Coffee And Congestion

[inthedark]

Hi everyone,
I've been lurking this forum for awhile now, and used to frequent a Peat fb group. Just signed up for an account here. I've learned a ton from all the threads I've read over here and would like to contribute a bit.

Anyway, for now I've got a coffee related question for you all: I've been drinking coffee for years -I work in the industry- and have gone up and down wildly in consumption patterns but have overall a good tolerance and drink probably four-five cups a day equivalent (espresso and filter). Usually I have no problem with it, unless of course I haven't consumed enough calories throughout the day.

Sometimes though I get what seem to be histamine release or high cortisol symptoms from even a bit of coffee; sneezing, densely congested nasal passages, watery eyes. However temps and pulse remain stable and extremities still warm. This is especially strange because at times coffee is really helpful for to relieve these symptoms and can clear my nasal passages quite nicely. Anyone have an idea of what might be going on here?

 

[jb116]

Hi everyone,
I've been lurking this forum for awhile now, and used to frequent a Peat fb group. Just signed up for an account here. I've learned a ton from all the threads I've read over here and would like to contribute a bit.

Anyway, for now I've got a coffee related question for you all: I've been drinking coffee for years -I work in the industry- and have gone up and down wildly in consumption patterns but have overall a good tolerance and drink probably four-five cups a day equivalent (espresso and filter). Usually I have no problem with it, unless of course I haven't consumed enough calories throughout the day.

Sometimes though I get what seem to be histamine release or high cortisol symptoms from even a bit of coffee; sneezing, densely congested nasal passages, watery eyes. However temps and pulse remain stable and extremities still warm. This is especially strange because at times coffee is really helpful for to relieve these symptoms and can clear my nasal passages quite nicely. Anyone have an idea of what might be going on here?

One of the, what's called preformed mediators, of inflammatory response in the arachidonic pathway is histamine. Caffeine is known to release fatty acids and from a historical timeline point of view, we all have some varying degrees of these unsaturated forms stored up. When released it can certainly contribute to that type of reaction you're describing. One thing I noticed is that the more and more time passes while largely avoiding pufa, the less of these responses I get moving forward. You can experiment with B3 and/or theanine in your coffee and you might not get this response.

 

[Dan W]

It doesn't sound like this applies in your case, but is there any sign of it being triggered by a particular batch of coffee? Mycotoxin levels can vary a lot between coffee types and harvests, although I've never known if it actually causes issues, or just happens to be a way to market low-mycotoxin coffee.

 

[inthedark]

Oooh never thought of the link to fatty acid release, that's really interesting. It definitely happens more when my system is otherwise compromised and happens less frequently now than it used to. Thanks for that.

It doesn't seem to be linked to any particular type in terms of processing and preparation method or region as far as I've noticed. Would be interesting to see whether dry/natural processed coffees -processes that tend to involve much more fermentation of sugars- cause this effect to happens more. But would probably be difficult to isolate all those variables as I have definitely had these coffees and experienced no issues.