Is there any way to reduce coffee consumption WITHOUT suffering withdrawal headaches?

[CTyankee]

In trying to cut back on my coffee consumption I now get miserable withdrawal headaches. Aspirin doesn't help much. Green tea doesn't help much. Only when I give up and drink a couple of cups of coffee do I get rid of the headache.

Anybody have a cure they can share with me?

[tabatha]

1. Try Dandelion Tea.

[Vincardog]

2. When you feel a headache coming on press your finger against your third eye

draw the pain energy away from your mind and into the pressure.
Then release the pressure and the pain with it.

[Kceres]

3. Withdraw slowly, NOT cold turkey. n/t

[CTyankee]

7. That's what I thought I was doing.

I had just one cappacino for breakfast yesterday and by 1 pm I was in agony and I gave in and had the coffee. Today I had only one cup of somewhat weaker coffee than I usually have and the headache has come on me...

[Kceres]

10. Then you are going to have titrate even slower, I guess.

Try cutting down to three-quarters of what you normally drank had for about a week, then one-half when you get use to that, etc., etc. Good luck, too! I never thought a coffee habit was all that bad myself, except, of course, the expense.

[liberal N proud]

4. Stopped cold turkey without problems

[supernova]

5. Try to taper off?

How much coffee do you normally drink in a day?

Try to skip the last cup for a week, or at least make it decaf.

Then the next week have two decafs.

For example, if you normally have 4 cups of coffee/day here's what it might look like:

Week 1
full caf
full caf
full caf
decaf

Week 2
full caf
full caf
decaf
decaf

Week 3
full caf
decaf
dcaf
decaf

Or what ever intervals you choose. Point being to slowing come down from the caffeine.

[Dogmudgeon]

8. Good idea!

You can also mix full-caf with decaf in your taper. It distributes the caffeine across the day.

Most people who taper down can do so within a week; two, if they drink a lot.

--d!

[supernova]

14. I like the 1/2 caf idea too

:thumbsup:

disclaimer: I rarely drink coffee now. It makes my heart race if I drink more than a cup. I will sometimes have decaf after dinner with dessert, though.

I'm a tea person now for the most part.

[Dogmudgeon]

6. Taper down

It requires a little more attention to detail, but it works.

Personally, when I want to go back to zero, I just stop it entirely for a week and take ibuprofen; I've never needed more than about five over the course of the entire week.

Caffeine is not all that bad for most people, any way. It's an antioxidant and, strangely enough, protects cells from ionizing radiation. I keep it to two cups a day, and when I start to crave more, I stop it for a week.

Good luck, whatever method you use!

--d!

[CTyankee]

9. I am only doing it to help me sleep better at night.

I've been able to "maintain" at 2+ full mugs of coffee in the morning. The + sign is for the little "extra" that is in the pot (so I don't waste it). Weakening the coffee doesn't cut it and it tastes terrible anyway.

I like the caff/decaf taper method mentioned above and may try it. Or the dandelion tea if I can find it...

[frazzled]

13. Are you sure it's the morning caffeine that's keeping you up at night?

It would seem that 14 or so hours later, the caffeine might not be the culprit.

There are several things that seem to keep me up at night occasionally: one (I swear) is using the computer. It can really hype you up and start your mind racing. The other is random periods of worry about something or other (a kid, a parent).

I also limit myself to 1 1/2 to 2 cups of coffee first thing in the morning. I actually have no desire for more, and have been at that level for many years. But I do have a cup of tea in the afternoon or evening.

When I have trouble sleeping, it's usually because of anxiety about something or other. Then, I find a little sip o' the spirits (a small liquer-glass of cognac or grappa or some such) and a good book will help. After 3 or 4 pages, I'm back asleep.

[CTyankee]

20. I can't do any alcohol after dinner b/c that interferes with sleep, too.

REading helps me somewhat, also boring myself by retelling the same two stories over and over again, which takes a little time (sometimes I go over the outline of an independent study I once did in grad school -- it is such a goddam bore I hate to do it but it eventually does work). I refuse to take sleep meds, either presciption or otc.

[supernova]

21. LOL about the indy study guide

My Psych 101 textbook was a great insomnia cure, esp for my Korean roomate. She would try to study and within 10 minutes would be gone to the Land of Nod. :D I agree it was a snoozer.

[CTyankee]

24. Some papers I wrote for my Econ course would qualify here.

I swear the Austrian School has produced THE cure for insomnia, if you can stand it...even I can't go that far...

[quiller4]

11. How much coffee do you drink and why try to reduce?

Moderate consumption is healthy unless you suffer from a heart condition that makes the consumption of any stimulant dangerous.

Years ago I had problems with GERD and was told that reducing caffeine would bring improvement. My doc suggested to reduce by one cup per day for a week the amount of caffinated coffee and tea I drank, reduce by another cup the second week. After 4 weeks I got down to 2 cups of coffee in the AM and two afternoon cups of caffinated black tea without suffering any headaches.

Ten years later the GERD is gone. I am down to one cup of coffee in the AM but I drink about 4 cups of caffinated tea in the average day.

[CTyankee]

16. See above. I am doing it to help me sleep better.

I've been successful in reducing coffee to just the morning. And I can go with just two mugs. But I thought if I reduced it further it would help me better at night. However, I might have to find another way to do that...

[Xithras]

12. Cold turkey? No.

The blood flow in your brain has increased, which is causing your head to hurt.

The best method I've seen is to mix caffinated and decaf, and just alter the ratio slowly. Keep in mind that while you're weaning off, you're actually killing the receptors in your brain that the caffeine forced it to create. The more, and longer, you drank coffee, the longer it will take you to wean off of it. A person who drank two cups a day for 20 years is going to have a heck of a lot longer "wean" time than someone who drank four cups a day for two years. It can take MONTHS for a long term coffee drinker to wean themselves.

[eShirl]

15. I agree, taper gradually.. maybe half-caff would be useful

good luck :)

[Arctic Dave]

17. Drink water. Caffine is a vasoconstrictor, that is why you get high blood pressure from

drinking it. When you stop your vascular system opens up creating a low blood pressure causing your headache. Drinking water helps "fill" your vascular system reducing headaches.

[supernova]

19. This is true

You also get a dose of cortisol with your coffee too, the fight or flight hormone.

That's why I really quit drinking a lot of coffee several years ago.

I prefer tea now, when I want to perk myself up. I get the caffeine without the cortisol.

[callous taoboy]

18. Here's how I did it and I was up to 3 pots per day last May:

First, I teach school so during my first mnonth off in June I very gradually decreased my intake. It was a very methodical process of decreasing by half a cup every four days. My coffee maker has a pot that has graduated markings so one full pot equals 10 cups. By the end of the first two weeks I was down to 26 or so cups. By the end of July I was down to 15 or so cups. By August I was down to 11 cups. Now I am holding steady at 8 cups during the day with a cup of green tea after dinner. During the whole process I didn't feel too bad at all. The hardest part was the first few weeks of decreases. I'd wake up at 5 a.m. with a pretty bad headache and I never get headaches so this was caffeine withdrawal. But around mid-July forward my decreses did not hurt at all. I plan to get it to two big mugs in the morning with nothing else after.

It is well worth the effort to get major caffeine addiction under control. I feel much better over all and enjoy my morning mugs much more. Getting this under control has been something I've tried many times with no luck because I tried to cut it too much too fast.

Good luck.

[supernova]

22. Last time I had jury duty

was in my small county seat. The major thing to do for fun when court was on break was to go across the street to the brand new coffee bar. Well, I liked their double espressos to keep myself from nodding off. One day I made the mistake of having TWO DOUBLE ESPRESSOS in a day. I though the entire court could hear my heart pounding in my chest!

:P

The only thing I wanted to do was get out of there and run a marathon to get rid of all the excess energy I was feeling.

LOL! Last time I ever did that. :-)

[CTyankee]

25. I read somewhere that espresso has less caffeine than regular coffee. It just looks and tastes

wickedly caffeinated. I try to resist the temptation after dinner tho. It's hard, especially after a really fine Italian meal.

The far and away BEST coffee I have had in recent years was the Spanish "cortado," which is akin to the Italian "machiatto" or "stain" of milk in the espresso. For some reason the cortado is better, IMO. It is rich and heavenly.

[callous taoboy]

27. I've taken to drinking Yerba Mate. Wow,.

[Speck Tater]

23. 20 years ago I quit coffee cold turkey and took aspirin for 4 days. After that, no problem. nt

[DKRC]

26. Blend decaf with your regular coffee

until you're only having decaf. Backed myself off of caffeinated colas this way.
Going cold turkey is for tougher people than me.

Good luck! :thumbsup:

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

28. Excedrin has caffiene in it. Of course if it's the caffiene you are trying to get off of....

[Dorian Gray]

29. Can you reduce your coffee intake

more gradually. By a cup a day on a weekly basis. (If you drink 6 cups now, drink 5 all next week. The following week, 4... etc etc etc until you are down to none?)

Weaning yourself off the caffeine may not be the immediate fix you might desire, but in the long run, you'll get the results you want.

[Warpy]

30. One thing you can do is taper it down slowly

by mixing caffeinated with decaf, increasing the decaf over a couple of weeks. You might still get a headache during the process, but it won't be the type that makes you want to decapitate yourself.

Most people choose to plan for the vicious headache and scream it out. It's over within 48-72 hours. It hurts almost as much as a migraine does but it's not fatal.

[Robb]

31. Start smoking.

:D Kidding. Although it'd probably work. Taper, taper, taper, as said above.