Avoid Alcohol And Simple Sugars
Alcohol depresses the nervous system and dehydrates the body, which is why a night of imbibing is often followed by a sluggish morning. And also why a strong cup of coffee is often needed to counteract alcohols effects. Avoid drinking alcohol while you quit caffeine so your energy stays as high as possible.
Simple sugars, especially added sugars, can spike your blood sugar and lead to a crash shortly after that. To avoid feeling tired and lethargic, avoid simple sugars like sugary drinks, white bread or pasta, and desserts.
Can I Quit Caffeine Cold Turkey
Definitely, you can quit caffeine cold turkey. It is not terribly difficult to do. If you truly want to and if you are motivated enough to do so, you can absolutely stop drinking and consuming caffeine. Getting off caffeine is not an easy thing to do. There are a lot of factors that you need to consider first before you can determine if you can give up caffeine or not. About 80 percent of Americans consume caffeine every day. And many of these people take in as much as 400 mg of caffeine! This is more than 3 cups of coffee. These numbers clearly show how serious the situation is, with so many people addicted to caffeine..
How Can I Cut Back On Caffeine
If you’re taking in too much caffeine, you may want to cut back. To avoid caffeine withdrawal, try cutting back slowly.
Replace caffeinated sodas and coffee with drinks without caffeine, like water, decaffeinated coffee, caffeine-free sodas, and caffeine-free teas.
Keep track of how many caffeinated drinks you have each day. Then, substitute one of these daily drinks with a decaf or caffeine-free alternative.
After a week or so, swap out another of your daily caffeine drinks with a decaf or caffeine-free option.
Do this for as many weeks as it takes to bring your daily caffeine intake to one caffeine drink a day, or even less.
As you cut back on caffeine, you may find yourself feeling tired. Be sure you get enough sleep, and boost your energy with exercise. As your body adjusts to less caffeine, your energy levels should return to normal in a few days.
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Home Treatments To Get Rid Of Tension Headaches
Below are some of the special home treatments you can follow at home so as to get rid of tension headaches.
Hot and Cold Therapy:
Hot and cold treatment can be an effective home remedy to get rid of tension headaches. You can go for hot or cold baths or shower, which may relieve the headache for some individuals. You may also apply heat to the area of the head or neck where there is the most severe pain. Apply using a heating pad on a low setting for a brief time period or apply heat in the form of a dry towel warmed in the oven. You may also go for resting in a quiet room with a cool cloth on your forehead.
Massage Gently:
A gentle fingertip massage over the area, just in front of and just above the ears or the temporal area, can be useful home remedy in getting rid of the pain in tension headaches. Also, massaging your head and neck muscle gently would help in providing enough relief.
Simply Lie Down and Relax:
It is also noted that simply lying down and relaxing may also help you in reducing the pain in tension headaches. Many individuals find concentrating on a soothing thought or image while taking slow, deep breaths would help them relax greatly.
Keep A Record Of Your Tension Headaches:
Psychopharmacology Of Caffeine: The Critical Processes Of Caffeine Withdrawal And Withdrawal Reversal
The earliest systematic examinations of the psychopharmacology of caffeine were conducted about a century ago.103,104 The strong consensus for most of the intervening period has been that caffeine is a stimulant capable of enhancing aspects of human psychomotor performance and mood. In recent years, however, that traditional view has been essentially disproved. Recent advances in knowledge about the dynamics of caffeine withdrawal and withdrawal reversal have radically transformed our understanding of caffeine psychopharmacology. In a typical study, behavioral and psychological outcomes are measured in healthy volunteers before and after double-blind administration of caffeine and placebo, and changes have often been reported in postcaffeine outcomes. This has been particularly evident in studies of performance and mood, wherein it has often been concluded that caffeine hasenhancing properties. However, a critical appraisal of the typical study design shows that the findings yielded by such studies are, at best, ambiguous.119,133,147
John P. Betjemann, S.Andrew Josephson, in, 2014
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Do You Need To Give Up Coffee
Heres a question you may not have asked yourself: do you actually needto give up drinking coffee? If youre pregnant, have heart arrhythmia, deal with anxiety, or struggle to sleep, giving up caffeine may be a health-conscious decision.
Despite its bad rap, coffee can provide health benefits in many ways. You dont automatically need to cut coffee altogether consider cutting back. With science approving up to 4 cups, you have a caffeine fix without overdoing it.
In many cases, coffee can actually be good for you!
Many people find themselves quitting coffee because of its acidic effects on the stomach and digestive system. Thats why weve created Golden Ratio: a coffee thats low-acidity and smooth on the taste buds.
If you want your caffeine rush without the bitterness and stomach discomfort, weve got three reasons to give us a try. Were environmentally friendly, full of unexpected flavors like vanilla coconut gold coffee, made from all-natural ingredients.
If youre considering giving up caffeine, give us a try first and skip the headache.
Detoxing Is No Laughing Matter
Caffeine withdrawal is a very unpleasant experience, to say the least.
The symptoms of withdrawal usually last a few days to two weeks for light caffeine consumers but can last 2 months or more for those that had been consuming around 1,000 mg or more daily. However, even for the most addicted, the worst symptoms subside after about a weeks time.
Even after the withdrawal period is over, many still feel never quite as good as they did when they were drinking caffeine all of the time. Some believe that caffeine permanently alters ones brain chemistry. This is most likely due to the changes that occur with dopamine levels in the brain because of the daily caffeine use.
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Caffeine Withdrawal Headaches Are Most Likely Your Issue Here
These can happen when your brain becomes used to that regular hit of caffeine over time. But lets back up a bit so you know exactly which processes to blame for your head pain.
Caffeine peps you up by affecting a chemical in your brain called adenosine. Adenosine typically accumulates in your brain over the course of the day, making you sleepy, Lauren Green, D.O., R.D., a board-certified neurologist at the USC Headache and Neuralgia Center and assistant clinical professor of neurology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, tells SELF. As an adenosine antagonist, caffeine is an opposing force that helps wake you up by binding to your adenosine receptors. This blocks your brains absorption of adenosine, preventing the level of drowsiness you would otherwise experience, Dr. Green explains.
All of this can happen with even one cup of coffee. But when you regularly consume significant amounts of caffeine, you can develop additional adenosine receptors, Dr. Green explains. And, in general, your adenosine receptors will become less sensitive to the effects of any caffeine you do consume. This means that over time you need to ingest more caffeine in order to block adenosines fatigue-inducing effects, so you form a dependence of sorts.
Does Caffeine Treat Or Trigger Headaches
Many people ask whether caffeine can treat or trigger a headache. The answer is that caffeine can do both.
Caffeine can provide relief for a headache.
During a headache, blood vessels swell, tighten or go through other changes, causing an increase in blood flow around the brain. This increase blood flow pressures surrounding nerves, which send pain messages to the brain. This brings on the headache.
Caffeine has vasoconstrictive properties, meaning that blood vessels narrow to restrict blood flow, thereby alleviating the pain. Also, when caffeine is taken in combination with pain medicines, such as aspirin, ibuprofen or acetaminophen, it increases the absorption and strength of the medication to provide faster relief.
Caffeine can trigger a headache.
When caffeine is consumed regularly, the body becomes dependent on its effects. And because caffeine narrows the blood vessels that surround the brain, when consumption is stopped, the blood vessels enlarge. This causes an increase in blood flow around the brain and pressures surrounding nerves. This can then trigger what is known as a caffeine withdrawal headache. Withdrawal headaches can last for a couple of weeks because it takes the body a while to adjust to not having caffeine in its system.
What should you do?
Kelli Tornstrom is a nurse practitioner in Neurology in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
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The Best Defense Against Covid
Dr. Estemalik offers three words of advice for anyone hoping to avoid the headaches and cytokine storm that comes with COVID-19: Get the vaccine.
Vaccination reduces your chance of getting the infection, and it also has an incredible effect of reducing serious illness and long-haul symptoms even if you were to catch it, says Dr. Estemalik. Its the best thing you can do to avoid the virus and what it brings.
Its Unlikely That Your Post
Its an interesting theory, but its a very unlikely scenario, Dr. Green says. Neither she nor Dr. Natbony believes they have encountered this situation among their thousands of patients.
The pathophysiology of migraines is complex and not yet completely understood, Dr. Green explains. However, doctors do know that small amounts of caffeine can sometimes help relieve migraine pain, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke . It appears as though caffeine may do this by narrowing dilated blood vessels that might contribute to migraine discomfort. But doctors believe theres much more to migraines than fluctuations in blood vessel width. The vasodilation and vasoconstriction component is not thought to be as important as it , Dr. Green says.
Second, although caffeine can help treat migrainesespecially in combination with other drugs, like typical pain relieversit has not been established as an effective preventive drug for migraines, Dr. Green and Dr. Natbony explain. Its potential lies more in treating pain that has already begun, and even that power appears to be limited. If its a mild migraine, there are some people that do respond to just a cup of coffee, Dr. Green says. But thats not the case for most people with moderate to severe migraines.
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So Is Caffeine Good Or Bad For Headaches
It can be either, neither, or both. Its really trial and error, Dr. Martin says. Some people do better with caffeine, and some people do much better without it.
Either way, he says, limiting your caffeine to around 200 mg a day, which is around 2 cups a day max, is smart if youre headache prone. Its also better, he says, to not slug it all at once, because having a big ol mug in the morning can sometimes lead to caffeine withdrawal headaches at night. Its best to spread it out throughout the day, but not after 5 or too close to bedtime, he adds.
Of course, whittling your caffeine intake down to 200 mg a day or weaning off of it altogether if you think its triggering headaches, can mean caffeine withdrawal in the short termand more headaches.
Thats why youll want to go slow, says Dr. Martin. If you drink four coffees a day, go down to three for a week, and then to two for a week, and see if your headaches lessen. If you want to try life without caffeine altogether, taper off to zero. But give it a fair shot, he says. It may take three to four weeks to see the full effects of no caffeine. Around 70% Dr. Martins patients see a big difference in headaches when they ditch the stimulant completely, he says.
What Does Caffeine Do
Dmitry Ageev/Getty images
Before we get to the symptoms you might experience if you quit caffeine, it’s helpful to find out what it does to your body and why you might not feel great when you give it up.
“Caffeine works primarily on our brain,” says Jessica Bushy, NP. “It binds to something called adenosine receptors. By binding to these receptors, the adenosine in our brain can no longer bind or fit there. The natural effect adenosine typically has on our brain is that it makes us tired. However, since it’s the caffeine that’s now at that receptor site, it doesn’t slow things down like adenosine would but actually wakes things up. The body can get used to or adapt to caffeine being present at these receptors. When withdrawn quickly, adenosine rushes back in to bind to the receptors and causes the opposite effect of what the caffeine was doing.”
Betsie van der Meer/Getty Images
The type of caffeine consumed can also be a factor when it comes to the severity of symptoms. That’s because it depends on how concentrated it is. “The usual eight-ounce cup of green tea contains only 30 milligrams of caffeine, a third of what is in most eight-ounce cups of coffee,” Bushy says. “Therefore, tea drinkers are less likely to experience withdrawal symptoms as intensely when they quit.”
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It Is Totally Possible For A Person With Migraines To Also Experience A Caffeine Withdrawal Headache Though
In a truly unfortunate double whammy, both caffeine intake and caffeine withdrawal are potential migraine triggers, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Thats why its so important to figure out how caffeine affects you if you have migraines.
For instance, even if caffeine does seem to help your migraines, having too much of it may prompt additional head pain. And, interestingly, daily caffeine intake can contribute to medication overuse headaches, Dr. Natbony says. Also called rebound headaches, these typically occur in people taking medication frequently for chronic head pain. On the flip side, you could build up so much of a tolerance to caffeine that the substance is less effective when you try to use it specifically to relieve migraine pain, Dr. Green says.
In the end, the relationship between caffeine and migraines is complicated. Its pretty safe to say that if youve never had migraines and start getting headaches when you cut out coffee, its probably a caffeine withdrawal headache. But if that pain sticks around for over a week and all youve done is scale back on caffeine, you might want to check in with your doctor about your symptoms.
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How Do You Reverse A Caffeine Headache
Caffeine headaches are usually caused by the withdrawal of caffeine. To reverse the caffeine withdrawal symptoms, you will need to continue having caffeine regularly until your body is fully adjusted to it. Try having a diet soda with caffeine every 6 hours. Remember not to mix caffeine with too much sugar. It can be hard to get off caffeine once you have developed a caffeine tolerance, so make sure you have good self-control to prevent this from happening. Caffeine withdrawal should be temporary, and your symptoms should vanish in 3-4 days. If your symptoms dont go away after that time frame, then your health should be checked..
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Caffeine Can Provide Relief For A Headache
When you’re suffering from a caffeine withdrawal migraine, the simplest solution may be to give your body the caffeine it craves. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Coffee or a similar caffeinated beverage is an option. If you’re sure it’s a withdrawal headache, take a caffeine shot as quickly as you recognize what’s going on. It’s fine to have your typical caffeinated beverage. Don’t compensate for what you’ve missed by overdoing it.
If you suspect the headache is caused by a caffeine overdose, don’t take any more caffeine because it could cause major health concerns. Instead, make an appointment with your doctor.
Another indicator could be your level of discomfort. Caffeine headaches are usually mild to severe in intensity, and they affect both sides of your head. Physical exercise usually makes them worse. They can begin a few hours after you’ve reduced or stopped taking caffeine.
What Are Some Tips For Quitting Caffeine
Cut down slowly on the amount of caffeine in your diet. Dont make the mistake of stopping totally. Youll likely experience withdrawal symptoms and go back to drinking coffee or soda or taking a headache medication with caffeine in it to make the symptoms disappear. This starts the dependency cycle all over again. Avoiding the withdrawal symptoms is one of the most common reasons why people continue their caffeine habit.
To successfully reduce your caffeine intake, gradually reduce the amount of coffee, tea, soda and energy drinks you have each day. Begin to substitute cold caffeinated beverages with water. Water is a healthy choice and satisfies the need for drinking a liquid. Water also naturally flushes caffeine from your body and keeps you hydrated.
If you are a coffee drinker, gradually switch from regular coffee to decaf. First alternate between decaf and regular, then slowly change to more decaf and taper off regular coffee. Gradually reducing your caffeine consumption over a period of two to three weeks will help you successfully change your habit without causing withdrawal symptoms.
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