ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Treatment for Symptoms Of Caffeine Withdrawal and Caffeine Headache.

Updated on April 19, 2016
Symptoms of caffeine withdrawal
Symptoms of caffeine withdrawal | Source

How to treat the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal and caffeine headache.

Here in this article I am going to share few vital facts about what can be done to tackle the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal when one suffers from these after giving up the stimulant abruptly.

About 80% of the adult population in America almost daily consume caffeinated foods or beverages, which include coffee and tea. Caffeine seems to provide the body artificial alertness by supplying extra energy, which gives a stimulating feeling of excitement. But what happens when one abruptly stops taking this stimulant? According to experts it is estimated that almost 50% of the above number experience the most common as well as distressing feeling which is caffeine headache symptoms when they give up caffeine abruptly. Headache, caused by caffeine withdrawal can sometimes be quite severe, and can occur 12 to16 hours after giving up the stimulant.

Adverse effects of caffeine on the body

The negative effects of caffeine on the body are now well established through scientific studies and unless we can reduce our caffeine intake to a safe level, serious long term health risks await us. High level of caffeine consumption not only constitutes physical dependency but also poses a serious health risk by increasing the risk of a heart attack, a stroke or early death, by about 20-30 per cent. Here are ten major negative effects of caffeine on the body:

  • Elevates blood sugar;
  • Raises blood pressure;
  • Causes irregular heart beats;
  • Increases urinary calcium losses which ultimately affect bone health;
  • Increases acid secretion in the stomach and may aggravate a stomach ulcer;
  • Causes irritability and nervousness;
  • Causes sleep disorder and insomnia;
  • Increases anxieties and depression;
  • Increases flow of thoughts and make a person more talkative. It also makes some more impulsive and they have difficulty in listening;
  • Causes feeling of tiredness and depression after the caffeine effect is over;

Safe level of caffeine intake

Most of us are not aware about the level of caffeine consumption that poses serious danger to our health. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the American Medical Association (AMA) classify a "moderate intake" of caffeine, which is 200mg to 300mg per day, as safe that does not cause any negative effects on the body. One study says that the average daily caffeine consumption among the Americans is about 280 mg/day, while 20%-30% consume more than 600 mg daily. The top three sources of caffeine consumption by adults are coffee-70%, tea-12% and soda-16%. The nutrition experts generally advise that to limit yourself to the safe level of daily caffeine intake, you should not take more than 2 small cups of coffee or tea.

Symptoms of caffeine withdrawal

Withdrawal effects from stopping consumption of caffeine can be mild to severe. In extreme cases, it can produce severe depression that may become unbearable. Caffeine headache symptoms are seen to be the most common occurring in large number of people. Other major symptoms include irritability, fatigue, loss of concentration and bad temper. Some people may also experience nausea or vomiting and muscle pain.

Causes of symptoms of caffeine withdrawal

Caffeine excites the cardiovascular and central nervous system. When removed suddenly from the body, this results in a feeling of extreme tiredness. For better understanding of the causes of the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal and their treatment one needs to know about the facts how it works in our human system.

Virtually every cell in our body including the brain almost instantly absorb the caffeine from the energy drinks taken by us like tea, coffee, cold drinks etc. Caffeine, which is a silent killer, works magically within the cells by blocking something called ‘adenosine’, a chemical the body releases to signal tiredness of the brain. As a result of such interception of the chemical secretion by the caffeine, the human body, instead of getting the right signal of tiredness of the brain, gets a wrong signal of artificial alertness by acquiring extra energy, which gives a stimulating feeling of excitement, the energy drinkers long for.

As caffeine level starts falling in the body, it causes a somewhat depressed state of mind in some people, accompanied by changes in blood flow and other basic functions. These changes manifest themselves in caffeine headache and other symptoms as the body readjusts to its normal chemical secretion functions.

Treatment to tackle symptoms of caffeine withdrawal

There may be several ways for treating caffeine withdrawal symptoms to make them less severe on the body. Here are six suggestions from the experts for caffeine withdrawal treatment which would help in relieving the symptoms effectively in a short time.

1. Do not go for quitting caffeine habit abruptly, which seems to cause withdrawal headaches and other intense symptoms. Proceed slowly in order to avoid the discomfort of withdrawal symptoms;

2. Initially as you stop taking your usual cups of coffee or tea as energy drinks, there may be feelings of dizziness, sleepiness during the day and even a mild depression as signs of ‘withdrawal symptoms’. Caffeine overtly stimulates the kidneys and causes an excess excretion of water. Therefore, drink a large quantity of water which would help to flush the caffeine residues from your system and reduce the period of withdrawal symptoms. On cleaning of the system the symptoms would disappear within 24 hours;

3. Restrict drinking of coffee and tea to the recommended maximum of average two small cups a day so that your daily caffeine intake is reduced to not more than 200mg/day. De-caffeinated coffee or a cup of cocoa, which has small amounts of caffeine, may be taken occasionally;

4. Herbal and Fruit ‘teas’ do not contain any caffeine .Therefore, consider gradual changing over to the habit of taking herbal and fruit teas as energy drinks ;

5. Try to ensure that there is minimum or no stress to both your mind and body during the withdrawal period;

6. Try to follow a sleep routine and do some regular exercise;

Conclusion:

Symptoms of caffeine withdrawal like intense headache, feeling of depression, muscle pain and fatigue etc, last for periods that are different for different people. Normally these caffeine headache and other symptoms do not last for more than 10 days in a human body. So, what is required is a little bit of patience and to follow seriously the line of treatment for controlling the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal suggested in this post so as to get rid of these agonizing symptoms within a very short time.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)