Slashdot Mirror
3 Cups of Coffee Increases Hallucinations
PearsSoap writes "The Telegraph and other sources are pointing out a study on 200 students which has found that a high caffeine intake can cause visual and auditory hallucinations, and can make people think that others are 'out to get them.' The abstract (and full version if you have access) is available.
'The volunteers were questioned about their caffeine intake from products including coffee, tea, energy drinks, chocolate bars and caffeine tablets.'"
The LD50 for caffeine is 10g, but serious side effects exist after just a few g. I know, because I've felt them. 3g at one hit isnt fun by anybody's standards.
And yes, hallucinations is a serious side effect, as is palpitations, arrhythmia,nauseousness, mania, depression.
"Caffeine intake was positively related to stress levels and hallucination-proneness, but not persecutory ideation."
/.
Persecutory ideation = paranoia
This means that coffee doesn't make you paranoid....
way to go
In this case, it's appropriate. The study authors suggest that there may be causation, but also state that all they have evidence of is correlation -- and that the causation may go the other direction. The /. summary fabricated the causation without regards to the linked article, let alone the study.
I actually work part time for a Starbucks... and do you know who gets bitten by the caffeine fairy? Europeans.
When you go to Europe, you get espresso for nearly everything. If n American goes over there, they have name for their drink, an Americano. Shots + hot water. Ok.. 3 shots/200mg caf. ~300-400mg per drink. And you have the strength of the smoky espresso, so Americans get somewhat what they want.
Now, a European comes to the USA. They order a coffee (they expect espresso) and they're handed a cup of our coffee: coarse grounds over hot water. It tastes too weak, but they drink it anyways. They then drink 2-5 cups before the caffeine kicks in and they've never felt the jitters like that.
Our coffee extratcs more caf, but with less coffee flavour, while they extract flavour with less caffeine.. makes things fun.
Why Im there: 5 hours in a 5-10 am shift 4 times a week gives me full medical benefits on the cheap, so I can continue my consultancy.
Yeah, that's what he's saying. Though with more motion, and less respect for gravity. Similarly, too much digitalis can make things look like this. Generalizations about exactly what LSD hallucinations look like are a bad idea, though -- it's highly variable, with strong dependence on the person, the dose, the setting, the person's mood...
You must stop this now. Consider my experience. I used to love Coke as a kid. My parents limited it, but I still drank more than I should have. Once I became an adult, there were no more limits. I drank as much as I wanted, when I wanted. I was tall and skinny (6'5", 185lbs) and ran 2 miles a day so I thought I could get away with it.
10 years later, I weighed 300lbs. I finally decided to do something about it. So like a good analyst, I did a quick inventory of what I was drinking and eating. I had never done this before. I was astonished.
I could eat an entire 5lb chicken, or an entire large pizza by myself. My typical day started with a visit to the clown for a #2 with a large coke. I didn't drink coffee so I replaced it with coke. I'd drink another can before lunch. Then 2 or 3 of those mugs of coke a chili's. Then another can or two in the afternoon. Then maybe dinner out with something similar to the 2 or 3 chili's mugs. If we ate at home, it would be a large glass or maybe 2 cans of coke in the evening.
If you add all the ounces up and divide by 12, I was drinking the equivalent of 13 cans of coke a day. This is 1800 calories. It's the same as 196 of those white sugar packets. Just coke.
When you consider that both my parents are diabetic, and diabetes killed my grandfather, you can see how dangerous this is. Now, I drink maybe 4 cans of coke per year. I'm now 260 which is 20lbs more than I usually am, which i'm in the process of losing.
All soft drinks are evil. They cause insulin spikes, which contribute to obesity. They cause insulin resistance long term. And the phosphoric acid leaches calcium from your bones causing brittle bones in old age. Diet soft drinks are no better. Stop drinking them before it's too late.
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
The Japanese government, when it comes to tobacco control, has a severe conflict of interest. Japan Tobacco, the major (more than 60% of the market) supplier of cigarettes in Japan, is 50% owned by the government -- it used to be two-thirds government owned.
Given the degree of tobacco use in Japan, I'd wager that the profits earned through tobacco sales more than compensate for the consequent heath-care costs in the population. Further, the long incestuous relationship between government, public service bureaucracy and industry is most definitely expressed in the connections between the Ministry of Finance and JT: as far as I know, every president of JT has come from the top end of the Ministry of Finance, in the amakudari tradition.
The mid-level bureaucrat in question I doubt was expressing an honest opinion on the aging demographic, but rather was trying to justify a very cozy but entirely medically irresponsible government relationship.