Caffeine Vault

Brazilian Geek writes: "This is interesting ... Here's a link to the Caffeine Vault. Everything you wanted to know about every geek's favorite drug. BTW, did you know that caffeine can kill? Here's a handy table with the caffeine content of some popular soft drinks and different brews of coffee."

Comments

Re:Caffeine has it'sown MSDS too

[aed]

The correct link is: http://erowid.org/ch emicals/caffeine/caffeine_data_sheet.shtml

if 13 mg/kg is toxic, then for a 200lb (100kg) person the toxicity level = 13mg/kg * 100kg =1300mg

Re:Caffeine morphine Jolt Cola--what's the diff? :

[Synocco]

Water is very addictive. Just think of the withdrawal symptoms.

let's be medically realistic

[toska]

I'd be a little cautious in comparing water overload to caffeine overload. While it is possible for polydipsia (pathologically increased water intake) to cause death, it's actually pretty rare. There are these organs called kidneys that in healthy young people do a great job of keeping up. Eventually, you can overcome the capacity of the kidneys to expel pure water, and if you're not taking in salts, then you can have an electrolyte abnormality, seixure, cardiac arrhythmias, and death. A really old diabetic who developed polydipsia (usually a psychiatric condition, btw, with some people actually drinking straight from their showerheads), would be at pretty high risk since the body is already pretty compromised.

The achlorhydria is also pretty rare, and you can digest much of your food. I've never heard of a reported case of achlorhydria from chronic low-level polydipsia leading to clinically significant malnutrition.

I wouldn't leave people with the impression that caffeine is just as toxic as water. It's not. It's more toxic, and it can kill you if you overdose on it. If you don't do the stupid "deadline in 2 days. No more sleep and a couple boxes of nodoze should solve it", you'll never run into trouble. If one of your coworkers on a project or something starts getting really confused and lethargic after taking a lot of caffeine (slumping down, not making sense, staring off), you should take them to the ER and get charcoal down their throats fast. It'd be hard to get there by drinking coffee (who can get 50 cups down that fast), but those 100mg tablets can add up fast.

Re:Medical mathematics

[YoJ]

Concentration of drugs in the body over time is calculated using the Michaelis-Menten differential equation. Let y(t) be the amount of drug in the body (grams) at time t (seconds). Then:

y'(t)=-k y(t)/(A+y(t))

where A and k are constants that depend on the drug.

Drugs like cocaine have y(t) very small relative to A, so the concentration can be approximated with an exponential decay. This is where the concept of half-life of drugs comes in. The concentration decreases by a half for every half-life of time that goes by. So if the half-life is 1 hr, after 3 hours there is 1/8 the initial amount of drug in the body.

For drugs like alcohol, y(t) is large relative to A, which makes the decay more linear and less exponential. One serving of alcohol takes about an hour to pass out of the body. So after half an hour, half the initial alcohol is in the blood.

To model the level of caffeine in your body without complicated medical tests, you would have to find the right constants for caffeine from medical literature. Then carefully record every source of caffeine you intake to the model. Since caffeine passes through the body relatively quickly, it would be pretty much impossible to keep a constant concentration in the blood. It would be possible to keep the concentration between an upper and lower limit.

NO such thing as too much coffee.

[www.sorehands.com]

Hold it, I have to brew another pot....Ok, I'm back.

You know, you drink to much coffee when...

Re:Caffeine has it'sown MSDS too

[laborit]

I don't think I've EVERY heard of someone reaching Lethal dosage...

Oh, it's not just theoretical rat-torture. Although the guy in question did have to take ~90 pills = 18g = ~180 cups of strong coffee = 600 Penguin Mints...

Of course, I must warn against someone eating half a pound of chocolate covered espresso beans, unless they want to stay up for two days.

Yeah, the half-life can be a problem. You're much better off with ephedrine (clean, no jitters), Nicorette(TM) (shorter-acting), or cocaine (the side effect where you turn into God is pretty nice).

- Michael Cohn

Caffeine morphine Jolt Cola--what's the diff? :-)

[Sir_Winston]

> BTW, did you know that caffeine can kill?

Yep; in sufficiently high doses, anything can kill you. Even abnormally high water intake for a sustained period can kill you in several ways, including malnutirion: if you drink insane quantities of water, your digestive acids may actually become too diluted to effectively digest many foods. Even non-diabetics can overdose on sugar...which makes me wonder why I'm not dead yet considering the deranged quantities of Jolt and sweet sweet heavenly hash I've imbibed...
makes me feel like Elvis when I binge, except that I'd never under any circumstances put peanut butter on my hamburgers.

But back to the caffeine, there was at least one case I recall reading about, in which a mother overdosed her young daughter on caffeine pills by repeatedly feeding them to her over several days. The mother didn't realize that the autopsy would turn up plenty of undigested pills, some with the brand still visible on the capsules...

Caffeine has it'sown MSDS too

[krystal_blade]

Shock you're co-workers, satisfy your safety oriented boss. Download the CAFFEINE MSDS, and place it next to the office coffee pot!!

http://erowid.org/chemicals/caffeine/caffeine_data _sheets.shtml

Caffeine Toxicity: Anhydrous: 192 mg/kg lethal dosage for human. Toxic dosage is 13 mg/kg oral man.

That equates to around 130 mg for a toxicity level in a 200 lb person. Females and males are so closely linked on lethality, and toxicicity level, posting both here would be a waste.

I don't think I've EVERY heard of someone reaching Lethal dosage...

Of course, I must warn against someone eating half a pound of chocolate covered espresso beans, unless they want to stay up for two days.

mummmummm-mmmuuuusssssssssssssssssssssssssssstttt gggegegetttttt mmmomo more kh kh kh off offf eeee!!!

krystal_blade

Some guy...

[RPoet]

Read this guy. He's apparantly a regular user of pot and LSD, and that's like the most natural thing in the world, but he's trying to cut down on the caffeine... That should be a warning to all you kids out there -- cut the caffeine (not) ;)
--

Re:Caffeine morphine Jolt Cola--what's the diff? :

[rve]

The LD50 should not be regarded as a border, below which you live and suffer no ill effects and above which you die.

The LD50 is based on the dose that kills 50% of a group of test animals, usually rats, rabbits or mice through it's direct effects. This dose is multiplied by a certain factor (depending on the weight, and probably species of the test animal), to give a _probable_ LD50 for humans.

At a far lower dose, only 1% may die, or at an even lower dose no test animal may die, but some develop permanent damage to their organs. At a far higher dose, 99.999% may die, but some could survive.

Re:Caffeine is not

[laborit]

Neither LSD nor marijuana is addictive (or, if marijuana is "psychologically addictive" because people get used to its pleasant effects, then caffeine is too). Neither one is dangerous or harmful to health. So while your point is taken, I don't think it indicates any hypocracy on the author's part.

Also note that Caffeine isn't as physically habituating as some drugs, but overall it may be harder to quit -- people who are trying to get off speed get some social support and substantial approval for it, whereas society practically encourages caffeine overuse.

- Michael Cohn