How many cups of coffee would it take to kill you?

[Asrokhel 146]

I'm not sure that our society would be able to survive without caffeine. How many of us needat least one cup of coffee in the morning before we can function at a level even approaching'human'? However, is the drug a hidden killer, just waiting for us to down that next latte or energy drink to pounce?

Just last week, a lawsuit was filed against Monster Beverage Corp that claims their energy drink caused the death of a 14-year old Maryland girl. It seems that she had a preexisting medical condition known as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which is a group of genetic disorders related to problems with collagen, that cause loose joints, hyper-elastic skin, and ? likely the most important factor in this girl's case ? easily damaged blood vessels. However, according to the autopsy report, it was apparently the cardiac arrhythmia brought on by drinking two Monster energy drinks that was the cause of death, and the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome was just an added complication.

Now, on the heels of that report, come reports that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating this case, and also that the caffeine levels in energy drinks are under-reported on labels and that they can vary from can to can, sometimes containing more than one serving's worth.

There have been so many studies done on caffeine over the years that you would probably need to ingest the amounts they say are dangerous in order to read even a fraction of them. What is a dangerous level though?

According to a Popular Science article, the editor-in-chief of The Journal of Caffeine Research (yup, it gets its own journal), Jack James, says that it takes roughly 10 grams of caffeine to cause an overdose in the average adult.

To work with a truly Canadian source for illustration ? according to Tim Horton's, a 20 oz (Large) cup of their coffee has 200 mg of caffeine, so you would need to drink 50 cups to get a 10 gram dose. You can reduce that to 'only' 42 cups if you went with their newer Extra Large (24 oz) size, which has 240 mg of caffeine ? apparently the same amount as a Monster energy drink. For comparison, a 355 ml can of Coca Cola only has between 36-46 mg of caffeine, so you'd need to drink around 250 cans to get up to 10 grams of caffeine. Of course, you'd need to drink all of that coffee, energy drink or soft drink fast enough that all the caffeine is in your system at once. A daunting task.

Still, it seems that there's still no consensus in the medical community about how much caffeine it takes to kill someone.

A 2005 report, regarding two cases of caffeine-overdose, with rather unusual circumstances, stated that it only requires only 5 grams to suffer a fatal caffeine overdose. That's still 25 of those large cups of coffee. Of course, knowing your general health, including any medical conditions you might be suffering from ? especially those that would affect the condition of your heart and circulatory system ? would certainly help determine how 'average' you are.

Most sources, including Health Canada, advise that ingesting more than 400 mg of caffeine, for an average adult, is a bad idea. For children, the recommended limits are significantly lower, from 85 mg/day for a child 10-12 years, down to 45 mg/day for a child aged 4-6 years.

How does your daily caffeine intake compare to that? How many cups of coffee, or energy drink, or caffeinated soft drink has it been for you so far today and how many will you likely drink before the day is over?

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/geekquinox/many-cups-coffee-kill-185208981.html

[theyarecomingforyou 9,094]

Anything can kill you in high enough quantities - even water. The reality is that the amount of coffee it would take to kill you is far beyond what is reasonable to consume. A person would have to go out of their way - or have an underlying condition - to be at risk of death.

[DocM 12,631]

No concern here as I don't drink coffee :)

[threetonesun 1,205]

As someone addicted to coffee, I can scientifically report that zero is the correct answer.

[Max Norris 2,052]

Not getting my morning coffee is just as lethal. (To other people.)

[DocM 12,631]

My morning must-have is hot sauce (or hot salsa) on my eggs & hash browns and 2 cups of green tea.

[Stoffel 1,810]

For once I'm with DocM

No coffee at all for me, but I do like my hot sauce in the morning, and for the rest of the day

[tsupersonic 1,325]

Hot sauce in the morning? What the? How do you guys do that? I love spicy food, but I don't think I could eat it first thing in the morning.

As for me, I usually drink 1-2 cups of coffee per day, down from 2-3 cups per day. But, I also have 1 can of soda, and tea at night. Just drink in moderation, and you'll be fine.

[threetonesun 1,205]

Hot sauce + eggs = win.

[DocM 12,631]

......I do like my hot sauce in the morning, and for the rest of the day

I make my own hot sauces & salsa using habaneros or, for a real kick in the butt, bhut jalokia's :ninja:.

Every meal, every day, and studies show hot peppers are good for your cardiovascular system.

[f0rk_b0mb 698]

Not a big coffee drinker :coffee:

[Charisma 2,388]

Challenge accepted.

:coffee: :coffee: :coffee: :coffee: :coffee: :coffee: :coffee: :coffee: :coffee: :coffee:

[soldier1st 40]

No coffee here but i need a pop or 2 before i start the day(preferably pepsi)

[Geoffrey B. 1,414]

only one cup if you swallow it wrong.

[+Mando 3,355]

hmm, i consume way too much caffeine, get up with a filter coffee, have 4 or 5 cups through the day of fresh filter coffee, and consume fresh self ground coffee beans in the evening at home (3 or 4 mugs), weekends throw in a few cans of energy drinks for gaming giggles.

and how much can kill, id say enough to fill a vessel thats taller than I am no? Drowning by coffee mmmm would be buzzy at least :p

I love caffeine, but i dont worry itll kill me, my smoking will do that first probs :p

[DocM 12,631]

I never smoked - ever - anything. Didn't see the sense of putting rolled up leaves in my mouth & setting fire to them, especially if they contained a chemical we once used as a liquidinsecticide (nicotine.)

Tobacco also contains Polonium-210, a radioisotope that is known to cause lunc cancer when inhaled. The tobacco plant picks it up from the mined phosphate fertilizers used for growing them Phosphate deposits are often found in proximity to uranium & its decay products.

[Original Poster 324]

My morning must-have is hot sauce (or hot salsa) on my eggs & hash browns and 2 cups of green tea.

oooo a breakfast curry ... do love a curry nom ... im hungry DAMN YOUUU also I have trouble sleeping without a decent amount of caffeine O.o

[Spartan Erik 150]

Find out the lethal dosage for caffeine (mg/kg of body weight, or along those lines), find the amount of caffeine for a given brand of coffee per cup, and do the math.

[Intersect 231]

Find out the lethal dosage for caffeine (mg/kg of body weight, or along those lines), find the amount of caffeine for a given brand of coffee per cup, and do the math.

you would most likely die from a heart attack due to the amount of caffeine. it wont be a pleasant death.

[Spartan Erik 150]

you would most likely die from a heart attack due to the amount of caffeine. it wont be a pleasant death.

I know, I'm just answering the OP's question haha

[Prince Charming 163]

I think we worked this out at work. Was a while ago and the numbers are probably a bit hazy, but you'd need to hit something like eighty espressos in a half hour period to kill you. Reality of it is that you'd be unable to actually drink that much coffee no matter how hard you tried, and would likely start vomiting long before that amount.

[Detection 2,256]

You can die from drinking too much water, I would imagine you would become sick from water before caffeine if you tried to OD on caffeine with normal cups of coffee

[Growled 3,880]

Good thing I don't drink coffee in the morning.

[Lucas 50]

Coffee is even worse than the deadly marijuana.

[Shiranui 1,680]

I drink one of these every morning before work:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipovitan