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Death by Coffee?
Clif Griffin writes "Slashdots question of the year, are you ready for this? No? Too bad, you'll hear me anyways. Will drinking 100 cups of coffee (the good kind, not that crappy decaf mocalatte crap) in 24 hours kill a person? Sure, there is one way we can find out but we can't let myself die under mysterious circumstances."
(Disclaimer): There are days when I consume a pot or so of coffee for myself, so I am not saying this out of any prejudice. However, the thing to remember is that there *are* pharmacologically active compounds in coffee, in particular caffeine. The effects of caffeine really depend upon the person and how well their liver enzymes are induced to take care of compounds like this, but 100 cups could be enough to give you anxiety, sweats, tremors dizzyness, GI cramping, dehydration (caffeine is a diuretic), and at higher (toxic) doses even heart arrhythmias, nausea and vomiting, symptoms of CNS toxicity involving ringing ears or damped sounds and flashing light and possibly convulsions. So, can it kill you? Possibly. So, my question to you is.......why would you want to drink 100 cups of coffee in a day? This isn't some dare or weird coffee enema garbage that someone is trying to foist on you is it?
Oh, yea. IAAS. (I am a scientist).
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100 glasses (~20 litres) of water would. Can't see how coffee would make it any better (or worse).
Yes. You will die. You probably deserve it too.
April 1, 2004 a great day to avoid Slashdot completely because what you thought couldn't get any worse, just did.
Actually, Fry drank 300 cups of coffee in that episode. Remember, he had $300 from his tax return, and coffee cost $1 per cup.
Also of note is that before he got to that blissful superhuman state he was suffering from the effects of the coffee. It toook the exact 300 to reach it.
... And Google is my friend, yes. It was called the "water cure" or "extraordinary torment". Thirty pints of water forcibly administered to the victim.
"I think it would be a good idea!"
Gandhi, about Internet Security
Almost everything is a poison in large enough doses to living things.(Water to a fish would be an exception)
Granted it would take a large amount of water or coffee to kill someone, but if taken enough it would kill you.
Because it's funnier to mod it informative than to mod it funny. The thought that someone might see it labeled as informative and then make an ass out of themselves repeating it in all seriousness around the DHMO-cooler is hilarious.
Eat at Joe's.
And idiots wrap their cars around trees too. Ecstasy can be quite benign if done in moderation and with a good head on your shoulders. None of the 'dangerous' illegal drugs out there seem so bad if you know how to handle yourself.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
Well I thought the glass of water was to freshen your breath and clean up your mouth, not because they care about the electrolyte concentration which a cup of coffee cannot hurt much.
Yesterday was the time to do it right. Are we having a REVOLUTION yet?
Yeah but so does coffe, has electrolytes I mean. Although everything is relative. I at one point in time when on a biology research trip to Andros Island in the Bahammas was drinking 4 gallons of water a day. At less than 3 gallons I would dehydrate to the point I didnt pee for 2 days. At 4 gallons I would go twice a day. I didnt even sweat noticbly, but half the time I was in the water diving, but even on land between the breeze and the long sleeved cotton shirts absorbing then evaporating sweat. We had to monitor and log our water consumption.
For chrissakes, haven't any of you guys heard of emergency rooms? Or the Poison Control Hotline?
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
If Leah Betts hadn't been on Ecstacy, she wouldn't have taken the foolish action of overdosing on water, would she?
This was as much a drug-related death as a drunk driver who rams a telephone pole, or a junkie who gets shot to death trying to break into someone's home. Media coverage of drug use may be somewhat more hysterical than it needs to be, but I'd rather have people think illicit drugs are more dangerous than they actually are than to have them think that a substance cooked up in some stranger's kitchen chemistry lab is SAFE to ingest.