I decided to write this because right now, at this very moment, I am experiencing one of life’s biggest pains that can be avoided fairly easily – withdrawal from caffeine. My symptoms when I withdrawal after several days of caffein consumption, which I do allow myself occasionally when I’m running ragged one week to the next, always consist of a gigantic headache that just won’t go away no matter how much stuff I take.

I can take Advil and Aleve til I’m blue in the face ( and not I don’t OD on them, I do watch my intake of pain relievers because they can significantly damage the liver if you’re not careful), and it makes nary a dent in my tension-filled, fuzzy thinking head.

However, even though my particular brand of caffeine withdrawal consists of unrelenting headaches, it doesn’t mean that everyone experiences the symptoms the same way.

Some people may become incredibly irritable, for example, when their body has become accustomed to caffeine intake and it is suddenly taken out of the diet for a day. Usually though, the symptoms are visible the day that you take it out of your diet, which shows how quickly your body perceives a withdrawal of this substance.

It can be “healthy” caffeine, like caffeine from a green tea or another natural plant that has antioxidant properties and also happens to have caffeine in it too, or it can be a big old chemical laced energy drink too, it doesn’t really matter, the withdrawal will be the same, depending on the levels of caffeine your body is used to consuming every day and how quickly you take it away or reduce it.

You can help caffeine withdrawal by gradually reducing your intake if you’re thinking about trying to either cut back on caffeine or cut down on it, to help avoid the more extreme bouts of withdrawal. You also can make sure you are totally, 100% hydrated with water at all times, this will help with any headaches that come on.

Also, try not to go cold turkey, maybe sip a little here and there until you are confident that your body has gradually reduced it’s physiological need for the substance. It’s like quitting anything else, you need to ween off of it first.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 8:16 am and is filed under Foods. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.