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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."
Well, if drinking a hundred cups of coffee in twenty-four hours doesn't kill you, it'll certainly give you a wicked case of the runs.
Kind of like on the "Bambi" episode of The Young Ones back in the 80s, when Rick tries to kill himself by overdosing on a bottle of pills he's just found in the medicine cabinet.
"Vyv, Vyv, uh, can you, like, really kill yourself with laxative pills?" Neil asks his other housemate, Vyvyan, who replies, "I don't know, Neil, but I'm going to stay and find out."
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
When I quit, I reduce my intake by halves -- in other works, today a pot, tomorrow half a pot, and so on, until it's just a sip, and then nothing.
That makes it fairly painless to shake the monkey (no headaches).
And then it's extra fun to drink that next pot a few weeks later... ;)
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
I once read a story by a Conan Doyle (do not know if it was Arthur or a relative) in which reference was made to a French torture that consisted in forcing the victim to drink (gulp actually, they used a funnel) great quantities of water until they confessed or died. Anybody can confirm this?
"I think it would be a good idea!"
Gandhi, about Internet Security
Caffeine, like all alkaloids, is bug poison. Alkaloids were invented by tropical plants to discourage bugs from eating.
Alkaloids are people poison, too, of course, but a bigger dose is required.
A can of coke contains only about 35 mg of caffiene. So 48 cans of coke contain about 1.7 grams of caffeine - far short of the lethal amount, which is about 10 grams if taken at once.
The 48 cans of coke are about the same as 12 cups of strong coffee. I assure that many people have had more than that over a twelve hour period and survived.
Of course, if your fathers friend had an existing heart condition (for example) the high amount of caffeine and sugar could have contributed to a heart attack or something.
The answer is; it's do-able.
While 20 liters of water (or any other liquid substance) will cause severe pain and will kill you when drunk at once (see torture-methods), the fact that it is spread on a time-period of 24 hours changes the picture completely.
If the body is given enough time/oportunity to get rid of a considerable amount of the liquid, then nothing will happen (exept a full blatter every hour).
So, provided it's evenly spread among the 24 hours, 100 glasses of water are consumable without any great averse affects.
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
Reminds me of the story of how the Engineer's 40 Beer Contest started. Med students at the University of British Columbia told some engineers that 40 beers could not be consumed in one sitting. They were proved wrong. Once or twice a year Engineers go to a local pub to drink 40 beers in one sitting (from opening - typically 12noon, to close - typically 2am) You even get a badge if you complete it.
In October of 2000 I was a Navy Hospital Corpsmen assigned to a Marine unit. (Just for those who don't know, the Marines fall under the Department of the Navy and get medical support from the Navy)
During one of the training exercises taking place at a base on the island of Hawaii, one of the Marines ( a Corporal) who was working in the chow hall drank 32 oz. of coffee concentrate (equal to about 50 cups) on a $30 bet from his Staff Sergeant.
He came into the Aid Station complaining of chest pains and vomiting blood. He kept on saying, "I can't stop shaking, Doc."
Needless to say this was considered an emergency and we called the Medical Officer. We had to keep an eye him in case his heart developed an arrhythmia due fact the enough of any stimulant, including coffee, could do that. The Marine was put under observation for the night and one of the Corpsmen went to inform the Staff Sergeant that if the Corporal died he'd be held responsible.
This Marine lived and was passed over for a promation because of this incident but, I never seen him drink coffee since.
Yes, it is possible that coffee could kill a person. Depending on the person's weight and the period of time that it took to drink the coffee. It might be funny now but at the time it was dead serious.
I think I think, therefore I think I am.
Yes, 100 cups of coffee in 24 hours would most likely kill you. 800 oz? Come on! The videotape of someone trying, however, would be hilarious. (Before they started vomiting from both ends...come to think of it, that would be funny too)
postmodernsideshow.com
Indeed.
A British girl Leah Betts died from Hyponatremia a few years ago. The official story, and the way it was hysterically presented in the press, was that she died from taking a single Ecstasy pill, whereas actually she basically drank so much water her brain swelled up and killed her.
Even sadder, most people still believe she was killed by Ecstacy...
Never let the facts get in the way of a good anti-drug hysteria whuppin' up. Remember the people on acid supposedly jumping out of windows in the '60s?
They will never know the simple pleasure of a monkey knife fight
I used to work mostly in the field but was in the office on a chilly day working on some new equipment. I had learned that my coworkers, who loved coffee, hadn't had chocolate covered coffee beans. I brought in 1/4 pound. They each tried one bean.
This left me absent-mindedly munching them and pouring repeated cups of coffee. I ended up eating the whole box and drinking over a pot of coffee.
By quitting time I was quite sick and facing a commute across the SF-Oakland bay bridge. I found a box and lined it with a bag in case I threw up and endured the commute - not fun when you are extremely hyper and sick.
I got home and just wanted to curl up in bed but every time I tried I was way too jumpy and had to get up again. My heart was pounding so hard and fast that it scared me.
My recommendation: don't do it - it is really, really unpleasant.
Further reading: the caffeine material safety data sheet
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
Too much water decreases electrolyte concentration.
So what if you drank Gatorade (or another well made sports drink), which has an electolyte balance designed to match the body's?
$8.95/mo web hosting
No it would not. a cup of coffee has 50-100mg of caffeine TOPS. the overdose of caffeine is estimated at 20g = 400 cups of coffe *in a row*, not in the course of 24hours, because caffeine is a diuretic and *some of it will get eliminated if you take it slowly*. Anyway, you will take a minute to take a cup of hot coffee, so, in approximately 6 hours you can kill yourself by pouring 400 of them. Ah, and in Brasil (US$ 3/kg of coffee), you would spend 5kg of coffee = US$ 15,00; not expensive (cheaper then buying a .38 and ammo)
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
This is a great site http://www.gutenberg.net/ for finding classic literature.
The Leather Funnel
My friend, Lionel Dacre, lived in the Avenue de Wagram, Paris.
His house was that small one, with the iron railings and grass
plot in front of it, on the left-hand side as you pass down from
the Arc de Triomphe. I fancy that it had been there long before
the avenue was constructed, for the grey tiles were stained with
lichens, and the walls were mildewed and discoloured with age. It
looked a small house from the street, five windows in front, if
I remember right, but it deepened into a single long chamber at
the back. It was here that Dacre had that singular library of
occult literature, and the fantastic curiosities which served as a
hobby for himself, and an amusement for his friends. A wealthy man
of refined and eccentric tastes, he had spent much of his life and
fortune in gathering together what was said to be a unique private
collection of Talmudic, cabalistic, and magical works, many of them
of great rarity and value. His tastes leaned toward the marvellous
and the monstrous, and I have heard that his experiments in the
direction of the unknown have passed all the bounds of civilization
and of decorum. To his English friends he never alluded to such
matters, and took the tone of the student and virtuoso; but a
Frenchman whose tastes were of the same nature has assured me that
the worst excesses of the black mass have been perpetrated in that
large and lofty hall, which is lined with the shelves of his books,
and the cases of his museum.
Dacre's appearance was enough to show that his deep interest in
these psychic matters was intellectual rather than spiritual.
There was no trace of asceticism upon his heavy face, but there was
much mental force in his huge, dome-like skull, which curved upward
from amongst his thinning locks, like a snowpeak above its fringe
of fir trees. His knowledge was greater than his wisdom, and his
powers were far superior to his character. The small bright eyes,
buried deeply in his fleshy face, twinkled with intelligence and an
unabated curiosity of life, but they were the eyes of a sensualist
and an egotist. Enough of the man, for he is dead now, poor devil,
dead at the very time that he had made sure that he had at last
discovered the elixir of life. It is not with his complex
character that I have to deal, but with the very strange and
inexplicable incident which had its rise in my visit to him in the
early spring of the year '82.
I had known Dacre in England, for my researches in the Assyrian
Room of the British Museum had been conducted at the time when he
was endeavouring to establish a mystic and esoteric meaning in the
Babylonian tablets, and this community of interests had brought us
together. Chance remarks had led to daily conversation, and that
to something verging upon friendship. I had promised him that on
my next visit to Paris I would call upon him. At the time when I
was able to fulfil my compact I was living in a cottage at
Fontainebleau, and as the evening trains were inconvenient, he
asked me to spend the night in his house.
"I have only that one spare couch," said he, pointing to a
broad sofa in his large salon; "I hope that you will manage to be
comfortable there."
It was a singular bedroom, with its high walls of brown
volumes, but there could be no more agreeable furniture to a
bookworm like myself, and there is no scent so pleasant to my
nostrils as that faint, subtle reek which comes from an ancient
book. I assured him that I could desire no more charming chamber,
and no more congenial surroundings.
"If the fittings are neither convenient nor conventional, they
are at least costly," said he, looking round at his shelves. "I
have expended nearly a quarter of a million of money upon these
objects which surround you. Books, weapons, gems
Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.
When I was working 80 - 100 hour weeks for months on end (averaging 4 hours of sleep a night), caffeine was a requirement to function. I got to the point I was drinking 4 pots a day - 40 cups. After a couple of *years* of this, my body was so dependent on caffeine that when I went on vacation and cut my coffee dosage to 2 cups a day, I literally couldn't even take a dump.
But it wasn't anywhere close to killing me, as far as I can tell, unless you count exploding in a nasty, stinking mess had I gone cold turkey from coffee.
And no, this is not an April Fools joke!
Beer has electrolytes; it won't kill you like water. If you took the same amount of water, you would not be here, I think, even spreading it in a 24h period.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
When I was working a neuro ward a number of years ago we admitted a man in his mid 50's who was suffering seizures and cardiac arrythmias. He was worked up for several days with all sorts of testing with no results. Finally, a med student thought to take a detailed history from the guy. When he asked him if he drank coffee, the response was "yes, 5 or 6 pots a day." Turned out the guy waa a cop working night shift at a desk and drank coffee constantly.
Weaned the guy off the coffee gradually and the problems went away. Guess it didn't kill him, but he was intensive care for quite a while.
No deaths have ever been reported as direct effect of smoking too much dope. I imagine this is because it's physically impossible to continually smoke enough in succession to reach a lethal level. At some point in your quest you'll either stop caring (too lazy) or just pass out. As with coffee, at some point you will get too sick to continue ingesting enough caffeine to reach a lethal level.
I thought we decided the proper name is actually hydrogen hydroxide because of the arrangement of the ions. Are there any chemists out there?
KABOOM.
Every time.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
I used to love coffee. I drank espresso by the mug. My old landlady once asked me about it while we were watching a program on coffee addicts. After doing the maths they had just explained on the telly, I discovered I was drinking the equivalent of 56 cups/day. She asked if I had any side effects, and I thought about it and said "no... except I fall asleep in 15 minutes if I stop".
;-)
These days I drink a few small pots of tea.
Once, for a laugh, I ate two bags of chocolate covered coffee beans out of a bowl with a spoon and then went down the pub. I had a killer evening, really fast and witty (everyone thought I was on speed) followed by a night full of shivers and shakes and just wanting to stop being awake, but not being able to.
Worth doing the once
For the record, I've also tried a cup of coffee on the half hour every half hour. Took me till lunch to get really weirded out and unhappy. Finally I've tried (with instant) making a saturated solution and drinking it. Not good either.
J.
You're only jealous cos the little penguins are talking to me.
I figured out one time that the caffeine content of 2 six-packs of Jolt Cola would constitute what toxicologists call an LD-50 dose of caffeine, meaning that it would statistically be expected to kill about 50 percent of people receiving that dose. Since a can of Jolt has about twice the caffeine of a strong cup of coffee, I thus extrapolate that 24 12-oz. cups of coffee would stand a decent chance of killing you.
:-).
Of course, I don't know if that would actually work in practice, since your body would have to absorb all of the caffeine, and after the first ten cups (or five cans of Jolt) or so you'd probably have a bad case of the runs and wouldn't be absorbing very much
In my high-scoole years our cafeteria had a deal where the first cup costed 10 units, the next only 9 unints, then 8 and so on.
I decided to have a free cup of coffee, having to consume 10 cups to reach that goal.
I did it in 2 hours, but couldn't down the free coffee.
I can assure you that 10 cups was bad enough. I was ill for many hours with all kinds of sensations. 90 more cups would definitelly kill anyone. Provided that you can stomach them, of course!
But nature is wonderful, and I'm sure that it would be impossible to drink that much coffee, or you would pass out trying.
"Will drinking 100 cups of coffee (the good kind, not that crappy decaf mocalatte crap) in 24 hours kill a person?"
t h/Transcripts/s871112.htm).
0 4/022120045.htm), and one child abuse/murder (http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,455030824,0 0.html) caused by force feeding water.
Yes, it will. 6 gallons of water in 24 hours will cause water intoxication (hyponatremia). That's when the ion content of your body becomes too low for neural activity to be maintained. About half that amount has been known to cause coma (http://www.abc.net.au/dimensions/dimensions_heal
An athelete drank that much and survived probably only because he was an athelete. (http://www.wonderquest.com/water-intox.htm)
There have been at least 2 deaths caused by a person drinking too much water (http://www.urban75.com/Drugs/drugxtc1.html ; http://www.pressrepublican.com/Archive/2004/02_20
People don't need to drink near as much water as they're usually told. Common "wisdom" says to drink half a gallon a day. That's wrong. You need 1 milliliter of water for every calorie of food. That *is* two liters for a 2Kcal diet. But all the food we eat is in large part water. The USDA recommendations are quite clear on including that. Unfortunately nobody reads them.
Yes, I do know what day this is. This is the answer anyway.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
This guy from my hometown apparently tried this out a few years ago on a dare. He took most of a 90-pill bottle of caffeine pills and then keeled over in the middle of class. I couldn't find a link to the article on Darwin Awards, where it probably belongs, but you can read about it from a bunch of Google sources. I've always wondered how he took that many. I imagine him sitting down to breakfast that morning to a bowl of pills submerged in milk.
where the comment ends and sig begins
The addictiveness of alcohol is strongly dependent on genetics. Some people get addicted at a fairly low dosage, while the majority of people would have to make a real sincere effort to get addicted.