Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Quitting Caffeine

enki.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 363 posts

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#241

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

I "quit" caffeine while dealing with a mysterious and persistent nausea which ended up being mild food allergies.

Either way, before I knew what was going on, I got frustrated at my textbook healthiness yielding no answers, went off the low-carb deep and and cut out grains and sugars almost entirely from my diet.

Because my insulin/glucose levels have now moved from the penthouse to a basement apartment, I no longer have dramatic swings in energy throughout the day. My energy at 7AM is roughly the same energy I have by half after 4. I don't need caffeine or sugar to push me though a tired spell, and I haven't felt a caffeine/insulin crash in months.

Caffeine control is one thing but insulin is the body's top dog energy regulator. If you have energy issues, start by focusing on insulin, not caffeine.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#242

Post by fizgig »

5kyn3t wrote: post #168

I think the supplements and alternatives, which are mentioned in the article are a bit weird...I think those are sports-products, and not real alternatives to coffee. I also want to reduce my caffeine/coffee intake, but I want to have the "same feeling" as when I drink coffee... For this I drink the following: * My girlfriend showed me Caro Coffee (wheat-basis): http://amzn.to/2w8RhDu You make it like instant coffee…

Check out Postum and Pero, the former being primarily wheat/barley, the latter mostly chicory.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#243

Post by HNNoLikey »

roel_v wrote: post #219
crehn wrote: post #159

As for me, I enjoy drinking coffee and I enjoy drinking alcohol. They're small pleasures of life that contribute to my overall happiness.

"As for me, I enjoy drinking coffee and I enjoy drinking alcohol. They're small pleasures of life that contribute to my overall happiness." Yeah - it's like the old saying "it's easy to live to 100 years old, just give up all the things that make you want to live until 100'.

> it's easy to live to 100 years old, just give up all the things that make you want to live until 100

Oh-so cool.

This makes me mull about the role that moderation plays in a person's overall happiness and success in life.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#244

Post by devotedtoneu »

MichaelBurge wrote: post #232
cvsh wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if some of this is due to a subtle intervening variable like conscious or subconscious (i.e. fidgeting) decisions to exercise more accumulated over time because of increased energy, rather than caffeine per se.

If that were true, decaf wouldn't show the same effect because it wouldn't give you increased energy. (I don't drink decaf)

Well decaf does contain caffeine, just less of it.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#245

Post by simonklitj »

Wondering if Northern Europe has developed some sort of genetic immunity/reduced influence to caffeine. With the Netherlands having a an average of 2.4 cups of coffee a day, one would expect chronic insomnia, yet this is not the case.

I live in Denmark, where the average is 1.27 cups a day, and I oftentimes go over 10 cups a day of coffee, and I know a handful of people who're either up there with me, or drink even more.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#246

Post by mcbits »

0xbear wrote: post #135
skrebbel wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but very little.

About 15-20% of full strength. Hardly negligible.

More like 5%, but it's high enough that if you measure your coffee intake in pots/day then there is still enough caffeine for physical effects and dependence.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#247

Post by pgsandstrom »

throwaway0071 wrote: post #210
projektir wrote: post #122

> A caveat to all of these points: I also now consume very little sugar and alcohol and I meditate regularly. Things like this generally make me wary. Not so much because of them causing side effects that are harder to disentangle, but their adoption indicating that the author is fairly stabilized, which is a giant side effect in itself.

I have a fairly unhealthy lifestyle. When I started getting panic attacks, trembling, palpitations, skin rashes, walking up 5x during the night, feeling exhausted all day, etc, I stopped taking caffeine... And did not change a single other thing. It took me over a month to few "normal" again. First week: headaches, back pain, vomiting, nausea, cramps, etc. Second week: feeling like shit. Had no energy for anything. T…

This could be explained by regression towards the mean. When your health problems reached an extreme they were very likely to eventually get better. This might have happened regardless of any changes to your lifestyle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_toward_the_mean

It really is a very fascinating phenomenon. My friend who works as a psychologist have noticed that the most "successful" work is to always accept crisis patients immediately. If they have to queue for 2 months before getting clinical help, they have often improved by themselves, and it is therefore harder to reduce their problems further.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#248

Post by Omnus »

uptownfunk wrote: post #112

I've been off Caffeine for a good two years now and have no plans of going back. Life runs too fast for me on caffeine, yes I can blow through work faster, but when I was on caffeine it would feel like days, weeks, months would go by in the blink of an eye. I wasn't enjoying the moment.. and then I stopped drinking caffeine. Life became more present for me, not slower in the bad sense, but that I was able to relish e…

I would love to see a study on coffee consumption's effect on time perception. Maybe it's a widespread phenomenon.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#249

Post by 6d6b73 »

SirensOfTitan wrote: post #76

The author had some good reasons, but drug dependence on its own seems like a pretty poor reason to stop drinking caffeine unless you have other symptoms. There exists a great deal of consensus on Coffee's effect on health: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/upshot/more-consensus-on-... ... people tend to build a great deal of psychological dependence on friends and significant others as well. Dependence does not see…

"The total economic impact of the coffee industry in the United States in 2015 was $225.2 billion" [1]

So it's not hard to imagine that in our fucked up world at least some of the "research" on coffee is "fake news".

[1] http://www.ncausa.org/Industry-Resources/Economic-Impact

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#250

Post by brianwawok »

simonklitj wrote: post #245

Wondering if Northern Europe has developed some sort of genetic immunity/reduced influence to caffeine. With the Netherlands having a an average of 2.4 cups of coffee a day, one would expect chronic insomnia, yet this is not the case. I live in Denmark, where the average is 1.27 cups a day, and I oftentimes go over 10 cups a day of coffee, and I know a handful of people who're either up there with me, or drink even m…

When i drink past 10 cups a day it wears off pretty fast. Never had a problem with sleeping.

More common is general anxiety. If you are anxious at all, tons of coffee tend to spike that up.

Past 3 cups seems to harm my sanity more then it helps.

Post reply on HN