Death by Caffeine

Alfredo Duran hit the news for the first and the last time recently, as the 40 year old shift worker died of heart failure exacerbated by his four-can-a-day Red Bull habit. This gave me pause to reflect upon my own energy drink habit, currently standing at a can of Relentless each workday - primarily because a can of Relentless is twice the size of a can of Red Bull and half the price. Now, unlike the unfortunate Alfredo, I don’t have an underlying heart condition, but the question remains - how much is too much? Luckily, the internet has an answer for everything, and I’ve discovered the joy of The Caffeine Database, hosted by Energy Fiend. Not only does this site list all the energy drinks you’ve heard of (and a lot you haven’t), the list can be ordered by caffeine content per item or per ml. Even better, there’s a neat gadget that’ll calculate your lethal dosage of tea, coffee, or any other caffeinated drink.

30 cans, huh? Let’s hope they don’t mean ‘in one year’!

6 comments April 28th, 2008