Caffeine Sensitivity, Pushing Through?

[scarlettsmum]

If you are sensitive to caffeine, do you still push through and drink coffee even though you may feel off/a little stressy afterwards? I enjoy coffee and look forward to drinking it but am wondering if I am doing to myself more damage by suffering through stressy episodes afterwards. I put sugar, whole milk in it and drink it with carb heavy breakfast and more often than not I feel the stress hormones being activated, although less so than it used to.

 

[Sucrates]

If it's causing you stress lower the dose or cut it altogether and try every so often, I couldn't handle lots of things until my food/sugar intake had been high for many months.

 

[Tarmander]

I'm not sure I totally understand the context you've giving, but I think if your doing coffee, you can expect stress from it for usually a couple weeks up to a month or so. I used to be very sensitive to caffeine, but last November I pushed through when I knew I didn't have a ton of work stress. I drank coffee every day come hell or high water. Now I drink coffee daily, usually a large amount, and I do not notice a thing. Don't half **** it I would say, either consistently drink it or not.

Edit: I will also say this was about a year after starting to eat peatish before I dove in

 

[DaveFoster]

If it's causing you stress lower the dose or cut it altogether and try every so often, I couldn't handle lots of things until my food/sugar intake had been high for many months.

This. I would gradually introduce it.

 

[scarlettsmum]

@Sucrates i think you probably sum up my gut feeling. I will probably switch to decaf or only drink 1/2 c rather then forcing everything down. Today we had brunch and the latte was so nice, I had two. Big mistake! At first I felt great and totally hyperactive. I sorted through the kids wardrobes and did the winter/summer wardrobe change for the whole family and then crashed exhausted and then the stress hormones hit me hard and messed me up for the rest of the day.

@Tarmander I'm not sure I'm brave enough to step it up as per today's experience I probably eat peatish for 9 months or so, but still learning a lot, probably still restricting sugar because of all the brainwashing my brain somehow rejects the amounts my body craves, I'm taking extremely cautious approach, really. That's why is everything taking so long with me, I guess.:)

@DaveFoster yes, I agree, at least for now.

 

[ecstatichamster]

L-theanine can help tremendously. Dose weight equal to the caffeine you are taking in.

 

[Matt1951]

What is your pulse, when not on caffeine, and when you know you have had too much? If pulse is at 80, you are ok. If at 100, ease off coffee for awhile.

 

[Peater Piper]

What is your pulse, when not on caffeine, and when you know you have had too much? If pulse is at 80, you are ok. If at 100, ease off coffee for awhile.

I also found checking blood pressure before and after coffee consumption useful. A 5-10 point increase might be okay, but more than that probably means a significant adrenaline response.

 

[artist]

Be sure that it's caffeine you're sensitive to. I can easily handle 800+ mg of pure caffeine per day, but one cup of coffee is too many, despite many long term attempts to build up tolerance

 

[Elephanto]

Like exercice, when you push it to a point where you feel stress it has a net detrimental effect. In the study on lifespan, the optimal intake was 100-200mg every 4 hours, probably 100mg for most women. This isn't much and not likely to cause a stress, so you don't need to take that much caffeine to have most of its benefits. I know for estrogen and tsh lowering you need to take a bigger amount but methylene blue will do the same without the stress response.

 

[RePeatRePeat]

I agree with @ecstatichamster about the l-theanine. Huge help.

 

[RePeatRePeat]

Oh, and of course, as you may have read elsewhere on this forum that it is essential to have plenty of sugar with your coffee to prevent the stress response. It kicks up your metabolism and you need that sugar!

Also, adding collagen helps me. Coffee with collagen (protein) and boatloads of sugar, and sometimes milk, has made coffee drinking easier and delicious for me.

 

[javin]

I'm seeing people mention taking l-theanine. I read somewhere on the forum that it increases nitric oxide. I still don't know if it's safe to take daily.

 

[ecstatichamster]

Tea drinking cultures have taken tea that includes a lot of theanine for centuries.

 

[DaveFoster]

I'm seeing people mention taking l-theanine. I read somewhere on the forum that it increases nitric oxide. I still don't know if it's safe to take daily.

Do you have a source?

 

[ecstatichamster]

Do you have a source?

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955286312000836

n this study, we establish that l-theanine, a non-protein amino-acid found in tea, promotes nitric oxide (NO) production in endothelial cells. l-theanine potentiated NO production in endothelial cells was evaluated using Griess reaction, NO sensitive electrode and a NO specific fluorescent probe (4-amino-5-methylamino-2',7'-difluororescein diacetate). l-Theanine induced NO production was partially attenuated in presence of l-NAME or l-NIO and completely abolished using eNOS siRNA. eNOS activation was Ca2 + and Akt independent, as assessed by fluo-4AM and immunoblotting experiments, respectively and was associated with phosphorylation of eNOS Ser 1177. eNOS phosphorylation was inhibited in the presence of ERK1/2 inhibitor, PD-98059 and partially inhibited by PI3K inhibitor, LY-294002 and Wortmanin suggesting PI3K-ERK1/2 dependent pathway. Increased NO production was associated with vasodilation in ex ovo (chorioallantoic membrane) model. These results demonstrated that l-theanine administration in vitro activated ERK/eNOS resulting in enhanced NO production and thereby vasodilation in the artery. The results of our experiments are suggestive of l-theanine mediated vascular health benefits of tea.

 

[scarlettsmum]

What is your pulse, when not on caffeine, and when you know you have had too much? If pulse is at 80, you are ok. If at 100, ease off coffee for awhile.

Thanks, never thought of that. Will try that to see.

 

[scarlettsmum]

I also found checking blood pressure before and after coffee consumption useful. A 5-10 point increase might be okay, but more than that probably means a significant adrenaline response.

I don't have blood pressure monitor, but will try pulse instead.

 

[DaveFoster]

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955286312000836

n this study, we establish that l-theanine, a non-protein amino-acid found in tea, promotes nitric oxide (NO) production in endothelial cells. l-theanine potentiated NO production in endothelial cells was evaluated using Griess reaction, NO sensitive electrode and a NO specific fluorescent probe (4-amino-5-methylamino-2',7'-difluororescein diacetate). l-Theanine induced NO production was partially attenuated in presence of l-NAME or l-NIO and completely abolished using eNOS siRNA. eNOS activation was Ca2 + and Akt independent, as assessed by fluo-4AM and immunoblotting experiments, respectively and was associated with phosphorylation of eNOS Ser 1177. eNOS phosphorylation was inhibited in the presence of ERK1/2 inhibitor, PD-98059 and partially inhibited by PI3K inhibitor, LY-294002 and Wortmanin suggesting PI3K-ERK1/2 dependent pathway. Increased NO production was associated with vasodilation in ex ovo (chorioallantoic membrane) model. These results demonstrated that l-theanine administration in vitro activated ERK/eNOS resulting in enhanced NO production and thereby vasodilation in the artery. The results of our experiments are suggestive of l-theanine mediated vascular health benefits of tea.

Thanks, hamster. Looks unfortunate.

 

[scarlettsmum]

Be sure that it's caffeine you're sensitive to. I can easily handle 800+ mg of pure caffeine per day, but one cup of coffee is too many, despite many long term attempts to build up tolerance

why so? I thought it was the caffein causing trouble ?