Overdosing on Red Bull

By Alex in Food & Drink, Health on Aug 22, 2007 at 3:29 am

Remember the story where a girl was taken to the hospital for overdosing on espresso? Here’s another story, this time it’s Red Bull energy drink:

A MAN whose heart stopped after he consumed eight Red Bull energy drinks in five hours has called for an overhaul of the product’s warning labels.

Matthew Penbross, 28, collapsed after downing the popular drinks, each containing 80 milligrams of caffeine, last Sunday.

He drank the Red Bull while competing in a motocross event on the state’s Mid North Coast.

His heart stopped and he needed defibrillation from ambulance officers.

Link (pic from Red Bull’s entry on Wikipedia) – via i-am-bored

Neat stuff from the NeatoShop:

Conor
Aug 22nd, 2007 at 8:53 am
Doesn’t surprise me. This stuff tastes like pure crap.
L.B. Jeffries
Aug 22nd, 2007 at 9:28 am
Red Bull…it gives you cardiac arrest!
Tempscire
Aug 22nd, 2007 at 10:09 am
Pffft. Good job, caffeine-overdosing people, for not paying attention to the fluff news pieces about the dangers of caffeine that have been around for years.
Reed E
Aug 22nd, 2007 at 11:35 am
The fellow consumed: 8 cans x 80mg = 640 mg

Note that 8oz Coffee (drip) has 115-175mg

Which means the fellow had the equivalent of 3-6 cups of coffee over a five hour period.

Some overdose!
L
Aug 22nd, 2007 at 12:50 pm
That would be an awfully embarrassing thing to have in your obituary. “John passed away suddenly after overdosing on Red Bull.”

I guess it really would give you wings…
Thebes
Aug 22nd, 2007 at 1:29 pm
I rather like Red Bull. But only a Darwin Award seeking moron would drink eight of them in a day.
techie
Aug 22nd, 2007 at 1:37 pm
a new york city stagehand had 7 redbulls within a similar time frame and suffered a stroke during a load in.
Chris
Aug 22nd, 2007 at 2:00 pm
yeah L, angel wings
aj
Aug 22nd, 2007 at 7:32 pm
I could’ve sworn that they already had a warning on the can. 2 per day max if memory serves.
Now he is calling for an overhaul to the warnings?? What good would that do if he didn’t read the original.
Jason E
Aug 23rd, 2007 at 11:30 am
I like to drink Vodka + Redbull when I’m at a bar. If you go see a band and get there around 9pm… it’s easy to drink 5 to 8 drinks by 3am.

Do it all the time… never felt any heart flutter at all. Perhaps the alcohol counters the caffine affect.
Sid Morrison
Aug 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Kudos to the Red Bull folks (and their imitators) for figuring out a way to charge gobs extra for soda.
sickb*stard
Aug 27th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
I call BS, I used to work in a warehouse, running my butt off to make sure trucks got loaded all day and once a week I would down nine to ten redbulls in the span of about five minutes. I would experience a gigantic energy rush, start shaking a little bit and had to pee like a horse every five minutes, but aside from that (and some eye jitters) I was fine.
suree
Oct 31st, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Had a family member die of a stroke last week. She was working alot trying to get her new boutique open in time. She was drinking Redbull to help her get through the fatigue. No other health problems, not overweight, not a smoker, and not on birth control (which has a risk of stroke in woman over 35). She was 39 years old and they feel like the drink may have contributed to the stroke. I can tell you that even the thought that it may have risk of causing ANY health problems makes me never want to open the first can. It’s not worth the potential health effects…

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