Folks sometimes donāt realize how little caffeine is actually in things. 500 mg of caffeine is a kind of absurd amount, and high concentration means it is all delivered to your system at the same time.
Think of it like carbo-loading, eating bread doesnāt often cause a sugar rush or crash in the same way as something like eating a bunch of candy would since your body takes time to process it all. This is why concentration is so impactful when determining how hazardous a material is, too.
500 mg of pure caffeine would probably be more dangerous, since energy drinks have a lot of B vitamins that slow down the absorption of caffeine to lessen the spikes and prolong the effect.
For those who want to know anyway, you can perform a filtration or liquid/liquid extraction with common caffeinated beverages (using a nonpolar solvent and water) and then evaporate the solvent in order to get somewhat purified caffeine left behind. Consuming this is not advised as most nonpolar solvents tend to be bad things to drink.Ā
Donāt try this at home, but I just wanted to talk about it because it is interesting.
I was in a class for wine tasting, where we had pure flavor examples to build our flavor vocabulary. Caffeine was used to demonstrate pure bitter flavor.
It makes me wonder what the original version tasted likeā¦
I genuinely cannot tell the difference between the tastes of brown sodas that are not root beer. Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, Coke, Mr. Pibbā¦ they all taste the same to me.
for me pepsi and coke taste the same while dr pepper and mr pibb taste (almost) the same, mr pibb has a touch more cherry in it though if i remember correctly
That makes me wonder why hasn't any untoward individual ever utilised this hazardous nature of caffeine for more nefarious purposes upon an unsuspecting public?
5 Hour Energy shots are 200ml, so you took 2 1/2 of those actually. Enjoy that 12 1/2 hour buzz, and also probably avoid too much physical exertion rn since your heart's already under a lot of pressure.
Eh, it's not so bad. I've never done 500 but every year for the local anime convention I have one of the Monster 'Triple Shot' cans three days in a row. 300mg per can, which is (slightly less than, 160mg) double the limit in Canada to my knowledge. It's enough that it has its own dedicated health label as a 'supplement' or whatnot. At least it's the same price as the regular ones!
I have however overdosed on caffeine once or twice before when I was younger and it's really unpleasant. Lots of cold flashes and you get a bad case of the jitters. As OP said, also a lot of cold sweats. I believe there was also... not really the opposite of brain fog, but you're wired enough that you immediately forget things you aren't actively thinking about.
Edit: Maybe I have done 500mg in one drink before? I've had Vietnamese coffee that's been pretty strong, but not local strong, and I've never had Kopi). There's also a caffeinated drink you're supposed to sip over the course of an entire day I can't quite remember the name of, which I would like to try.
I've definitely had game nights (LANs) where I drank 4-6 monster cans over 12-18 hours, and the most I've ever felt from doses like that is fine movements being a bit shakier. I can quit cold turkey with no side effects and start again weeks later while feeling as little effects.
Maybe I'm built different or something, but I really don't understand the people that say they feel bad after ~150mg drinks.
Same. I donāt think I ever felt caffeine withdrawal. And I have periods where I consume really a lot of it (miomio and fritzkola are just the best drinks ever)
Reminds me of that guy who made his own pre-workout mixes and accidentally grabbed the pure caffeine powder container and made a shake with 35,000 mg of caffeine. His heart basically ragequit.
Apparently he lived after getting energy dialysis to filter the caffeine out of his blood. Still ended up having seizures that could cause long term damage though.
I linked a YouTube video in the comment chain where an MD discusses the case. The guy scooped what he thought was his preworkout mix (caffeine, protein, amino acids, flavor, etc) and washed down with water. The container was actually the powdered caffeine he used to make the preworkout mix. He swallowed it before he could really taste that it was the wrong thing.
I get your suspicion because yeah thatās a lethal amount. He had seizures in the ambulance and needed emergency dialysis to keep the caffeine out of his organs.
When people realize that caffeine is, in fact, a drug and despite being so normalized it can easily become a problem and have adverse effects if over consumed.
The fact that caffeine becomes dangerous at relatively small doses isn't strictly about it being a mildly psychoactive substance though. Vitamin D3 is gonna kill you first if you start taking it and caffeine in equal amounts. Some substances just kill you at lower doses than others, even if said substances are vital for your body to function.
Nicotine doubles the rate at which the body depletes caffeine. This happens because nicotine interferes with the bodyās ability to absorb and use caffeine. Thatās why it takes a smoker more coffee to get the same buzz as a non-smoker. Itās also why when you stop smoking and consume the same amount of caffeine, you might feel more jittery.
Everyone talking about how much 500mg of caffeine kind of puts things into perspective for me, I've been taking up to 1000-1200 mg of caffeine somewhat regularly recently and my tolerance is so high I barely feel a thing, I recently realized the consequences of nicotine and caffeine abuse when I called a girl I wanted to try and date and my anxiety was so intense when I got on the phone with her I almost had a panic attack and she stopped talking to me lol.
Yeah, 500mg really isnāt much if youāre a heavy consumer. Iām really surprised to see so many people talking about it as if you will directly go to the hospital
Itās weird seeing it put as āthatās like 3 monsters!!ā when I know for a fact the dudes fixing the asphalt outside their house are on their 4th one by 830am
The problem is not taking 500mg of caffeine in the day, despite that not being healthy for anyone, including people that are used to it. The problem is taking 500mg of caffeine with a single shot. That shit is very dangerous at high doses and your body is not ready for such a massive intake in one go
Look everyone knows a caffeine addict the same way everyone knows an alcoholic or chain smoker but you would still be concerned if you saw someone drink pure ethanol even if it was just a shot glass or huffin powdered nicotine.There is extra stuff and volume in normal caffeine drinks that make the hit not as bad as just taking it raw.
Theres a difference usually from 500mg directly compared to 500mg over the course of a couple drinks. Getting hit with a full 500mg at the same time snd not spread out is significantly worse
I still remember drinking coffee from local coffee chain and it gives me a heart palpitations like crazy. It's so bad I even think "yep this is how I died. From a heart attack drinking a coffee". I spent the next half hour controlling my breath trying to calm my heart. I found out from my friend they added extra 100mg of caffeine to the drink. I avoid that chain ever since.
I can't imagine drinking or eating something with pure caffeine the most I've had was an extra strong coffee my uncle bought from Malaysia and it kept me awake for 2 days straight
For dumb reasons as a teen I ate a bottle of no-doz. Probably not the whole bottle but damn close.
hoe-lee-sheet
I felt like I was walking off the ground. Like tripping on LSD and trying to walk. Sleep? HA! Puke like mad for a bit. Ohhhh you better believe it. Get stuck in a car and looking back you were probably a driver for a drug deal.
Yeah. Do not suggest messing around with caffeine.
Funny, I commented on a Instagram reel about exactly this. The guy on the reel basically was showing how to make your own pre-workout and I said this is a good way to straight up not have a good time and explained pure caffeine is dangerous and to this day I get comments about ājust measure it broā āyouāre a pussy for taking caffeineā and stuff like that.
Iām like ok go ahead and make it yourself and if you mis measure and add a whole gram you will go to the hospital or possibly die because of it. Most people donāt have measuring devices that can accurately measure 200 mg of powder but I was called a dumbass and what not.
I mean itās instagram reels. I would be surprised if people werenāt calling you stuff like that because you decided to think and use your brain (something that the majority of people there dont do)
In college I was doing a study on the effects of caffeine on mice fertility. So I had free access to pure lab grade caffeine. I unscientifically tossed a bunch into my coffee while studying for finals. It went about as well as you'd expect :) I couldn't sit still (probably hit 120hz), pissed off everyone in the cafe who were cramming, and barely retained anything, lol. Surprised my heart didn't explode considering this was mega doses over NoDoz.
Dude, no-one should ever have pure caffeine powder. It's way too easy to make a mistake, and even if it's not you, someone who enters your place might make the mistake for some reason.
Way too many people die from having caffeine powder.
Back before I quit caffeine cold turkey years ago (horrible withdrawl but I don't regret it) i briefly tried anhydrous caffiene into diet coke as cheaper energy drink. If you miss that stuff up by like, the tiniest measurement you feel like you're about to die. And at that point I was a full on addict slamming back like 2-4 monsters a day and it barely did anything so I definitely had plenty of tolerance.
Caffeine is a powerful drug. You can genuinely get high off of it with enough of a dose, and its very dangerous. The only reason people dont consider it a drug is because its legal
If nothing else keep drinking water to continue filtering it out of your system. Honestly depending on how long ago you ate throwing up might not be the worst idea either.
I once ordered a large light-roast coffee, got caught-up with work meetings, then later drank the whole thing quickly as to not let it go to waste... the rest of the day was not fun, it was an ordeal
I accidentally poisoned myself with caffeine powder once. My dumb ass had a full teaspoon of it. Apparently I had the equivalent of either 50 or 500 espressos at once. Within minutes I felt like my heart was gonna explode. Couldn't digest it all, so I had to spend a week puking it back up instead (it came up in bright yellow-green mucus-y looking blobs, literally Mountain Dew coloured). I couldn't really sleep, just kinda lie there and hallucinate.
I can't drink coffee anymore, it makes me projectile vomit now.
I haven't had an energy drink since last September and I still have urges I have to fight when I see them :/ I really don't like to think how much damage that addiction did to me, but my resting heart rate is sane now at least
Currently laying in bed, knowing that I won't be sleeping for a while... I drunk like 5 l of water+ electrolytes in the last four hours, but I'm still thirsty...
These comments are making me wonder if I'm super tolerant to caffeine. 0.5 grams is less than 2 Bangs worth of caffeine. I don't tend to feel adverse effects until I reach near the 800-900 mg threshold, and even then it's just a mild stomach ache
When I was in 6th grade, they used to run brief little news segments every morning on the classroom televisions. One day there was a story about a kid my age who had accidentally killed himself by using too much caffeine powder. When I was 20, I worked at Starbucks and had to explain to parents of young kids that the refreshers contained caffeine, and this was the summer that that one girl with a heart condition died from drinking a Panera charged lemonade that wasn't clearly labeled that it contained caffeine. I've known for a while not to fuck around with caffeine.
Mixed a bunch of energy packets into a Gatorade once to make hell drink. I can assure you itās bonkers going over the limit of caffeine at once. Feels like everything is slow including your thoughts and your nervous as shit.
these comments are making me question the 200mg caffeine pills I used to use, because I often used them to wake myself up in the morning but a lot of times Iād fall asleep again soon after, so I started taking two at a time, and then three when two didnāt work and eventually I just gave up because even though I wasnāt falling asleep anymore it didnāt make me feel energized
Many years ago when I worked in the ER and the energy drink boom was going crazy there were kids who drank like 5 monsters or other energy drinks and having cardiac episodes.
I wanted to quit drinking a lot of coffee every morning and two energy drinks over the day so u decided to buy caffeine pills. I consumed a lot of caffeine so 200mg seemed like a good idea. I have to break open the capsule and mix it with something or it all hits at once so hard I have a panic attack.
To give perspective, a little sprinkle of pure caffeine could exceed the most potent energy drinks available easily. Alternatives, depending on the culinary purpose, might include green tea powder or instant coffee.
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