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US Teen Died After Drinking Caffeine Too Quickly, Coroner Says

A healthy teenager who downed multiple caffeine-loaded drinks, too fast, collapsed and died from cardiac arrest at school, BBC.com reports. Health officials said it was “not a caffeine overdose” but, rather, due to his drinking too much over a short period of time. They estimated he had consumed about 470 mg of caffeine in less than two hours.

For whatever reason this teen was chugging caffeinated drinks back-to-back so fast, this is a tragic illustration of why it’s best to rely on nature’s hydration — pure, clean water — when you’re thirsty.

It’s possible the teen was trying to compensate for lack of sleep. But even then, energy drinks and sugar-laden soft drinks are not the answer. If you struggle with sugar and other carb cravings and find it difficult to stick with a healthy diet, improving your sleep hygiene and sleeping more could help you get on track.

If you’re not getting enough sleep — most adults need around eight hours per night, and children and teens need even more — please review my “33 Secrets to a Good Night's Sleep,” where you’ll find simple tips to get that needed shut-eye.

If, however, you believe an addiction to sugary, caffeinated drinks is part of the problem, be sure to check out Turbo Tapping, which is a form of the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), and which is an extremely effective and simple tool to squelch your soda addiction quickly and painlessly. EFT is a form of psychological acupressure, based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture for more than 5,000 years to treat physical and emotional ailments, but without the invasiveness of needles.