Re:Green tea supplements ruined my liver
by arkades on Thursday October 25, 2018 @06:10AM
(#18299752)
Average caffeine pill is 100mg (roughly on par with a cup of tea or coffee). Caff can be fatal for adults at about 10g of consumption (Heckman 2010) - about 100 caffeine pills.
Caffeine toxicity can happen much earlier, but it's mostly concerning in combination with other substances. Caff on its own ... it's really, really hard to get to a dangerous dose inadvertently.
If the substance is pure, and the dosage is correctly labeled. Neither of which is especially common for nutritional supplements.
The key to this article is the line, "catechin doses at or above 800mg may pose health concerns." Pop over to amazon and look at one of the top results for green tea extract: https://www.amazon.com/NOW-Green-Tea-Extract-Capsules/dp/B00... A single pill is 160mg.
Dose makes the poison, some people are capable of handling more, and some less.
Tea, among other things, has caffeine in it, and enough caffeine will kill you, but other than in pill form, you’ll likely not manage to get to the threshold because you’ll start vomiting way earlier.
It’s possible that there are other compounds harmful at high concentration. And of course, it’s not unthinkable that some of his pills were contaminated with something more dangerous.
But the dosage alone in some cases may explain enough of the damage.