg, and even less if you aren’t used to it or are a particularly small person.

5. It Can Kill You

As we said earlier, caffeine overdose usually only leads to mildly unpleasant symptoms. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. In extremely rare cases, it can actually help kill you. Again, this can only happen if large amounts are consumed in a small amount of time. Back in April, a teen in South Carolina died after drinking a McDonald’s latte, a large Mountain Dew, and an energy drink in under 2 hours.

He suffered from a caffeine induced cardiac arrhythmia. Based on estimates, he may have consumed about 470 mg of caffeine, over the daily recommended limit, in under two hours. The energy drink is particularly to blame, as it contains tons of caffeine and sugar. The American Association of Pediatrics has warned against kids and teenagers consuming energy drinks, and they say no one can ensure they are safe. Soda’s not good for you by any means, but energy drinks seem to be even more dangerous.

4. It Can Increase The Chance For Hallucinations

Caffeine is not like LSD. We’re guessing you already knew that. It does not directly cause any kind of hallucination. But, a study has linked caffeine consumption to hallucinations. It doesn’t cause hallucinations, but they are correlated. Those who consume the equivalent of 3 cups of brewed coffee (315 mg caffeine) per day were more likely to hallucinate than those who didn’t.

Caffeine has been shown to increase stress. The researchers of the study say that stress is also related to hallucinations. It’s not common at all, but stress may increase the possibility of hallucinations for those who are prone to them. On the other hand, it may be the other way around. They say it may be that those prone to hallucinations may use caffeine as a coping mechanism. The jury’s still out on this one, as they say.

3. It’s a Social Drug

Sure, a lot of times people drink caffeinated drinks on their own. In fact, that’s probably the most common way to consume it. But there is also a unique social aspect to coffee drinking. The primary locations of these social occasions are coffee shops. In the coffee shop owner’s ideal world, people would come in, purchase something expensive, and then leave. But that is not how people act for the most part.

People treat coffee shops as meeting places. They spend hours there studying, chatting, working on business presentations, or “writing” (AKA wasting time online). They are unique places, like a bar but much more relaxed. You can talk to other people, but it’s not expected. And there are probably more people getting actual work done than at the nightclub. The fact that it helps improve productivity is one of the main reasons that caffeine is the world’s most accepted drug, and also one of the reasons that people choose to do their work at coffee shops.

2. It’s Expensive

Illegal drugs are expensive. Many small fortunes have been lost to cocaine and quaaludes… at least that’s what we got out of Wolf of Wall Street. Unfortunately, caffeine is an expensive habit as well, and a much more accessible one. Some desperate addicts spend $5 on coffee per day. In a single day! A coffee habit slowly but surely eats away at one’s savings, eroding the sense of security and ease that was their savings account.

So, why is coffee so expensive? First off, it’s a volatile business, so owners tend to raise prices because of risk. The crops and market tend to fluctuate a lot, which causes uncertainty. There are tons of threats to the world’s coffee supply, and a shortage could really hurt coffee shops. So, the lower the supply of coffee goes, the higher the price will be for the shops and the customers. It’s production also requires lots of different people and organizations. It’s estimated that each coffee bean is handled by 30 different pairs of hands before it ends up in your cup. Most businesses have middlemen, and coffee’s got a ton of them. Coffee is not necessary to life, no matter what you’ve heard people say. It’s a luxury item and is therefore highly priced.  

If you want to keep your costs down, stick with the simpler variations, like black coffee. Specialty drinks are bound to be much more expensive. And to make it even cheaper, make your own at home.

1. Governments Have Tried To Ban It Before

Most recreational drugs are banned. Coffee and alcohol are pretty much the only two openly and fully accepted in American society. Alcohol is legal for anyone over the age of 21, and caffeine is totally legal for everyone. 8-year-olds drink soda chock full of sugar and caffeine. There’s no longer any actual cocaine in Coke, but there’s still a lot of white powder that’s pretty bad for you.  

In addition to the health dangers of overconsumption, there are also psychoactive effects to caffeine. It is, after all, a drug. And, like pretty much all drugs, governments have tried to ban it before. Banning drugs is like a drug to some people. In the 17th century Ottoman Empire, the consumption of coffee was a capital offense. Sultan Murad IV was fully on board the anti-caffeine train, prescribing death for coffee drinkers. That’s right, death. And he didn’t stop there. He would dress up as a commoner and walk around Istanbul trying to catch people defying his law. He carried a freaking sword around with him and when he came upon anyone sipping a latte, he would chop off their heads. Ironically, despite his anti-drug rhetoric, the Sultan didn’t heed his own warning: his death was caused by alcohol poisoning.

The coffee hate wasn’t limited to one country. In England, The Women’s Petition Against Coffee argued that coffee was to blame for tons of problems, particularly regarding men. They even blamed coffee for causing impotence. They knew they had to fight back, for The Devil’s Cup had ruined their husbands. This sounds somewhat similar to the Women’s Temperance movement. And these sorts of ideas continue into the present day, in a more restrained way. Just last year, New Jersey was considering banning people from driving after drinking coffee. But, try as they might, coffee will rebound. Despite this resistance and it’s side effects, we fully expect caffeine to continue to be the world’s most popular drug.