As reported this week by the Associated Press, an addled coroner declared that a South Carolina high school student who had no heart problems died from heart failure because he consumed too much caffeine. The boy had drunk a big bottle of Mountain Dew, a cup of coffee, and an “energy drink.” The caffeine he ingested was less than amount of caffeine in one cup of Starbucks burned Robusta brew.
Still Alive!
The good news is that, if this teenager really had no heart problems and was not exposed to any other cause of death, then he must still be alive! This is so, because such small amount of caffeine would not kill anyone. If it could, stretchers would be filled with Starbucks patrons and other coffee drinkers, carrying them to emergency trucks and to the morgue.
Obviously, caffeine paranoia is alive and well! This story, claiming that a healthy young boy died of heart failure caused by drinking a small amount of caffeine, has appeared in dozens of news reports from supposedly reputable sources, including CBS and Fox News, irresponsible web sites, such as the Huffington Post, and dozens of supposedly reputable magazines and newspapers. Reasonable people would do well to sit down, enjoy a cup of caffeinated coffee, and recognize that, for most of us, caffeine safely boosts our mood and improves our health.
What proof do you have that the caffeine he ingested didn’t cause a rare arrhythmia that the young boy suffered from. He drank one large McDonalds coffee, mountain dew and jugged down a energy drink. The Doctor clearly said, it was the amount and how” fast he ingested the caffeine ” that killed him. There’s still plenty of science we don’t know about caffeine. Caffeine doesn’t go well for everyone, everyone reacts differently. Caffeine clearly raises blood pressure short term, for about and 1-2 hours or so, it also depletes certain nutrients….these are well documented facts stated from Top universities.
Your comment is just a bunch of nonsense. If the boy had no heart problems, then consuming a very small amount of caffeine could not have hurt him in any way, much less killed him! If you postulate that he had some sort of rare heart disorder, then his death should be blamed on that and not on caffeine. Because hundreds of millions of people consume far bigger doses of caffeine than this boy consumed without any ill effects whatever, it is obvious that caffeine is one of the safest, if not the very safest, drug that you can consume. I suppose that a few grains of salt might kill one person in a billion. But that would not mean that salt is a dangerous substance! And, by the way, quickly consuming a small amount of caffeine is no more dangerous than consuming over a period hours!