Being a volunteer in a scientific experiment has its risks. And a good example of them is what has happened to two students from the University of Northumbria, in the United Kingdom. The boys were participating in an experiment to study the effects of caffeine in sports and mistakenly received a dose of almost 32 grams of it when it should have been only 0.3.
The dose the students received was the equivalent of having drunk three hundred coffees at once. And the consequence is that they had to be urgently admitted to the intensive care unit, where they remained for six days. When they were discharged they had lost ten and twelve kilos respectively.
But, the truth is that these guys can be considered lucky, as they have survived what is considered the lethal dose of caffeine. According to a report published by the FDA in 2014, the dose to cause deadly intoxication (LD100) in an adult weighing 75 kilos, would be 12 grams, the equivalent of almost 100 cups of coffee.
As it turns out, the two British students almost tripled that amount, which means that they are alive with a miracle. Although it is likely that being athletes helped them.
Symptoms that cause caffeine intoxication vary depending on the amount ingested. In milder cases it causes disorientation and nausea. But if the dose is increased, tachycardia may be present and the person must be hospitalized. The most extreme cases even lead to death.
