How to Treat Caffeine Headaches

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How to Treat Caffeine Headaches

by Sandra Kim Leong

Like the smell of good strong coffee? Are you an avid coffee drinker? Have you been so addicted to your 8 cups of coffee everyday and if you do without your regular dose, you get a severe migraine?

Well, you may be experiencing caffeine headache. Caffeine headaches are triggered by the chemical compound caffeine. It occurs when the caffeine intake is very high or when you become addicted to caffeine or try to stop drinking coffee. The latter case is commonly referred to as caffeine withdrawal headache. In the following paragraphs, we’ll see in more detail how caffeine it’s over presence and absence could kick off an intense headache.

Caffeine is a natural psychoactive compound that is widely used as stimulants and in painkillers. It enhances the absorption of the drug in the intestine and that is why caffeine is an active ingredient in painkillers. But its overdose can also lead to sudden headaches.

Here is it why so caffeine causes a biological stimulation that increases the blood flow to the brain. Hence the blood sugar level available in the brain also increases correspondingly. After some time, when the effect of caffeine subsides, the blood flow drops and hence the blood sugar available to the brain cells. Now the brain has no choice but to adjust to the change, which sometimes lead to reactions such as fatigue, headache or depression. A strong addiction for caffeine also has its root in this brain reaction to reduction in caffeine levels.

Should your doctor realize that you may be suffering from caffeine headaches induced due to an over intake of caffeine, he/she may advice you to reduce the daily intake of caffeine (the only treatment possible) alongside taking some other medicines. But the trouble starts right at the moment when you stop drinking coffee. Caffeine addiction is usually very strong; the moment you reduce your daily caffeine intake, withdrawal symptoms sets in. Withdrawal symptoms can take the form of an intense headache – called caffeine withdrawal headache or fatigue, nausea or muscle pain. Usually such withdrawal headaches resemble migraine and may last between one (in normal cases) to six days (in acute addicts).

Such caffeine withdrawal headaches can be lightened to an extent by drinking decaffeinated coffee. Still, you may find that decaffeinated coffee can hardly relieve you from your headache pains. Analgesics must be preferably avoided, but in some cases doctors prescribe a small dose to relieve the pain if it is very intense.

Thus, the best treatment for caffeine headaches is to reduce or eliminate the intake of caffeine. Further, in order to reduce the withdrawal effects, it is advisable to bring down the caffeine intake gradually rather than stopping it all on a fine morning day. Break your addiction to caffeine and you would have eliminated it as a trigger for your migraines.

Caffeine may be one of the several triggers for your headache. Find out what the rest are here Natural Headache Remedies.