Caffeine Intolerance

today's ditty:  Level 42 -  Something About you

This is something that hit me a few years ago.  I have for the past 2 years been 99% caffeine free, and much better for it.   If you're experiencing the symptoms listed below you may want to eliminate caffeine from your diet.

With the regular drinking of 3-5 cups of coffee per day (or equivalent) over a long period of time, these symptoms of caffeine intolerance can appear: 

1. you feel the need for caffeine soon after waking.  Without it your mind is in a fog and you have difficulty doing your normal daily activities and work
2. low energy - near complete physical and mental exhaustion at 8 to 10 hours into the day.  Your evenings are wasted.
3. at times you feel a quite strong but short lived euphoria soon after consuming a caffeine drink
4. inability to focus and do activities that require sequenced thinking or planning 
5. difficulty piecing together memories from just a day or two ago
6. short term memory loss
7. mental depression (deep sadness, feelings of hopelessness, lack of motivation) if you go for a day without caffeine

With severe intolerance,  the above symptoms # 3 through #7 can occur even if caffeine is 95% eliminated from the diet.   They can be triggered with quite low levels of caffeine consumption - such as a chocolate candy bar, or just a half cup of decaf coffee (decaf often still has 20% or more of the original coffee caffeine level).

The only way I know of to avoid the symptoms is to eliminate caffeine from your diet.   Here are the foods and drinks that are responsible for 95% of the caffeine into our diets:

• coffee 
• decaf coffee (still contains a lot of caffeine)
• tea 
• decaf tea (the only caffeine free tea is "herbal tea")
• Pepsi, Coke, Mountain Dew, Monster drinks
• some root beers and other sodas (read the fine print of the ingredients list)
• tootsie rolls
• chocolate candies, cakes, brownies, M&M's...

This is not a complete list.   Many foods have caffeine added.  If you are unsure about a food or drink, read the ingredients labels.  Of look it up on the internet.

Also, over-the-counter and prescription drugs often contain caffeine (many cold medicines, headache medicines and pain relievers).   Again, read the label or look it up on the internet.

The best way to quit caffeine is to set aside a couple of days and just go cold turkey.   Plan on doing enjoyable and non-demanding activities on the two days - like watching movies, reading, hiking, bicycling, sleeping.  On the morning of the first day continue with no caffeine - you've already been without for 8 hrs, so continue with this good start. 

Rather than a cup of coffee, first thing in the morning take two plain aspirin (350mg pills) or some Tylenol.  Do not take Excedrin -  it contains caffeine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excedrin).  Check the ingredients.   Taking the headache pills is a good idea because, otherwise, if you have been regularly consuming a good bit of caffeine, you will develop a head pounding headache by the middle of the day.  Keep taking the headache medicine through the first day at dosages as per the instructions on the bottle. With this pre-emptive action, the usual caffeine withdrawal headache can be completely avoided.

You may get sleepy earlier than normal.   And you may sleep longer than normal.   Take the sleep.  If you feel like it, take a nap.  After the two days you will have caught up on your sleep and this will go away.

On the second day you probably won't need the headache medicine.   Bit if you get a headache then take it as on the first day.

And that's it.   The caffeine habit and its issues are gone.   

Its very easy for caffeine to creep back into your diet, so keep a watch for recurrence of any of the caffeine intolerance symptoms.  And then check to see if any foods or drinks that you consumed at the time might have been caffeinated.