Death By Red Bull
Posted by Dana on August 20, 2007
Well, almost.
Australian Matthew Penbross’s heart stopped after consuming 8 Red Bulls within 5 hours. Fortunately ambulance officers (paramedics) were able to revive him with a defibrillator.
Penbross (aged 28) was in good health, with no history of heart disease, and regularly consumed 4 Red Bulls per day.
8 cans of Red bull amounts to 640mg of caffeine. A read of the article makes it appear that Penbross was not big on eating properly – so I wonder if he had this on an almost empty stomach.
Penbross was competing in a Motocross event at the time, so I imagine his adrenalin must have been through the roof.
These kind of stories are very concerning – given that we now have drinks with substantially more caffeine that Red Bull. It’s time for some folks to rein in the caffeine overdosing. 8 Red Bulls is ridiculous (and expensive) – and by my calculations, this would also mean Penbross downed 216 grams of sugar (that’s more than a whole cup of pure white sugar).
Don’t forget all the Taurine either … Red Bull has 1000mg per can. Taurine is something we have little data on.
source: http://www.energyfiend.com/2007/08/death-by-red-bull
brokerjones said
It amazes me the stuff people are willing to put into their body without doing any homework on the effects that sugar, caffeine, and all the other synthetic additives have on our system.