Beware the Perils of Caffeine Withdrawal

palegray.net writes "CNN is running an article on the notorious effects of caffeine withdrawal, a problem that seems to be affecting an increasing number of people. Citing numerous reasons why people might need to cut back on their caffeine intake (pregnancy, pre-surgery requirements, etc), the story notes a significant number of people who are simply unable to quit. I drink around eight cups of coffee a day, along with a soda or two, and I definitely suffer from nasty withdrawal symptoms without my fix."

Comments

Bah

[Lord Grey]

I drink around eight cups of coffee a day, along with a soda or two, and I definitely suffer from nasty withdrawal symptoms without my fix.

You, sir, are a member of the Caffeine Underacheivers Club of the World. Until you can regularly consume an average of three or four pots of coffee in day (30 to 40 cups) without experiencing caffeine intoxication, you have no idea what how "nasty" withdrawal can get.

I'm at that point, I admit it. Withdrawal, for me, starts after about eight hours without caffeine. I get a serious headache, quickly followed by nausea and a general flu-like feeling. Left unattended, it's damn-near incapacitating. Fortunately, a single cup of coffee vanquishes all symptoms within 30 minutes.

Anyway, is this caffeine withdrawal stuff really news to anyone? Anyone?

Re:Bah

[Red Flayer]

You, sir, are a member of the Caffeine Underacheivers Club of the World. Until you can regularly consume an average of three or four pots of coffee in day (30 to 40 cups) without experiencing caffeine intoxication, you have no idea what how "nasty" withdrawal can get.

So you're not experiencing caffeine intoxication... good for you. Have you had to expel kidney stones yet? How about the other side effects from caffeine poisoning? Have you had your renal function tested? How's the chronic diarrhea going?

I'm a caffeine addict too, but I've cut down to 1d4 + 3 cups per day. I've had kidney stones and luckily ultrasound treatment broke them up so I didn't have to pass them whole. You're damaging your body, please cut down.

Re:Bah

[CRCulver]

Seriously. Mod parent up. I went to see a neurologist a few years ago and she was visibly horrified when I told her I drank about 6 cups of coffee a day.

That's funny, I live in Finland, which is proud of being one of the greatest coffee consumers in the world (something like an average of 6-8 cups a day per capita), and yet I've never heard public health warnings about drinking too much coffee. And I'm sure I would hear something if it were really that dangerous, as this is a welfare state that tries to limit unhealthy habits in order to save on healthcare expenses (the gov hopes to completely wipe out smoking soon).

Re:Bah

[Chyeld]

It is by coffee alone I set my mind in motion.

It is caffeine alone that sets my mind in motion.
It is through beans of java that thoughts acquire speed,
that hands acquire shakes, that shakes become a warning...
I am...IN CONTROL...OF MY ADDICTION!

From the Minicon Graffiti Wall, 1989

Re:Bah

[Raffaello]

Wikipedia suggests why:
A 2006 study by Dr Ahmed El-Sohemy at the University of Toronto discovered a link between a gene effecting caffeine metabolism and the effects of coffee on health. [96] [97] Some people have a gene to metabolize caffeine more slowly, and for them drinking large quantities of coffee was found to increase the risk of myocardial infarction. [a.k.a. heart attack] For rapid metabolizers, however, coffee seemed to have a preventative effect. Slow and fast metabolizers are comparably common in the general population, and this has been blamed for the wide variation in studies of the health effects of caffeine.

How you get hooked

[Thelasko]

While I was in college I became addicted to caffeine. I would wake up tired, and have a cup of coffee, later in the day I would feel worn down and drink a "soda." In the evening I would have another cup of coffee so I could study without falling asleep. This put me in a downward spiral that just kept getting worse and worse.

I discovered that, even though I slept at night, I wouldn't get any rest. I would wake up just as tired as when I went to bed. There was a simple reason for this, that evening cup of coffee. If you want to cut back on your caffeine intake, I have one piece of advice:

Don't drink any caffeine for at least four hours before bedtime

Re:Why would anyone quit?

[Colonel Korn]

well, to make caffeine useful again, for example.
i dring two cups of tea a day at most (no coffee at all because i don't like the taste) and when i really need a push, a cup of coffee or gyokuro is absolutely sufficient to awake me.

Exactly. I used to consume 6-10 cups of coffee worth of caffeine a day, and that was just to get me to normal. Now I have 0 caffeine on a typical day and I can very, very easily pull an all nighter on 1-2 cups. Also, I feel better when I wake up and go to sleep than I used to.

There's no benefit at all to caffeine addiction.

Re:Been there

[Hatta]

You're seriously consuming a couple liters of bottled water daily? What's wrong with tap water? Hell with that kind of money, you could buy yourself a really nice filter that would pay for itself after a few months. $2 a day adds up, and bottled water is just about the dumbest thing you could spend it on.

Re:Eight Cups?!?

[mahlerfan999]

A cup on a coffee pot is 5 ounces, sometimes 6 but usually 5.

Re:I used to intake around 500 mg/day

[compro01]

Acetaminophen seems to be a North America thing (it's the United States Adopted Name and is also used in Canada and probably Mexico). It's otherwise known as Paracetamol (the International Nonproprietary Name) in most of the rest of the world.

Re:I used to intake around 500 mg/day

[severoon]

It's generally not great to get too much water. Your body can't use large quantities of water by itself, it has to be balanced with electrolytes and other stuff to be of any use. Drink too much water, and you start diluting down the electrolytes that keep your muscles working. You're prone to muscle cramps and other annoying things from overhydration.

Because of bottled water going big corporate in the 90s, in the US at least, many people got brainwashed by Coke, Pepsi, and other water distributors that humans need a ridiculous amount of water everyday...pair that up with the way our govt works vis-a-vis lobby groups, and you had the govt endorsing this nonsense. Drink 8 12oz glasses of water everyday! they said. Hook a garden hose supplied with Dasani up to your mouth and don't turn it off until it starts coming out the other end! Yeeeeaaa.

But if you've ever had a bout of continuous vomiting or diarrhea and tried to stay hydrated with just water, you have firsthand experience that that approach only works for a short while. Many people smart enough to try to stay hydrated after getting food poisoning or some other condition with these symptoms show up in ERs saying, But I don't understand—I was drinking tons of water to stay hydrated!, after they're diagnosed with dehydration. And what is the remedy? An IV of saline, not water. What would have kept them out of the ER? Pedialyte or some other oral rehydration solution...even flat 7-Up is better than water.