Mortality rate for Bawls energy drink

[EyeMWing]

So, my friends and I bought a lot of Bawls.

Since then, we've knocked off the vast majority of that all by ourselves. This led to some thinking. "This stuff is supposed to be bad for you. How are any of us still alive?" In response to this question, we formed a research team to find out how much one would have to drink to die. As it turns out, the caffeine concentration level required in the body for 50% of those affected to die is OBSCENELY high. It would take the caffeine content of several HUNDRED Bawls to put you in a true 50/50 life-or-death situation. If you're looking for, say, a 1% chance to die, you still need to down 4 cases plus some change- and keep it all in your body.

Calculations were based on a 170lb male.

 

[mb]

I know I will get flamed for this because a lot of people on here seem to love their Bawls, but it is not an energy drink.

 

[Jassi]

EyeMWing - Pushing the envelope of scientific research, one day at a time.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: supafly
I know I will get flamed for this because a lot of people on here seem to love their Bawls, but it is not an energy drink.

Actually, that's something else that came up during the research. There's less caffeine in a bottle of Bawls than in the equivalent amount of Coke. Which is very strange, because you definitely get that caffeine kick in the pants that you don't get with Coke.

 

[TheoPetro]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: supafly
I know I will get flamed for this because a lot of people on here seem to love their Bawls, but it is not an energy drink.

Actually, that's something else that came up during the research. There's less caffeine in a bottle of Bawls than in the equivalent amount of Coke. Which is very strange, because you definitely get that caffeine kick in the pants that you don't get with Coke.

i disagree. i get NO caffeine kick from bawls. i drank 10 of em one sunday afternoon and still fell asleep ~11 (i think i started around 6pm)

 

[kogase]

Hm. That guy in the front looks like a cross between Ben Stiller and a sad chipmunk. I've never had Bawls, the drink. Don't really get why people would go for the diluted energy drink type things when they could just down some espresso.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: TheoPetro

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: supafly
I know I will get flamed for this because a lot of people on here seem to love their Bawls, but it is not an energy drink.

Actually, that's something else that came up during the research. There's less caffeine in a bottle of Bawls than in the equivalent amount of Coke. Which is very strange, because you definitely get that caffeine kick in the pants that you don't get with Coke.

i disagree. i get NO caffeine kick from bawls. i drank 10 of em one sunday afternoon and still fell asleep ~11 (i think i started around 6pm)

It's a kick - you're not wired. In fact, we've observed that several of us (read: the girl, and the girly) are prone to crashes within a few hours if you don't keep drinking the stuff. Which leads the conspiracy theorists to believe that it's not actually caffeine, but some time-sensitive caffeine derivative designed to take over the world with it's yummy goodness.

 

[ballmode]

that stuff is gross

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
So, my friends and I bought a lot of Bawls.

Since then, we've knocked off the vast majority of that all by ourselves. This led to some thinking. "This stuff is supposed to be bad for you. How are any of us still alive?" In response to this question, we formed a research team to find out how much one would have to drink to die. As it turns out, the caffeine concentration level required in the body for 50% of those affected to die is OBSCENELY high. It would take the caffeine content of several HUNDRED Bawls to put you in a true 50/50 life-or-death situation. If you're looking for, say, a 1% chance to die, you still need to down 4 cases plus some change- and keep it all in your body.

Calculations were based on a 170lb male.

so you drank the majority of it yourselves?
i thought you were going to price gouge the Bawls and make a killing off it for final's week.

 

[mugs]

So you clearly have enough to kill yourself... what are you waiting for?

 

[DivideBYZero]

Why don't you just try to grow some?

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
So, my friends and I bought a lot of Bawls.

Since then, we've knocked off the vast majority of that all by ourselves. This led to some thinking. "This stuff is supposed to be bad for you. How are any of us still alive?" In response to this question, we formed a research team to find out how much one would have to drink to die. As it turns out, the caffeine concentration level required in the body for 50% of those affected to die is OBSCENELY high. It would take the caffeine content of several HUNDRED Bawls to put you in a true 50/50 life-or-death situation. If you're looking for, say, a 1% chance to die, you still need to down 4 cases plus some change- and keep it all in your body.

Calculations were based on a 170lb male.

so you drank the majority of it yourselves?
i thought you were going to price gouge the Bawls and make a killing off it for final's week.

We did - we paid for the whole skid with about a quarter of it. Which left us 3/4 of it to do whatever the hell with, with no financial consequences. Heh.

 

[ActuaryTm]

As a somewhat authority on mortality statistics, I would like to see a bit more empirical data on the subject.

I'll gladly foot the bill for enough Bawls to produce at least one death. In your case, we'll need at least what - eight cases, or so?

Originally posted by: kogase
I've never had Bawls, the drink.

Frightening that you had to qualify that remark.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
So, my friends and I bought a lot of Bawls.

Since then, we've knocked off the vast majority of that all by ourselves. This led to some thinking. "This stuff is supposed to be bad for you. How are any of us still alive?" In response to this question, we formed a research team to find out how much one would have to drink to die. As it turns out, the caffeine concentration level required in the body for 50% of those affected to die is OBSCENELY high. It would take the caffeine content of several HUNDRED Bawls to put you in a true 50/50 life-or-death situation. If you're looking for, say, a 1% chance to die, you still need to down 4 cases plus some change- and keep it all in your body.

Calculations were based on a 170lb male.

so you drank the majority of it yourselves?
i thought you were going to price gouge the Bawls and make a killing off it for final's week.

We did - we paid for the whole skid with about a quarter of it. Which left us 3/4 of it to do whatever the hell with, with no financial consequences. Heh.

so no cash, but free Bawls. that works.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: ActuaryTm
As a somewhat authority on mortality statistics, I would like to see a bit more empirical data on the subject.

I'll gladly foot the bill for enough Bawls to produce at least one death. In your case, we'll need at least what - eight cases, or so?

Originally posted by: kogase
I've never had Bawls, the drink.

Frightening that you had to qualify that remark.

There's fully documented research somewhere, including the caffeine dosages required to kill - so, presumably, someone already died. And you'd need about 20 cases to give you a 50% chance of killing someone my size.

 

[ActuaryTm]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
... so, presumably, someone already died.

Yes. But unfortunately not you.

 

[chcarnage]

Sorry EyeMWing but your science team didn't work very accurately. I don't want to be a nitpicker but in the name of scientific peer review:

First, Bawls indeed contents indeed more caffeine than Coke: about 225 mg/l (if I got the metric conversion of this right) vs. 120 mg/l.

Second, the risk to die of a caffeine overdose doesn't increase linearly with the amount you consume. The individual lethal doses form a bell-shaped curve around LD50.

Assuming an LD50 of 175 mg/kg of body mass, the 85 kg person would have to drink 66.1 l or about 186 12oz bottles...

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: chcarnage
Sorry EyeMWing but your science team didn't work very accurately. I don't want to be a nitpicker but in the name of scientific peer review:

First, Bawls indeed contents indeed more caffeine than Coke: about 225 mg/l (if I got the metric conversion of this right) vs. 120 mg/l.

Second, the risk to die of a caffeine overdose doesn't increase linearly with the amount you consume. The individual lethal doses form a bell-shaped curve around LD50.

Assuming an LD50 of 175 mg/kg of body mass, the 85 kg person would have to drink 66.1 l or about 186 12oz bottles...

The reasoning for the additional amount is the TIME it takes to consume a Bawls, along with the logistical bits. If you try to consume 66.1L of any liquid and keep it all in, your body will, well, explode. You're going to pee. A lot. And with pee, leaves caffeine. So you're going to need to drink more Bawls.

But yes, technically, you're correct. The LD50 for Bawls is much lower, if your system is 100% efficient at caffeine absorption.

However, our LD1 calculation may be off. LD50's are much more fun numbers to play with anyway.

(and someone came up with some REALLY ODD number for Coca Cola's caffeine content. 375mg/l!? Maybe Coca Cola Concentrate, but not the finished beverage)

 

[Evadman]

Use waterjoe to brew expresso.

 

[GregGreen]

Guarana!

As I found from reading the box in the picture you attached, Bawls also contains guarana. Guarana is a stimulant very similar to caffeine checmically and its effects are said to be like caffeine without the "jitters." The LD50 for caffeine and guarana together needs to be calculated to find the LD50 for Bawls...

 

[BigToque]

Originally posted by: ActuaryTm

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
... so, presumably, someone already died.

Yes. But unfortunately not you.

HAHA

 

[villageidiot111]

A bottle of 60 nodoz should do the trick.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: GregGreen
Guarana!

As I found from reading the box in the picture you attached, Bawls also contains guarana. Guarana is a stimulant very similar to caffeine checmically and its effects are said to be like caffeine without the "jitters." The LD50 for caffeine and guarana together needs to be calculated to find the LD50 for Bawls...

The chemical guaranine is identical to caffeine derived from other sources, for example coffee, tea and mate. Guaranine, theine, mateina are all official synonyms for caffeine. See the searchable current databases listed below.

The caffeine contained in Bawls is Guarana-derived. But it's still caffeine. Other than the caffeine, the Guarana also adds some other stimulants. But those are in much smaller amounts (a few hundred PPM as opposed to tens of thousands of PPM), and aren't likely to approach their LD50 value until long after you die of a caffeine overdose.

 

[Nab]

good experiment :thumbsup:

 

[SZLiao214]

Caffeine for some reason knocks me out