Caffeine Withdrawal and Migraines Articles | Headache

When it comes to migraines, caffeine is one strange drug. The headache associated with a migraine needs to be triggered. This trigger can come in many forms: certain foods, weather conditions, lighting. One of the triggers is too much caffeine consumption. And yet the pain of migraines can also be lessened by ingesting caffeine. Talk about your two way streets!

The number one cause of migraines that are related to caffeine consumption is caffeine withdrawal. The good news is that this presents two methods of using caffeine to actually prevent migraines. The first method is the least difficult in theory, but probably the most difficult in practice: reducing the amount of caffeine you take in. If you don’t take in a lot of caffeine, you don’t suffer much in the way of withdrawal symptoms. It sounds easy because all you have to do is cut down on the caffeine. But saying you’re going to cut your caffeine and actually going through with it are two different things.

There is another method and though it sounds more difficult, in practice it’s probably a lot easier than cutting down completely. The second method is all about ensuring that withdrawal never becomes a problem. You can do this by timing your intake of caffeine over time. If you ingest a certain amount of caffeine at specific intervals throughout the day your body will be satisfied and keep the migraine headache at bay.

Some migraine sufferers have been tempted to go cold turkey and engage in complete and utter caffeine abstinence. This sounds like a pretty good idea. But, let’s face it, abstinence always sounds better than it actually turns out. Theoretically, there is absolutely no downside to the abstinence program; it’s only when you start applying it to the real world that you get in trouble. For one thing, caffeine is addictive. The more you get, the more you want. And many times this urge is just too overwhelming.

An even bigger obstacle is that it’s almost impossible to completely abstain from caffeine unless you are detail-oriented to the point of psychosis. If you are planning on abstaining from caffeine as a means of staving off migraines, you’re going to have to do more than simply give up your coffee or soft drinks. Caffeine is everywhere in today’s society. You’ll have to keep a watchful eye on the ingredients of chocolate candy, pain-relief medicine and diet pills. And that’s just the start. You can also add such things as liqueurs, energy drinks and even pudding to the list!

By this point you may rethinking that whole idea of keeping track of your ingestion. The timing schedule sounds more difficult, but consider this: would you rather keep track of how often your ingest caffeine over the course of a day, or keep track of the thousands of products that contain caffeine?

The caffeine infusion method simply means that you keep count of how often and how much caffeine you put into your body. Once you figure out how much you need and when you need, your migraines should become a memory. Provided, of course, of that you have determined that caffeine is your migraine trigger. There are some tips to make this process easier.

First off, if your primary delivery system for caffeine is coffee, you’re in for some bad news. Determining how much caffeine you are getting in a single cup of coffee is almost impossible and in this method you really want to be precise. Therefore, computing the caffeine figures is easier if you get your caffeine by way of either soft drinks or caffeine tablets. Which of those you prefer is up to you. Some people don’t like soda, so the tablet is a better way to go.

On the other hand, most people probably prefer to get their caffeine along with a little liquid refreshment. Whichever means you decide on, here’s what you do next. Keep a little diary in which you note when and how much caffeine you consumed, along with information about any headaches you got; things such as time of day, how long the headache lasted, how severe it was, etc. This information will be your guide in determining when and how often you need that caffeine to keep the migraines away.