Around 90 percent of American adults use caffeine regularly — no surprise, given that caffeinated beverages are not just enjoyable but also stimulating and performance-enhancing. Caffeine can indeed become addicting, and most people who use caffeine are just fine with that.
However, if you're thinking about quitting — either for personal reasons or because your doctor asked you to do it for your health — it can be quite hard, and it even has some of its own side effects. That's right; if you quit coffee or any other caffeinated substance, you can get withdrawal symptoms just like with "heavier" drugs, a fact was first acknowledged in the medical literature nearly 200 years ago.
Caffeine Withdrawal: How does it work?
After you have a caffeinated drink, your body absorbs the caffeine into the bloodstream quickly. The caffeine levels in your bloodstream will reach their peak only after 30 to 45 minutes. The caffeine is metabolized by your liver and then excreted by your kidneys through the urine. The caffeine leaves your body nearly as quickly as it entered, a process that usually takes around four to six hours. Heavy caffeine users will soon want more.
When you take in low to moderate doses of caffeine — between 20 and 200 mg — you might feel more content and notice increased energy, chattiness, and alertness. However, higher doses of caffeine can do things you won't like as much; you may experience symptoms like anxiety, an upset stomach, and jitteriness.
When you stop using caffeine, you can start experiencing withdrawal symptoms that can vary from mild to quite severe. These are some of the withdrawal symptoms that you may experience:
- A headache.
- Feeling groggy.
- Flu-like symptoms.
- Constipation.
- Feeling grumpy.
- A fast heartbeat.
- Hands tremor (shake).
- Stiff muscles and aching joints.
- A decreased ability to function when you engaged in activities for which you need "brain power" — in other words, you don't function as well.
- Nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain.
- A physically slowing down.
One study revealed that caffeine withdrawal symptoms can occur after just after three days of caffeine exposure. The severity of the withdrawal symptoms increased after seven or 14 days of exposure, meaning that the longer you've been drinking coffee or other caffeinated drinks, the worse you'll be hit by withdrawal. Usually, the withdrawal symptoms start 12 to 24 hours after you stop using caffeine, are the most severe after 20 to 51 hours, and last up to nine days.
How can you quit caffeine without the severe withdrawal symptoms?
Taper off — don't go cold turkey
When you're the type of person who drinks 10 coffees a day, quitting gradually might be better. If you start off with 10 coffees a day, you can go to eight, then seven, six, five, and so on. While a cold turkey quitter will experience bad withdrawal symptoms, those who taper off become used to less caffeine over time.
Using over-the-counter medications to treat withdrawal symptoms
You can easily treat the headaches and gastrointestinal symptoms — like nausea or vomiting — with over-the-counter-medications that you can just pick up at your local pharmacy.
Increase your fiber intake to avoid constipation
You can avoid the withdrawal symptom of constipation by increasing your fiber intake. Some high fiber foods you can try include boiled green beans, raspberries, broccoli, whole-wheat spaghetti, boiled turnip greens, pearled barley, and oranges. Simply add these foods to your diet and you may just avoid constipation.
Some other things you can try to help reduce caffeine withdrawal symptoms:
- Increase the amount of water you drink.
- Try to rest more during the worst of caffeine withdrawal.
- If you're the type of person who can't deal without their coffee, try switching to decaf. We know it's not the real thing, but it may just be better than nothing.
- Try exercising for a mood boost.
- Try to get a few days off your work so you don't have to concentrate on difficult things or get grumpy with your co-workers.
If you are experiencing severe symptoms like hand tremors, heart palpitations, or vomiting, contact your doctor right away. And, if your symptoms get worse, not better, there may be a possibility that they're caused by something else.