Red Bull gave him wings!!

“My feeling is — given the evidence available — it was a cardiac arrest possibly contributed to by subtoxic caffeine ingestion,” Roberts told the Daily Mail.

Each can of Red Bull is said to contain 80mg of caffeine — about the same amount as a cup of coffee.

Are you kidding me? Lots of people consume 4 cups of coffee day. That’s the same, what now are they all at risk for subtoxic caffeine ingestion.

Same old fearmongering bull that you would expect from Fox.

I am not a doctor by any means nor do I claim to be, but I honestly believe there was more than Red Bull that caused this gentleman to die. I drink Red Bulls like millions of others and have never had any side effects. If it were the caffeine, I believe that there would be alot more deaths. I know several people that drink 5 to 6 cups of coffee at one sitting. I just dont think that it is fair to put the blame on Red Bull.

“Each can of Red Bull is said to contain 80mg of caffeine — about the same amount as a cup of coffee.” - Um, a LOT of people drink more than 4 cups of coffee a day and aren’t at risk for a heart attack.

I’m very sorry for this loss. Unfortunately, the soft drink industry in the United States is marketing the energy drinks for the younger, as young as middle school, demographic. My high school son and his friends are very taken with this craze and I have warned him of the long term affects. I am also seeing more cardiac trauma coming into the emergency room at a younger age. I have to wonder if this is from increased caffeine intake from sodas and energy drinks.

Trying to understand this story. What exactly is the link between this person’s heart attack and 320mg of caffeine use a day? How does that relate to a Starbuck’s vente coffee? Did anyone ask the good doctor/pathologist how many cups of coffee or tea he drinks while working each day? Why are energy drinks a scapegoat, given they have less caffeine than most of the popular Starbucks drinks and why isnt the information in these stories delivered in a way that helps readers understand the information and put it in context. This is simply pure alarmist journalism with poor research and analysis.

Nathan Hale, of course Fox created the story and made the Dr. make the comment about Red Bull drink, are you serious?? You need to get busy doing something else, unless you make up fiction for a living?

This is pure alarmist journalism with no context or useful analysis of the information provided. Why was 320mg of caffeine consumed throughout the day a contributing factor to a heart attack? Very normal for adult males in Western societies. How many cups of coffee does the good doctor drink a day? Is he worried about his own heart condition? Was this news story posted by adults?

I’m not clear on what the title is suggesting. What about soft drinks such as Mountain Dew which has more caffiene than Red Bull or coffee. Most schools in this country have soda machines which contain many varities of caffiene drinks which the kids are drinking every day. I am a FOX nut but this story is so far off the mark for ‘fair and balanced’ that I am re-thinking my loyalties. Was this person obese? Did he have diabetes? Was he a coffee drinker? More importantly, did he drink caffiene ladened sodas? What say you?

This is pure alarmist journalism with no context for the information provided. Why is 320mg of caffeine a significant contributor to a heart attack? Was the person in poor health? How many cups of coffee or tea does the good doctor drink a day? Is he worried about his own risk for heart failure? Did an adult actually write and post this story?

dont drink redbulls

I am a HUGE red bull fan and I drink way more than just 4 cans per day. Come On!! This sounds like a quick fix determination that caffeine can actually lead to death. Well if thats the case then I had better let my friends over at Starbucks know they are playing russian roulette with their morning Espresso Frappuccinos (145 mg caffeine)

People drink more coffee than this a day! They both have the same amount of caffeine. They are probably leaving out that he was morbidly obese!

Starbucks-Espresso Frappuccino 145 mg caffeine

This is ridiculous; no way is 4 Red Bulls per day the cause of this man’s death. i used to drink 2 to 3 pots of coffee per day. I guess I should have died many years ago then too. The article stated the man had an enlarged heart, well…Duh, there you go, there’s the cause.

Have you read the title of the news article?

Drinking Red Bull May Have Killed A Supermarket Worker.

See the keyword there MAY means possibly.

I am a fifty two year old female with congestive heart issues. I too drink way too much caffeine, mostly cola beverages . I can definitely say from experiende that high doses of caffeine has a huge effect my heart and lungs. After reading this article I will be cutting way back on the cola drinks.

I don’t drink coffee and I do drink RedBull taste even better with a little jager in it… Yeppie Skippie

I work for a school in southern missouri , i see kids as young as 12 yrs old consuming redbull everyday , i think there should be a age restriction on any caffine drink the same as smoking products. its a dangerous product…

Guess Duran should have said “No mas” to Red Bull.

I love the way Foxnews edits the original story. It says he had an enlarged heart, and nobody is saying what caused that. It also says anyone with this condition should avoid caffeine. Red bull is not the story here, otherwise, what about all the millions of coffee drinkers for the past 60 years ?

Are you sure the guy’s name wasn’t Walter King? I hear stories of that guy…

I think it is not the caffeine alone that had an effect on this poor man. From what I understand there is a large amount of B-vitamins in each can of Redbull, in large doses, too much Vitamin-B is not so good. In some cases, when Redbull is combined with alcohol you spin out on a roller coaster ride of highs and lows-stimulant and depressants mixed-and your heart rate doesn’t know what to do. In large doses Redbull is very disturbing-it is not meant to be drank in that way-4 a day is not safe. If people bothered to inform themselves then companies wouldn’t have to suffer the blame for their ignorance. If companies didn’t produce harmful products then consumers wouldn’t have to suffer. I don’t have the answers, but either way, it is sad that someone died.

Sorry for the guys loss, but com’on?
If it was realize he was drinking four cups of coffee instead , it wouldn’t even be a story.
There most certainly were other issues this guy had going on with his health.

How about spending your time investigating the real reason behind all the lies with the oil and gas price gouging going on?

I think they are leaving out some important details like maybe he was morbidly obese!! Leave it to the leftwing media to do that. They hate big business!

The energy fiend site has a list of all things with Caffine. It indeed says that Red Bull contains 80mg of cafiene. A starbucks grand has 330!!!!!!!!!! I haven’t see too many folks fall out from that!!!!!!! I think some Fox guy was listening to some lawyer and didn’t do his research before pushing the send button on his story!!!!

caffeine in coffee is more like 200-300 depending if it’s Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks. No way Red Bull did him in…

Well one instance and good lord hide the coffee as well…. I would imagine that once an autopsy is performed, a history of his health, and if possible a general history of his past diet etc……I am pretty sure red bull wasn’t the cause…..Time to give that doctor a diagnostician of the year award…..

I have heart arythmia. I’ve drank coffee (muliple cups) for many years. My doctor suggested I stop. So I did. Amazingly, this reduced my arythmia by 99%. Although I love drinking coffee, it seems to have negative affects (at this stage of my life). I’m 53.

4 Red Bulls has the caffeine equal to 4 cups of coffee. So why is it not a headline if a coffee drinker has a heart attack?

Sounds like a lot of red BULL to me…

RedBULL indeed! Redbull and most other energy drinks do not actually contain as much caffeine as an average 8 oz cup of Joe: a cup of coffee contains around 130mg of Caffeine, certainly more than 80mg. So 4 cans of red bull is more like less than 3 cups of coffee and a lot of people drink that much coffee in a day. Energy drinks are dumb. There like 5% caffeine and, like, 95% hype. People think they have a whole lot of energy so they are willing to pay over $2 per can for something that’s not even as good as coffee and they might feel slightly energized because of the placebo effect so they continue buying it. They even add weird weird flavours like white wine grape and the like to make people think they’re tasting some magic energy chemical or something… Personally, I opt for the tablets which cost less than 10 cents per 100mg!

i keep telling my son the same thing, he drinks about the same in rock star. it scares me. he won’t stop. hes 27, he says hes fine, but i know hes over doing it.

IdrinkredbllallthetimeandIneverhaveanysideeffectssotospeekofandiknowotherpeoplewhoalsohavenosideeffectsihopeiamnotramblingmyfriendssayirambleidontthinksoineedanotherredbull..

there were most likely many factors contributing to this mans death, it may not have only been because of the caffeine, but red bull contains many more chemicals besides just caffeine.

People are confused! It’s not just the consumption of caffeine…it’s UNDETECTED health problems, i.e. enlarged heart, coupled w/ consumption of extremely high caffeine content, that seems to be killing people left & right. Most people w/ an enlarged heart have no idea that they have an enlarged heart…they feel normal…do things normal people do. But then they consume high levels of caffeine & their otherwise normal heart can’t take it…like the 14 year old boy that died a couple of weeks ago & the 42 year old cowboy who made Red Bull his drink of choice & died suddenly of a heart attack. This is really something people need to be aware of!

‘Enlarged Heart’, or cardiomegaly, is a condition which by itself can drop a highly fit very young individual through cardiac arrest. There’s no way one could possibly associate caffeine with having been the cause of this.

Many things these days seem to be over hyped like this. Caffeine has been a popular taget for a long time, most likely due to it’s psychoactive effects, and that it sometimes ‘makes the heart race’. The reality, however, is that things that make the heart race aren’t neccessarily bad for the heart. Cadiovascular exercise makes the heart race, and it’s considered one of the best things for the heart. In fact, research has shown that caffeine, (studied in coffee form only) has been proven to decrease the risk of heart disease, among others.

Toxic doses of caffeine are among the levels of 150-200 mg per kg of body mass, or about 90ish cups of coffee taken with the caffeine half-life range, which is quite short. Caffeine pills or other forms of concentrated intake are generally required to reach a significant overdose amount. Long term effects of normal caffeine overuse generally fall into the range of pschological disorders, most commonly insomnia.

This gentleman would have been at the exact same risk of death if he had run across the parking lot, but it’s only news if you can blame something for it, or in this case where they say ‘MAY’ have caused death, it’s only news if you can loosly associate soemthing with it. It’s one of many prime examples of todays ‘blame’ society where there has to be a reason for why someone dies. Sometimes people just die.

Yea I have tears in my eyes for this guy, four cans of Red Bull a night, right. The real question is why! On with Darwin’s theory. Kindest regards Joe

there are way more chemicals and additives in red bull than in coffee.

One of our employees had a heart attack on her day off doing laundry at 29 years old and she drank large amounts of red bull also. We kept telling them to not consume so much red bull. One day she was doing laundry on her day off about a year ago, had a heart attack and died at the laundry mat in San Francisco. We all suspect that to large consumption of red bull contributed to her death, but no investigation ever took place. She also worked in a grocery store.

“Lots of people consume 4 cups of coffee day. That’s the same, what now are they all at risk for subtoxic caffeine ingestion.

Same old fearmongering bull that you would expect from Fox.”

Not fearmongering when you take into consideration that these cans are drank in less than 1-2 hour intervals. These folks are drinking 4 cans in 2 hours, not 4 cans a day.

I think the problem is brushing off the problem - kids today are drinking 6-7 of these before lunch in order to stay awake.

Did this man have any kind of heart condition? I know people who drink 8 cups of coffee a day (one pot) and have lived into their 80’s. We need more info, not media hype! HOWEVER, KIDS & teens should not be drinking these drinks.

I am a big coffee drinker. But at least I know what’s in coffee. What other ingredients are in Redbull? Sorry Redbull drinkers I have tasted it and it is the nastiest stuff I have ever tried.

you need to ingest move than 8 grams of caffeine to have the toxic effect of caffeine, so that would be drinking 100 red bulls to get that amount, and depending on the guys weight (if he is over 11 stone or 150lbs) then he would need more. Caffeine toxic effects is cardiac arrest, but 4 red bulls would not of done it. The person who wrote this story should of googled caffeine poisoning to get the correct information instead of publishing a half baked story, which of course is poorly researched.

Like most Americans I drink my share of caffeinated beverages. However I’m disappointed that FOX News would allow a headline that provokes people to think that the energy drink may have actually killed this poor man. Can we expect to see the same headline for other beverages containing caffeine (and there are many)? It seems to me that is just a prelude to another “headline grabbing” lawsuit.

Frank, Michigan

Although the Red Bull probably didn’t kill this guy, I think our society is way to quick to put stuff into your body without knowing the effects. The 5 hr. and 6 hr. energy stuff, energy pills, etc. This stuff is in front of youth at all c-stores and is tempting. I would never take any of these energy products and shy away from extreme amounts of caffine as it causes my heart to have abnormal rhythm. Not to mention the cost. People complain about fuel but people on this site say they’re drinking 4 Red bulls a day which runs to about a couple thousand a year.

OOOHHH!!! BULL!!!

I do not think you are correct in the amount of Caffeine Red Bull contains. It has been proven that 10 cups of coffee is a danger to the creation of heart problem. I believe Red Bull has a lot more caffeine than I cup of coffee. Americans overload on coffee as it is.

What is the purpose of drinking Red Bull anyway? Anything that is new becomes the thing to do in the US.

The next thing they should investigate are Sports Drinks, loaded with salt they can also kill you if you drink to much.

They teach our children not to smoke, what about drinking to much of anything except water and that can also kill you if you drink to much in a short amount of time.

I don’t know…I drank 6 red bull and vodkas last night in about an hour and I wasn’t feeling so good. Maybe the Red Bull is making me sick.

First, I want to say I feel sorry for anyone who dies so young, but good health is a huge combination of factors including diet, exercise, and most importantly genetics. I know people who have smoked and drank alcohol their whole lives and are healthy until they died in their 90s. However, they are atypical. My grandfather lived until 90, before they had bypass surgery or any of the modern medicines. His philosophy was everything in moderation and he left it to the individual to decide for himself what is moderate. If you have any self-awareness at all, you are going to know by how you feel if you’re abusing your body. Finally, I doubt that Red Bull is just coffee beans and water. How anybody can single out one chemical in two drink and decide, in this case, coffee and Red Bull are the same, because the caffeine distribution is similar is not being very scientific.
Although, Red Bull has not been found to be unhealthy this does not mean it is not. My grandfather would probably tell you if you drink a can or two once in awhile, it’s probably not going to kill you. It’s all about modernation, common sense, and a lot of luck.

For the people saying they know plenty of people who drink 4 cups of coffee a day, you are missing a key part of the story. He also had an enlarged heart. If there’s a cardiologist out there, please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think those with heart issues have to be more careful about stimulants. I remember when people were dying after taking ephedra, all the news articles said they had enlarged hearts or other issues they weren’t aware of. Caffine is a drug. Healthy people can handle quite a bit of it, but those with heart issues won’t be able to handle as much. So it sounds like Red Bull by itself didn’t kill him, but it contributed to his death because of an underlying condition. As with most things, monderation is the key.

Consuming excessive amounts of caffeine every day will most likely contribute some sort of negative side effect.

Take things in moderation.

Hooray another lawsuit waiting to happen.

My brother was hospitalized for a week after drinking 3 red bulls during the day.
The doctor had to give shocks to his heart in order for it to gets its rythm back to normal.

Red Bull, not good……

This is just ridiculous… The fact that he consumed 4 cans of redbull a night should have no revelance to his death. Just like some previous comments, I’m sure thousands of people consume more than 4 cups of coffee a day. It’s of his own accord that he consumed that much.
Next thing you know, they’ll try and take Red Bull off the shelves of stores just like they did effedrine.
On a nightly basis, if you go to a bar and get Red Bull and vodka’s, I’m sure you would drink twice as much as him, WITH alcohol. That should be a lot more dangerous than the drink alone. It’s time people stop trying to find things to blame our deaths with, other than the fact that he died. If he had a heart condition, then he should’nt have drank that much. Anything in large amounts is not a good thing, you just need to know when to stop.
RIDICUlOUS

What I see here is the news-media using scare tactics directed at the general public. I guess if it had been reported that this man had dranked four grape sodas every night, nothing would have ever been said, but because it is an internation drink, that make for bigger headlines for the news media

This man died in 2006, so why are just now hearing anything about it, did it take the patholgist almost two years to report his finding?

The media doesn’t alway report the news that we want or need to hear/read about, but what they think we want to read/hear about.

Who do you know that really cares about a 40 year old man who drank 4 cans of Red Bull every night? I’m sorry for the untimely death of a 40 year old man, but I personnely see no real connection between his heart attack and his drinking Red Bull.

What was the physical condition of the man, was he so out of shape that had he drank 4 grape sodas he would still have had a heart attack, was he not sleeping well at night the reason he was drinking the energy drink to start with?

I wonder if he had heart problems to begin with? Maybe he had a history of excessive stimulant use and used the drinks to curb and subsitute. I stopped gulping down energy drinks last year after a 5 mm stone and palpitations along with hypertension. Although I was 28-30 when I consumed an average of 6 Rockstar energy drinks daily. Red Bull is half the strengh and volume of the drinks I slammed throughout the day. The Problem with these drink is that the caffene is synthethic, and you get it all at the same time. Coffee has a natural time release delivery for caffine. I would say that excessive use in ten years from now could result in a fatal cardiac arrest for myself also.

4 Redbulls = 4 cups of coffee. Is that excessive? Maybe, but how many people consume 4 cups of coffee a day, and coffee has more caffiene than Redbull? A venti size drink from Starbucks is at least 3 cups of coffee. This is a bunch of hype over nothing. This is all because of the label of what he was drinking, not the caffiene content. Just check out the Wilstar website to see a comparison.

must be an addict to red bull in the evening….. Even though i drink it myself………. not as much though so i shouldn’t be worried about the heart attack… =:p

Give me a break! If each can is equal to 1 cup of coffee than that means 4 cups of coffee a day killed this man. Something else was obviously going on for his heart to be weakened. I am 33 and I have been drinking half a pot of coffee (6 CUPS) a day since I was in my early 20’s. Afterward I finish my day off with about 2 quarts of tea. Caffeine all day everyday. Coffee is still the best way to get caffeine. I never could get a kick from Red Bull, not enough caffeine. I get about 2/3 down of my 6th cup and I start to get a serious headache, so I switch to tea for the rest of the day.

This is a stupid story. I suppose the next thing we’ll see in the news is that someone died because they wore sox and shoes on Thursdays. Don’t blame a death on a drink.

FOX News just ran the story off the Daily Mail (UK)’s website - this is not FOX News sourced. Besides I won’t even drink Red Bull everyday. Just one drink, I have trouble sleeping.

i am a healthy 22 year old female and i went out one night and drank red bulls. I was fine until it was time to go to sleep…my heart was beating fast and hard….i was hyperventilating and could not atch my breath or relax…later my hands and arms went numb and then my hands locked up and i couldnt move them. I went to Patient First and they said theres nothing they could do. I just had to wait it out and drink water and relax. I thought i was going to die….dont drink energy drinks

Just another example of irresponsible alarmist journalism. Pull up Starbuck’s nutrition guide:
http://www.starbucks.com/retail/nutrition_beverage_detail.asp?selProducts=%7BCE5B1860-C0CF-43
4A-864E-604185E56724%7D&x=30&y=12&strAction=GETDEFAULT
You’ll see that a Grande (16 oz.) cup of coffee has 320 mg of caffeine, not the mere 80 they used in the story. I never post comments, but this one was ridiculous. I’m just glad to see that most of you agree. Z

we shouldnt be drinking sodas anyway. we should be drinking WATER!!! maybe on rare occasion a coffee or soda.

Lots of caffeine can lead to enlarged heart, like cocaine. I drink 4 to 8 red bulls a day now im scared.

I think you’re on to something Yogi… I’ve never met this Mr. King that you speak of, but I have heard rumors.

I think we need to keep these energy drinks out of our kids hands. This is the beginning of a bad pattern of addictive behavior. If this continues they will eventually graduate to other addictions.

While Red Bull may be able to claim that there is no connection, that defies common sense. Too much of any type of drug or supplement is not a good thing.

I should be dead then too. I think he had more problems than what the story is conveying. He was probably over weight, diabetic, and addicted to meth.

Excess caffeine use, particularly in a shift should draw immediate attention to the potential for sleep issues to be a factor in this unfortunate young man’s demise. However, even more pointed is the fact that the autopsy showed an enlarged heart. If so, then a credible theory is that the individual was not in a state of good health but actually suffering some disease process that enlarged his heart.

Again, back to sleep, we find that patients with sleep breathing disorders develop high blood pressure and increases in heart size. In addition, people with sleep breathing disorders are more tired and sleepy than those without this condition. As such, these sleep disorders patients may develop the tendency to use more caffeinated beverages.

In sum, we often find in sleep medicine clinics that excess caffeine use is a sign or marker of an underlying sleep disorder, which may cause serious mental and physical health problems.

Something to sleep on…

I have a feeling that there is another factor here. This gentleman may have had high blood pressure. If that’s the case, caffeine may have done him in. Or he may have had kidney disease. Caffeine affects the kidneys and should be avoided by those who have kidney problems. My mother had high blood pressure and used to take No-Doze to help her get through late night shifts (she was a nurse). One night, she had bad stroke on the job. Did the caffeine cause the stroke. Maybe–because of her poor health.
I don’t see any reason to panic over this, especially if you are young and healthy. It might not be a bad idea, however, for people who have health problems to limit or avoid these drinks. As with anything else, moderation and common sense are the rule of thumb.

I used to drink 3 per day. I was otherwise very healthy. I started having ALOT of palpitations but continued to drink Red Bull. One day while shopping with my young daughter I felt the palpitaions come on and then I had severe chest pain. While at the ER getting my heart checked I was told I need to see a Cardiologist.

The Cardiologist ran tests and said that Red Bull was the cause. I immediately stopped drinking Red Bull and I haven’t had any palpitations since. I was told I was quickly enroute to a heart attack at age 37. I will never touch one of those again!!

Hey Dr. Sleepenheimer. Caffeine causes sleep disorders, not the other way around.

How may people having a heart attack has 4 cups of coffee a day?

Hey Tina! The guy who died is from England, not the U.S. What are you talking about U.S. caffeine consumption for. The Brits and the Frogs drink as much or more than the Yanks.

The key aspect to seek out in this report, is the extensive use of modifiers in the nomenclature: ‘may have’, ‘possibly contributed’. This use of generic terms, keying in on the modifiers, is the same old trickery used by so many paleontologists promoting the most generalized version of the theories of Evolution: ‘may’, ‘possibly’, ‘might have’, ‘could have’, ‘would have’, etc.

You should also note that a supposed scientist, forensic pathologist, began using the phrase ‘My feeling is…’.

Isn’t science supposed to be about FACTS rather than feelings?

Cheers from the Rockies

Coffee, grande (16 oz.) Starbucks 550 mgs of caffeine.

NEXT CRISIS, PLEASE

I ustu drink 3 to 4 perday, but now I exercise and take vitamins, and now feel just the same. Those lil bastards were addictive though!