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posted by janrinok on Wednesday November 27 2019, @11:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the Dracula-was-right-all-along dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

We love coffee, tea, chocolate and soft drinks so much, caffeine is literally in our blood

In conducting mass spectrometry research, Richard van Breemen and Luying Chen worked with various biomedical suppliers to purchase 18 batches of supposedly pure human blood serum pooled from multiple donors. Biomedical suppliers get their blood from blood banks, who pass along inventory that's nearing its expiration date.

All 18 batches tested positive for caffeine. Also, in many of the samples the researchers found traces of cough medicine and an anti-anxiety drug. The findings point to the potential for contaminated blood transfusions, and also suggest that blood used in research isn't necessarily pure.

"From a 'contamination' standpoint, caffeine is not a big worry for patients, though it may be a commentary on current society," said Chen, a Ph.D. student. "But the other drugs being in there could be an issue for patients, as well as posing a problem for those of us doing this type of research because it's hard to get clean blood samples."

[...] In addition to caffeine, the research also involved testing pooled serum for alprazolam, an anti-anxiety medicine sold under the trade name Xanax; dextromethorphan, an over-the-counter cough suppressant; and tolbutamide, a medicine used to treat type 2 diabetes.

[...] All of the pooled serum was free of tolbutamide, but eight samples contained dextromethorphan and 13 contained alprazolam -- possibly meaning that if you ever need a blood transfusion, your odds of also receiving caffeine, cough medicine and an anti-anxiety drug are pretty good.

"The study leads you in that direction, though without doing a comprehensive survey of vendors and blood banks we can only speculate on how widespread the problem is," said van Breemen, the director of OSU's Linus Pauling Institute. "Another thing to consider is that we found drugs that we just happened to be looking for in doing the drug interaction assay validation -- how many others are in there too that we weren't looking for?"

Journal Reference: Luying Chen, Richard B. van Breemen. Validation of a sensitive UHPLC-MS/MS method for cytochrome P450 probe substrates caffeine, tolbutamide, dextromethorphan, and alprazolam in human serum reveals drug contamination of serum used for research. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 2019; 112983 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpba.2019.112983


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @12:05AM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @12:05AM (#925487)

    Back when I was in 20s, I could smell coffee when I am pissing into the urinal.

    But what's the problem? I had no issue sleeping or palpitating heart or any anomalies.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @12:45AM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @12:45AM (#925496)

      I drank about 12 cups of coffee per day right after a bad PTSD trigger. I got about 20 minutes of sleep per night for 6 months, then went to the ER twice for tachycardia (180) and wildly swinging BP. Even my shit smelled like Jose's Vanilla nut coffee.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @12:56AM (5 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @12:56AM (#925498)

        OK, so we're sincerely curious...

        Please do tell us about your "PTSD."

        The Internet must know.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @01:08AM (4 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @01:08AM (#925500)

          November 8 2016, Trump was elected.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @01:41AM (3 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @01:41AM (#925511)

            It's really not even funny and instead just so worn out and exhausting. Technically it would be considered Traumatic Stress Syndrome since "Post" would imply in the past. Please stop trying to steer every topic into something god damn political. I don't want to hear any juvenile remarks about "caffeinated covefefe" either. Oh you're just so clever!!! Seriously, it's not the slightest bit interesting.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @02:17AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @02:17AM (#925519)

              Well, GP sure found your trigger.

              "OMG muh Safe Space!!1111111!!1 Where is muh Safe Space???"

            • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday November 28 2019, @01:01PM

              by maxwell demon (1608) on Thursday November 28 2019, @01:01PM (#925624) Journal

              Technically it would be considered Traumatic Stress Syndrome since "Post" would imply in the past.

              Wait, that election is not in the past? And I thought Trump is already president. Seems the media have all been lying to me the whole time! ;-)

              --
              The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
            • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @04:26PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @04:26PM (#925669)

              You can never understand how bad PTSD can be unless you experience it yourself.

    • (Score: 5, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday November 28 2019, @01:29AM

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday November 28 2019, @01:29AM (#925505) Journal

      This happens to me as well, though my delivery vehicles tend to be black tea and diet Monster. It's really weird to stand up and realize you've basically just pissed watered-down Mt. Dew...

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @03:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @03:08AM (#925527)
    Do people in the USA tend to use drugs and medication more than most of those in other developed world countries?

    How common is it for people in Europe to take alprazolam/xanax or sleep medication?
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @03:30AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @03:30AM (#925537)

    Free range non-GMO vegan fed human bood - ethically sourced - free trade

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @03:32AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @03:32AM (#925538)

      Almost had it s/free/fair/

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by KritonK on Thursday November 28 2019, @09:33AM (4 children)

    by KritonK (465) on Thursday November 28 2019, @09:33AM (#925603)

    Theoretically, one is not supposed to donate blood if they have taken any kind of medication (even aspirin), was sick, or has gone to the dentist during the previous week. In Greece, one has to fill in a rather extensive checklist about one's medical history before donating, and the supervising doctor, apart from asking for details about any "yes" replies, will ask you about the above points, even if you've answered "no". Of course, they have no way of knowing if you're lying, but at least they do some screening, to avoid getting contaminated blood.

    BTW, kaffeine is not in that checklist!

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Thursday November 28 2019, @10:24AM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday November 28 2019, @10:24AM (#925607) Homepage
      The US has very lax controls over almost everything. Stuff that wouldn't even be suitable as pet food here is fit for human consumption over there. (Stuff doped with atrazine, rBGH, etc.)
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @11:10AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @11:10AM (#925610)

      Theoretically, one is not supposed to donate blood if they have taken any kind of medication (even aspirin), was sick, or has gone to the dentist during the previous week. In Greece, one has to fill in a rather extensive checklist about one's medical history before donating, and the supervising doctor, apart from asking for details about any "yes" replies, will ask you about the above points, even if you've answered "no".

      The former does not follow the latter.

      I have had to fill this out too, in Canada. And that included medication. They just asked what was the medication and then they said "ok, that's no a problem".

      The problem is with medication, *like* Aspirin, not with most other medicines. That is why you are to tell them what medicines you are taking and then they will tell you if you can donate or not.

      "one is not supposed to donate blood if they have taken any kind of medication" is a very false statement.

      https://blood.ca/en/blood/am-i-eligible/abcs-eligibility#medication [blood.ca]

    • (Score: 2) by seeprime on Thursday November 28 2019, @03:20PM

      by seeprime (5580) on Thursday November 28 2019, @03:20PM (#925646)

      Aspirin is not allowed for 48 hours to donating blood since it disqualifies the blood for platelet use. I simply don't take any aspiring or at least 48 hours before donating. Most blood donations are not used in while blood transfusions. It's components are used.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 29 2019, @08:07AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 29 2019, @08:07AM (#925966)

      They'll take O negative no matter what I'm pretty sure, except for blood-bourne infections.

      If you need an emgergency transfusion, a little alprazolam is the least of your worries.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by doke on Thursday November 28 2019, @09:13PM

    by doke (6955) on Thursday November 28 2019, @09:13PM (#925769)

    I take an anti-arthritis drug named "Remicade". It's very effective. However it has to be given as an infusion (IV drip over 2.5 hours), by a nurse, with a doctor available. Because introducing it faster can cause anaphylactic shock. My doctor told me I should not donate blood, because the residue of the drug might kill a surgical patient. I am sure there are many other drugs that could cause similar harm.

  • (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Friday November 29 2019, @12:02PM

    by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Friday November 29 2019, @12:02PM (#925984)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJn5MrBy1A0 [youtube.com]

    "So good you won't believe what you're drinking."

    --
    Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
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