Caffeine — Your Friend And Foe
“Who goes there?” calls the guard to the Castle of Your Head out to the newcomer riding up to the gates.
“Caffeine!”
“Friend or foe?”
“Um…” and really, it all depends on the circumstances, doesn’t it? But I’ll let you in on a little news about my head (and the heads of many others) — the main trigger or my migraines is caffeine withdrawal.
Which means I’m dependent on caffeine. My Lord, technically, I’m a drug addict!
When I was a kid in the ’70’s, no one considered caffeine an addictive substance (except maybe the Mormons). We popped Hershey’s Kisses, washed them down with Coke and wondered why we couldn’t get any sleep. Our parents weren’t morally deficient — they just didn’t know.
However, caffeine seduces the brain — but in a nice way. Like everything, you need moderation. There are people who cannot tolerate ANY caffeine, and then those who can have a cups of coffeee a day, stop coffee cold turkey and nothing happens to them. Caffeine seems to extablish a different relationship with each person.
And, caffeine is an ingredient in migraine medicines like Excedrin. So, when you get a migraine and only Excedrin can cure it — it could be a big neon sign that you are caffeine dependant.
Johns Hopkins Clinical Study
I managed to curb my caffeine use when I finally figured out that the worst of my migraines were from caffeine withdrawal. Ten years ago, I consumed the equivelent of three liters of Coke per day. Now, I have four cups of tea per day. Hey, it’s an improvement.
Fortunately for my health, I don’t need to completely eliminate caffeine. But some people need to. There’s a clinical study going on trying to help people quit caffeine once and for all put on by Johns Hopkins University’s Bayview Center in Baltimore, MD. It might be worth a try.
In the meantime, check out how many milligrams of caffeine are in your favorite drinks and try to cut down.
Hope this helps. More on caffeine and migraines tomorrow.
November 16th, 2007 at 11:05 am
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