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What are the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal?
Regular caffeine consumption reduces sensitivity to caffeine. When caffeine intake is reduced, the body becomes oversensitive to adenosine. In response to this oversensitiveness, blood pressure drops dramatically, causing an excess of blood in the head (though not necessarily on the brain), leading to a headache.
This headache, well known among coffee drinkers, usually lasts from one to five days, and can be alleviated with analgesics such as aspirin. It is also alleviated with caffeine intake (in fact several analgesics contain caffeine dosages).
Often, people who are reducing caffeine intake report being irritable, unable to work, nervous, restless, and feeling sleepy, as well as having a headache. In extreme cases, nausea and vomiting has also been reported.
References.
Caffeine and Health. J. E. James, Academic Press, 1991. Progress in Clinical and Biological Research Volume 158. G. A. Spiller, Ed. Alan R. Liss Inc, 1984.
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After all this time...
I'm 18 and had stopped drinking soda when I was 14. I had never been a huge soda drinker, but my intake was faily moderate. Anyway, it's been four years and I'm still getting headaches and feeling irritable. I can't think of anything else that could be the cause of these horrible reoccuring headaches. It was suggested to me that they could be from caffeine withdrawals. But after four years? Is it possible?
Caffeine Withdrawal
I only have a couple of neuroscience classes under my belt, but my medical advice is as such:
It's not possible to be experienceing caffeine withdrawals after four years. When you're addicted to caffeine, your body increases response to the adenosine receptor sites in the brain and thus has a increased response to adenosine, a neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of calm and tired. Caffeine is an adenosine aganonist, meaning it blocks up the receptor sites in the brain recepetive to adenosine. When your not on caffeine, those receptor sites fill up with adenosine, and due to their increased sensitivity, you experience withdrawal. Over time, clinacally claimed as 5-7 days, the adenosine sites return to normal. The cease to be hypersensitive and your withdrawal symptoms will subside.
help
i just have a question. why would a doctor tell a teenager that is underweight to not drink soda anymore? ive been eating and everything and she said i cant drink it anymore. could it have something to do with diabetes? it runs in my family but i dont have it. im getting my blood sugar tested today.
re: help
caffeine
I'm glad I found this page. I gave up coffee 4 days ago. Yesterday I had the worst pain in back of my legs and buttock muscles. We are doing remodeling work at our home so I thought it was from that - but my husband didn't have any pain so I thought I'd search to see what symptom besides bad bad headache I could find. I am just smirking as I read what others have gone through as that is my pain. Thanks for everyones input.
Everyone who is using artifical sweetner - get off it. My friend thought she had MS and the doctors had her stop using all artifical sweetner and after 2 wks she started to feel better - now months later she is back to normal. She was using sugarfree jello to beat the band and diet soda. God Bless
caffeine withdrawal
I gave up a Diet Coke habit of 20 years-- lately only 20 oz per day-- cold turkey, but the withdrawal was unbelievable! I thought it would just be headaches, but the 3rd morning I woke up with cramps down my back and both legs, and could barely walk. I had chills and sweats, a terrible headache, nausea and severe GI distress. The next day was better but still had cramps. I thought I was reacting to the wrong dosage of a new prescription. How could that little Diet Coke make me feel so bad? I know people who drink much more soda than that. I would certainly not recommend cold turkey, and if I'd known I was going to be so sick, I might have thought twice about giving up Diet Coke at all.
Quit 2 says ago.
And my life is hell. I feel horrible, have no energy and barely want to eat. But this is what I get for being a soda drinker for 16 years.
I drank about 200oz a day. I work in field that gave me the luxury of all the free diet coke I could drink. So needless to say my 44oz cup was always full. I would also always have a 12 pack in the fridge for when I was at home.
I'm hoping to get through this and see the many benefits that everyone talks about from quitting caffeine.
Wish me luck!
Help getting through the headaches...
I spoke with my doctor before trying to quit cold turkey, and she put me onto a solution for the headaches: Migraine medicine. Migraines apparently work very much like caffeine rebound headaches, in that you're getting waaaay too much blood flow to your head. The medicines work like caffeine, as they are also vasoconstrictiors, but they're more gentle, and don't tend to have the bungee-like rebound that caffeine has. My doctor gave me a week's supply of migraine medicine, and wanted to see me after I finished my detox. Well, when the headache came, I gave the migraine medicine a try, and sure enough: no more headache. And I don't mean it just went to the background, and still hurt. No, it was stopped cold. Now, I still drug my tail and snarled at the world, but my head did not feel like it would explode. The story ends with me quitting cold turkey, and no more headaches after about 6 days.
This is just my experience, and think of it what you will, but I hope it can help somebody out there...
organic the answer?
Do you think its possible that its just the non-organic forms of caffeinated plants that are really giving some of us the problems with caffeine we have??
I guess its easy to find out. Just switch to drinking only organic teas. Maybe that is the answer.
I also think the reason it takes SO LONG to get over caffeine withdrawal is because it takes awhile to learn what to eat, how to live, etc, to feel good without caffeine.
Caffeine is an astringent. I think it can help keep mucus from building up in the digestive system. So when you go without caffeine, all of a sudden you have this build up of mucus, which causes a TON of problems. Getting more sleep is a natural detoxification period which cleans up all this every night. Eating less foods that cause mucus might help too. Exercise is good for detox. Drinking more fluids helps in general in itself.
Wine might be helpful also. The past 3 weeks I have gone off caffeine twice. I definitely noticed the withdrawal...but what I found helpful was drinking more alcohol..for whatever reason. Getting sleep is good of course. It didn't take me too long to feel better.
But now I'm going to try switching to only organic...thinking maybe its the high concentrations of pesticides/artificial fertilizers that is causing me problems. Part of me thinks this is probably a total caffeine-induced lie I'm making up...but hey. I figure I can try this for a few days eh why not... I can always quit cold turkey afterwards.
One thing I've noticed the past few weeks...is that I get MUCH more into movies when I am not on caffeine. I guess I can "feel" movies easier...not being so sped up on caffeine constantly. I can become one with the emotions tones presented. When I'm on caffeine, I'm more apt to just be productive and future-oriented...instead of more in the moment.
I have been off caffeine once before really in my life. I made it 7 months. During that time I remember feeling the best I'd ever felt in my entire life...well...at least since I was a kid. The only way I could make it really work was if I made sure I went to bed early every single night, and woke up with the sun.
But I felt so dang good. It was pretty amazing how good I felt...
Its hard though. There is something so nice about being able to brew up a cup of a liquid...sit there in a meditational state and drink it...and within seconds feel the caffeine overcome your body...
Caffeine Withdrawal
To make a long story short....
I have consumed Diet Dew for nearly half my life and really never considered the consequences as it was my only addiction. I quit cold turkey in 2001 due to pregnancy and really did not have any side affects besides mild headaches.
Well, my husband has been on a health kick for nearly one year now due to his high cholesterol and has been very devoted and dedicated to his mission for good health. I was challenged to start thinking about a healthier life style that resulted in giving up the....Dew.
I am now one week clean from consuming nearly 6-10 Diet Dews a day. I am certainly glad I stumbled on this website. I thought about going to my doctor. I had the following symptoms: headache and major back and leg cramps particularily my right leg. I thought I had restless leg symdrome. I could not sleep due to the pain and tingling sensations. For five nights, I took Advil, Mortine, and Aleve and last night was the first night without the pain relievers.
I still have mild headaches, tiredness, and dull zone-out sensations, but cannot believe the addiction I had for caffeine. I'm drinking water, and carbonated soft drinks without caffeine or sugar and eventually will need to stop the carbonated drinks as well. It has been hard. However, I'm slightly confused with my lack of desire to grab a can of Dew, but realistically I do not want to go through the torture process again and hope to gain a healthier way of life.
Thank you one and all for your comments, which helped me to figure out what was going on and your suggestions have been very helpful.