Coffee Overdose

My regular readers know that I am a coffee drinker. I have been to Starbucks often enough that I am compelled to write about it on occasion. I have also consumed enough coffee over the years to know that the caffeine kick doesn't hit me as hard as it does others. In a way that's both a good and a bad thing. It's good in that I can drink lots of it and not suffer any real ill effects but it's bad because when I'm sleepy, it's hard to find something to help give that boost to keep me awake. Fortunately (or unfortunately) that wasn't the case for young Jasmine Willis (pictured here).

Young Miss Willis was working in her father's recently opened sandwich bar in England when during the course of her summer exam studies she felt she needed a pick-me-up so she decided to have an espresso. Now anyone who is a coffee drinker knows that espresso is basically ground up coffee beans with a bit of hot water added to make it go down your throat a lot smoother. It comes in a cup the size of a shot glass but for good reason. It's the coffee equivalent of a shot of tequila but instead of bringing you down, the sudden and sharp boost of caffeine gives you a boost up. Jasmine had a shot of it and immediately felt better so she decided to have another. And another. And another until finally, she had drunk the equivalent of 14 shots of espresso. To put that in perspective, she had drunk three times the amount of recommended daily caffeine consumption in a little less than four hours.

So you must be wondering what happened right? Sure you are... otherwise you wouldn't be reading this paragraph by now. Apparently what happened next was a bit of a surreal experience. Jasmine began to suffer fits of laughter which she couldn't control and tears were streaming down her face. Needless to say she was quite jittery as well. After being sent home by her father, Jasmine awoke the next day to find she had no feeling in her lips and was struggling to breathe. After being admitted to a local hospital, doctors realized that she was suffering from an overdose of caffeine in her system. Her heart was racing so fast that it was causing palpitations.

The doctor's helped her through the situation and eventually as the caffeine passed through her system she slowly returned to normal but now she hesitates to even consider having coffee. Understandably so. I guess it's the same reaction many people have to binges of tequila and the invariable results. Still, it just proves that too much of anything is never a good thing. Although I have been known to go through a lot of coffee at times, I generally don't feel any effects such as heart palpitations. Perhaps that's a good thing. But I will admit that on days where I haven't had a single cup, I do get mild headaches that go away when I have a small dose. I suppose that's a sign that my body has become somewhat dependent on the presence of coffee in my system. Or at least the caffeine portion of it.

The case of Jasmine Willis is just more fodder for those who believe that coffee consumption in general is harmful. While it's true that coffee and tea have high levels of caffeine, it's also true that they have been known to offer good qualities also. This doesn't mean that we should all go out and overdose on it though. I suppose we have to look at our bodies like ovens in cooking. If a recipe says that we bake a cake for 2 hours at 150 degrees, it doesn't mean that the results will be the same only faster if we bake a cake for 1 hour at 300 degrees. Sure the proportion is correct but the effects may not be the same as with patience. Study time is a stressful time for most people out there. I know, I go through it now every semester, but I try to moderate my coffee input only because I fear suffering any ill-effects.

Some who have seen this and other cases like it argue that we need to put warning labels on coffee products like they do on alcoholic beverages. For example, the warning labels that tell of the difficulties people will have operating heavy machinery. I suppose a warning label for coffee could be like those commercials you see on TV which warn of the 'possible side-effects' of using their product. This often includes spontaneous bleeding, uncontrollable diarrhea, sudden loss of vision and whooping cough. Sometimes when you hear that it's a wonder that anyone uses those products as well. Perhaps if they implement this warning on coffee, people won't have to suffer the same problems as young Miss Willis. Oh well, at least she's a little wiser now. Speaking of which, off I go to get a cup of coffee.