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3 Cups of Coffee Increases Hallucinations
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Wed Jan 14, 2009 11:37 AM
from the but-they-ARE-out-to-get-me dept.
from the but-they-ARE-out-to-get-me dept.
PearsSoap writes "The Telegraph and other sources are pointing out a study on 200 students which has found that a high caffeine intake can cause visual and auditory hallucinations, and can make people think that others are 'out to get them.' The abstract (and full version if you have access) is available.
'The volunteers were questioned about their caffeine intake from products including coffee, tea, energy drinks, chocolate bars and caffeine tablets.'"
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Coffee Can Reduce the Risk of Alzheimer's 242 comments
Amenacier writes "Recent studies by Finnish and Swedish researchers have shown that drinking moderate amounts of coffee can reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease in people. The reason for this is as yet unknown, although it has been hypothesized that the high levels of antioxidants found in coffee may play a role in preventing dementia and Alzheimer's. Alternatively, some studies have shown that coffee can protect nerves, which may help prevent Alzheimer's. Other studies have shown that coffee may also help to protect against diabetes, another disease which has been shown to have links to Alzheimer's disease. However, researchers warn against drinking too much coffee, as 3 cups or more may cause hallucinations."
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South Park (Score:5, Funny)
The study consisted of watching every episode of South Park featuring Tweak.
Re:South Park (Score:5, Funny)
I got fr1st p0st!
course I have had twenty nine cups of coffee, and my screen looks like a bad knockoff Picaso painting.
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Re:South Park (Score:5, Insightful)
I got fr1st p0st!
course I have had twenty nine cups of coffee, and my screen looks like a bad knockoff Picaso painting.
Keep drinking until it looks like a Dali.
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Re:South Park (Score:5, Insightful)
Dude, if you think you got first post and it was a REPLY to another post, then that isn't coffee you're drinking. :-)
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So (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So (Score:5, Interesting)
There is a big difference between feeling anxious and hallucinating. I'm just surprised it took only 3 cups.
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RTFA (Score:5, Insightful)
...200 students...
They clearly just haven't built up adequate resistance yet.
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Re:RTFA (Score:5, Interesting)
Once upon a morning a long time ago, at an ISP now long since defunct, I drank 4 espressos, 6 double cappuccinos and a full pot of my regular strong coffee. I also had a "coffee bean" candy bar in addition to a couple really rich chocolate eclairs. I actually got a nose bleed, but no hallucinations.
OTOH: My sister and one of her friends once drank 3 cans (each) of Jolt cola, a 2L of Mountain Dew (each) and then split a few full 1lb bags of Plain Chocolate M&Ms. The hallucinated for at least an hour until they crashed - and hard. Probably needless to say: they both felt sick for a full day afterward.
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Re:RTFA (Score:5, Funny)
He's right. We haven't noticed any such behavior as we secretly watch him through his window.
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Re:RTFA (Score:5, Funny)
The reason you haven't seen a darn thing is because the diabetes has destroyed your retinas.
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Re:RTFA (Score:5, Informative)
You must stop this now. Consider my experience. I used to love Coke as a kid. My parents limited it, but I still drank more than I should have. Once I became an adult, there were no more limits. I drank as much as I wanted, when I wanted. I was tall and skinny (6'5", 185lbs) and ran 2 miles a day so I thought I could get away with it.
10 years later, I weighed 300lbs. I finally decided to do something about it. So like a good analyst, I did a quick inventory of what I was drinking and eating. I had never done this before. I was astonished.
I could eat an entire 5lb chicken, or an entire large pizza by myself. My typical day started with a visit to the clown for a #2 with a large coke. I didn't drink coffee so I replaced it with coke. I'd drink another can before lunch. Then 2 or 3 of those mugs of coke a chili's. Then another can or two in the afternoon. Then maybe dinner out with something similar to the 2 or 3 chili's mugs. If we ate at home, it would be a large glass or maybe 2 cans of coke in the evening.
If you add all the ounces up and divide by 12, I was drinking the equivalent of 13 cans of coke a day. This is 1800 calories. It's the same as 196 of those white sugar packets. Just coke.
When you consider that both my parents are diabetic, and diabetes killed my grandfather, you can see how dangerous this is. Now, I drink maybe 4 cans of coke per year. I'm now 260 which is 20lbs more than I usually am, which i'm in the process of losing.
All soft drinks are evil. They cause insulin spikes, which contribute to obesity. They cause insulin resistance long term. And the phosphoric acid leaches calcium from your bones causing brittle bones in old age. Diet soft drinks are no better. Stop drinking them before it's too late.
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Be a patriot! Smoke and die for your country! (Score:5, Interesting)
You're being sarcastic, but several years ago I was living in Japan, and saw something awfully close to what you describe.
The government in the US at the time was trying to figure out what to do with the settlement of the Big Tobacco lawsuit, and many states were putting together anti-smoking campaigns. I don't know if you've ever been to Japan, but folks there are big smokers.
So some mid-level bureaucrat in the Ministry of Health and Welfare was interviewed on the evening news, and asked if the government in Japan would also be engaging in anti-smoking efforts. With a level of candour unthinkable on the other side of the pond, this fellow plainly stated that no, Japan's government would not, because smoking would help reduce the aging population and thereby limit the ultimate public expenditures required to care for a large elderly population.
Japan. What else can I say. :)
Cheers,
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Re:Be a patriot! Smoke and die for your country! (Score:5, Informative)
The Japanese government, when it comes to tobacco control, has a severe conflict of interest. Japan Tobacco, the major (more than 60% of the market) supplier of cigarettes in Japan, is 50% owned by the government -- it used to be two-thirds government owned.
Given the degree of tobacco use in Japan, I'd wager that the profits earned through tobacco sales more than compensate for the consequent heath-care costs in the population. Further, the long incestuous relationship between government, public service bureaucracy and industry is most definitely expressed in the connections between the Ministry of Finance and JT: as far as I know, every president of JT has come from the top end of the Ministry of Finance, in the amakudari tradition.
The mid-level bureaucrat in question I doubt was expressing an honest opinion on the aging demographic, but rather was trying to justify a very cozy but entirely medically irresponsible government relationship.
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Re:So (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:So (Score:5, Funny)
Are you OK? Maybe you need to sit down for a few minutes. I'll buy you a coffee.
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Re:So (Score:5, Informative)
Persecutory ideation = paranoia
This means that coffee doesn't make you paranoid....
way to go
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Re:So (Score:5, Funny)
Who told you to say that?
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60 cups (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:60 cups (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:60 cups (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:60 cups (Score:5, Funny)
They said, "cups of coffee", no mention of adding water
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Re:60 cups (Score:5, Funny)
Actually it makes more of a guggling sound when it brews.
Oh. OH! Nevermind.
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Re:60 cups (Score:4, Informative)
The LD50 for caffeine is 10g, but serious side effects exist after just a few g. I know, because I've felt them. 3g at one hit isnt fun by anybody's standards.
And yes, hallucinations is a serious side effect, as is palpitations, arrhythmia,nauseousness, mania, depression.
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Re:60 cups (Score:5, Funny)
Insomnia....
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Re:60 cups (Score:5, Interesting)
source [xs4all.nl]
But its on the internet, so its gotta be true! Right?!?! Take it with a grain of salt and a cup o' joe.
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Re:60 cups (Score:5, Informative)
I actually work part time for a Starbucks... and do you know who gets bitten by the caffeine fairy? Europeans.
When you go to Europe, you get espresso for nearly everything. If n American goes over there, they have name for their drink, an Americano. Shots + hot water. Ok.. 3 shots/200mg caf. ~300-400mg per drink. And you have the strength of the smoky espresso, so Americans get somewhat what they want.
Now, a European comes to the USA. They order a coffee (they expect espresso) and they're handed a cup of our coffee: coarse grounds over hot water. It tastes too weak, but they drink it anyways. They then drink 2-5 cups before the caffeine kicks in and they've never felt the jitters like that.
Our coffee extratcs more caf, but with less coffee flavour, while they extract flavour with less caffeine.. makes things fun.
Why Im there: 5 hours in a 5-10 am shift 4 times a week gives me full medical benefits on the cheap, so I can continue my consultancy.
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Re:60 cups (Score:5, Insightful)
You know what would have really sorted you out? A big fat fucking spliff, or a hit from the bong </Cypress Hill>.
If I drink tea (I've never liked coffee) after about 10pm, there is no way I will fall asleep until gone midnight - the caffeine gives me enough of a kick to stop me dropping off. But if I am stoned then I can guzzle as much caffeine as I like and sleep ain't a problem.
The weed would have helped settle your stomach too.
But THC ain't patentable, so it stays illegal.
And corn makes growers a lot of money, even though hemp is a better source for biofuel.
And the wood-pulp based paper industry is happy with its methods, even though canvas lasts hundreds of years and doesn't go yellow.
And who needs natural fibres when they're making money from artificial fibres made from oil.
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7 cups? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:7 cups? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe this story is a hallucination, and you just think you read it.....
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No surprises (Score:5, Insightful)
Three cups? (Score:5, Funny)
So now it's one man and three cups? I thought the hallucination was about two girls!
Re:Three cups? (Score:4, Funny)
So now it's one man and three cups? I thought the hallucination was about two girls!
With the two girls, it's straightforward PTSD.
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Wow, bad reporting or bad science? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Triples your risk" - well, what are the risks WITHOUT coffee? I drink coffee all day long, yet I haven't had a hallucination since 1982 (the last time I did acid).
lack of sleep will case hallucinations.
And exactly what do they mean by "hallucinations?" Water swilrling down a drain may make you think you heard a female voice; "floaters" in your eyeballs (you'll get 'em when you're older) can make you momentarily think you saw something that wasn't there. I wouldn't count those as hallucinations.
"The new study also showed that people who had a high caffeine intake were not more likely to think that others were out to get them, a so-called "persecution complex".
That one little word omitted (that I bolded that WAS in TFA but not in the summary) changes the meaning completely, doesn't it? Taco, you need to cut down on the Jolt! get some sleep, dude!
Re:Wow, bad reporting or bad science? (Score:5, Interesting)
And severe paranoia, as well. Once I been up and about for just over 70 hours and that is _not_ healthy. Slept for 17 hours after that. Never going to that again, it was living hell.
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Re:Wow, bad reporting or bad science? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well super. So in the end, what exactly has this study proven that we didn't already know?
Forgive the attitude, this stuff is just starting to grate my nerves. I think I need a cup of coffee.
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Yet to experience them. (Score:5, Insightful)
And I bought a jar of Caffeine off of Unitednucler.com for 10$.
ACS/reagent grade, so great to use... I use mine with DMSO if I want the caf without bitterness. In my job, if I take a .5g hit, I feel it after about 10 minutes where I consistently get more lively and awake.
Just watch for the downs after about 6 hours after first hit. You'll get hit with extreme tiredness and apathy... You wont be close enough to a bed.
*I dont work for UnitedNuclear.com : Im just a happy purchaser.
Re:Yet to experience them. (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember kids, just because it's legal, doesn't mean you're not a fucked-up addict. Seriously, absorbing caffeine through your skin?
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Tags (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Tags (Score:5, Informative)
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Correlation (Score:4, Insightful)
Why must we tag EVERYTHING correlationisnotcausation. Does /. suddenly have a patent disregard for statistics in it entirety? Seriously, what is the alternative here? People about to have a hallucination have a sudden caffeine urge before their episode? Looking at the study from both sides is good. Ignoring statistics entirely is cowardly. I see too many people ignoring them because they are offensive (religion correlates with violent crime, homocide, stds, abortion). And i mean blanket ignoring, not trying to deduce anything from the stats. I never used to think of /.ers as the types to plug their ears and go lalalala. But this meme is childish.
Re:Correlation (Score:5, Insightful)
If you do any research in any of the sciences you very quickly learn that it is extremely hard to prove causation. However, we have an entire drug segment (statins) dedicated to the notion that correlation must also equal causation. Personally I think it is almost impossible to remind people enough times that causation studies are very rare and they are almost always laboratory type studies where every variable is tightly controlled.
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Do the dew! (Score:4, Funny)
I enjoy a lovely Mountain Dew high every morning at work, and never suffer any ill effects... other than the giant spiders. Those can be a bit off putting. The glowing, telepathic ferrets usually keep them at bay, though. Hallucinations! Pfft! As if! Now excuse me. I must kiss teh sky.
Re:Do the dew! (Score:5, Funny)
Are you sure that's not a guy you're kissing?
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Which are my real friends (Score:5, Funny)
Great now I have to figure out which are my real friends and which ones I'm making up.
Try mixing it with real psych problems! (Score:4, Interesting)
First of all, I thought we knew this already? O.o
Second, it's more fun if you have a pre-existing psychiatric condition. Personally, it has some nice effects on my PTSD. On the one end, it can help with the numbness and similar symptoms, because I get amped up and happy if I drink enough of it. On the other end, holy shit does the hypervigilance, irritability, and other such symptoms get worse with enough caffeine. Of course, that's really noticeable when you're drinking 3-4 16oz energy drinks every single day, like I used to before I started to realise the extent of my problem. Even down to only one cup of coffee every day, I still don't get any more sleep though, so whatever.
Can't say I've experienced the hallucinations so much, though. But I can only imagine someone with schizophrenia or other disorders causing hallucinations (well, you could try to get away with saying PTSD has hallucinations as they are similar, but there's actually distinct differences between flashback type things of PTSD and hallucinations) drinking a lot of caffeine. Mix it with weed and it's even more fun! I could also say meth, cocaine, and some others, but that sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen, and they can cause hallucinations themselves anyway; and no I'm not kidding--working in an emergency room, I've seen my fair share of heart attacks where the only reasonable explanation was meth/cocaine use.
Nonetheless, I'd be more concerned about ulcers and other problems, like heart problems, that can come with heavy caffeine use. You can at least pass off a somewhat normal life, without ending up in the hospital for it, with the hallucinations, if you really try ;)
Anecdotal Evidence is Crap, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Back in college, when I was still super driven to be the best at everything, I used to down several cups of coffee and tea at night in order to remain awake and focused while doing my homework. It got to the point where after drinking the tea, I would suck on the teabag (keep your wiseass comments to yourself, thanks) because I'd read that saliva could extract even more caffiene.
This all ended one night when I woke up at about 3AM (after staying up until 1 doing some Physics III homework) with what sounded like a couple of dozen people having a rally in my head. I couldn't make out individual voices, words, or sentences, but the sound was distinct: lots of people were talking over one another, LOUDLY, and there was no way to get away from it or make it quieter. It was, frankly, extremely frightening, even though it only took a minute to realize what was going on and why. I wound up lying on a couch in the common area with a pillow over my head for about an hour, wishing the noise would stop so I could actually get some sleep. Eventually, it quieted enough that I could crawl back into bed and catch another four or so hours before needing to get up for class.
Anyway, caffiene: it's a drug, and now I limit myself to one cup in the AM and occasionally another in the afternoon, or a very small cup with dessert. Auditory hallucinations are no fun, and I found that I value the quality of a healthy life much more than the rewards of intense focused work these days.
I had this happen to me. (Score:4, Insightful)
I had given up caffeine for about 6 months, and then needed to pull an all-nighter at work. I went to the 7-11 and got a Double Gulp of Coca-Cola, and drank it all pretty quickly. Within about an hour, I started seeing "movement" out of the corner of my eye - just little flashes, but enough to startle me and make me turn and look. I also got paranoid; I was on a construction site (only one there) and even though my car was right outside my window, and a diesel to boot, I became convinced someone was trying to steal the car silently. I would check every 15 minutes to see if it was still there.
These symptoms are also seen in recreational users of amphetamines, so I assumed (afterward) that it was an overdose of stimulants per se, not that it was caffeine.
That can't be right. (Score:4, Funny)
Hallucinated Chicken or Caffinated Egg Dilemma (Score:5, Insightful)
This study CORRELATES high intake of caffeine to auditory/visual hallucinations--and ASSUMES caffeine came first. What if people who are already prone to having these hallucinations tend to consume more caffeine?
Another correlation of this nature is that people with schizophrenia are ~75% likely to smoke and others with mental illness are prone to this trend as well. Source Here. [schizophrenia.com]
Also, this study was held at a university, and their test subjects are freshmen/sophomore level psych majors looking to get extra credit in their 300 level class. These students are already stressed about exams, relationships, money, and the fact they will probably have to work at Starbucks when they graduate because they got a Pysch degree--so to suggest that the sample is not bias in that way (and is indeed not anymore stressed than the regular adult population) is unscientific.
Re:I call BS (Score:5, Funny)
What's this "posting on slashdot" thing you keep mumbling about? And what's an "internet"?
Dude, you gotta snap out of it. We've a big stack of betamax tapes over here for you to watch, if you'd just come back to us.
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