Is Caffeine Powder Dangerous?

Are you pondering if you should use caffeine powder as a workout supplement? Then remember that caffeine can be lethal!

The Death of Logan Stiner

18 years old, one of the top students of his class, prom king and star wrestler of his high school, a scholarship secured and one week from graduation.

What could go wrong for a kid like that?

Something did. One week before his high school years would be over, Logan Stiner went home for lunch and not much later his brother found him passed out on the floor. The paramedics arriving soon after couldn’t do anything but pronounce him dead.

The cause of death filed on scene was “natural causes.” A diagnosis associated with people dying of old age, not an 18 year old fit and active high school student who didn’t do any drugs.

A Lethal Dose Of Caffeine

We might never have heard of this tragic incident if Logan’s mother didn’t inspect her son’s room and found several bags with a white substance. It turned out to be pure, powdered caffeine.

Do a search for it online and you’ll find various sites more than willing to ship it to you for little money. Sometimes with a fig leaf of “safety” instructions, sometimes with nothing at all.

With that hint, the local coroner did an autopsy and discovered that Logan Stiner had died from cardiac arrhythmia and a seizure. Both were caused by a lethal 70 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter in Logan’s blood, the highest amount the coroner had ever seen.

1 Teaspoon Equals 50 Energy Drinks!

70 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter hints at him having ingested about a teaspoon of powdered caffeine. That’s the equivalent of 50 cans of energy drinks. A while ago a 14 year old girl died from drinking just two large cans.

Did Logan know what he was doing? Probably not. According to his mother he once mentioned taking a “pre-workout” and it’s unlikely he knew what he was handling there. If he educated himself by reading bodybuilding and fitness websites, he’d have hardly found a hint about the dangers.

In reality, that  powder, that looks as innocuous as Kool-Aid, takes a direct route to your central nervous system and plays hell with all of your body’s delicate mechanics: blood pressure, heart rate, muscle control – you name it. Caffeine in many ways acts similar to cocaine, to the point of what an overdose looks like.

Caffeine Is No Toy!

When we joke about getting our “caffeine fix” on route to our first coffee in the morning, we understate what powerful drug we handle there. The caffeine in a cup of coffee is only safe for us because the dosis per cup is low.

But caffeine powder is a different beast. If you plan on using it as workout supplement or for whatever other reason, be very careful!

Picture courtesy of Lee Jordan.