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Quitting Caffeine

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Re: Quitting Caffeine

#281

Post by JTenerife »

StanislavPetrov wrote: post #209

What the author didn't mention, and I haven't seen mentioned in these comments, are the extremely beneficial health effects of coffee (not caffeine, decaf has shown the same benefits). Most significantly, studies have shown that coffee reduces overall mortality rates significantly, with the reduced chance of dying from any cause increasing with coffee consumption (up to a point). >Compared with nonconsumers, particip…

Where there're sponsors there're studies. Don't trust those. Not saying that they're scientifcly wrong, but similar studies have been made for red wine and dark chocolate. Also, there was / is the green tea trend. You need to take all effects of a substance into account when judging the health benefits.

If you want to do something good for your health, drink herbal tea. But why do most of the people prefer coffee or green / black tea? Or drink red wine or eat lots of dark chocolate. Because those are stimulants.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#282

Post by trendia »

throwaway0071 wrote: post #263
pgsandstrom wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 acce…

I'm having a hard time figuring out your point for this specific situation. Are you saying the list of symptoms I described would eventually go away by itself?

(I'm not op).

It's not that there's a regression-to-mean force that eliminates abnormal symptoms. It's more that the symptoms have some underlying cause that will fix itself over time.

If you start some intervention (such as stopping caffeine) at the same time you are naturally getting better, then you nay false attribute your getting better to the intervention rather than to its real cause: our bodies tend to bounch back from illness.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#283

Post by hyolaris »

Danihan wrote: post #49
bduerst wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many medical organizations require a licensed psychologist to write the prescription for ADHD medications, rather than the attending PCP, and many insurance plans don't cover psychologist visits.

It would be a psychiatrist, not a psychologist. And all insurance plans do cover mental health per the ACA... It is one of the ten benefits that must be covered on all plans under the law.

As a psychologist, my experience is that lots of physicians, even psychiatrists, want testing and a diagnosis from a psychologist before prescribing, so it might look like the psychologist is prescribing, when they are just diagnosing.

Incidentally, psychologist prescribing happens in some states also.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#284

Post by endorphone »

nowherecat wrote: post #139
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…

Hm..reading this makes me wonder ... I noticed that life is running extremely fast lately and I am having a hard time being "in the moment" ... and I drink a lot of coffee. I really enjoy everything about coffee from roasting to brewing though, so it would probably be quite hard giving it up. Anyway, thanks for sharing this, I will take a long look at that.

I noticed that life is running extremely fast lately and I am having a hard time being "in the moment" ... and I drink a lot of coffee.

I drink a lot of coffee. I'm a very in the moment person, meditate regularly, enjoy and live in the moment, etc.

This is an approach to life thing that is quite orthogonal to whether you drink coffee or not.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#285

Post by alvarezo »

gedrap wrote: post #235
morley wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you love coffee, the best alternative to coffee is decaf. If you buy directly from a great roaster, you'll hardly be able to tell the difference. I'm not sure I'd be able to in a blind taste test (decaf if anything takes a little less bitter in latte form). If you have a grinder, you could buy beans from any number of places online, like Blue Bottle. I'm lucky enough to live near a ton of roaster coffee shops that…

I considered this, but the options are very limited where I live (Lithuania). We have a few high quality local roasters, but even they have only one blend of decaf (and dozens of normal coffee).

Off topic but I visited Lithuania recently and got acquainted with the šakotis. Now I'm back in Estonia and can't find it anywhere in stores and having withdrawal symptoms :D It was so good.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#286

Post by Raphmedia »

dannysu wrote: post #101

I've never been on coffee. I only drink water since... forever. It is true that getting coffee is kind of a social situation. But I'm ok just getting a hot chocolate or some other drink when I'm with people. The thing about less ability to compensate lack of sleep. The way I deal with that isn't with sugar or caffeine. I just take naps. If I only got between 3-5 hours of sleep, I might need a 15-min nap but once I ge…

I used to live on naps until I couldn't. Now I'm on caffeine daily and miserable. Don't repeat my mistake, keep nappin' !

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#287

Post by 6d6b73 »

JTenerife wrote: post #281
StanislavPetrov wrote: post #209

What the author didn't mention, and I haven't seen mentioned in these comments, are the extremely beneficial health effects of coffee (not caffeine, decaf has shown the same benefits). Most significantly, studies have shown that coffee reduces overall mortality rates significantly, with the reduced chance of dying from any cause increasing with coffee consumption (up to a point). >Compared with nonconsumers, particip…

Where there're sponsors there're studies. Don't trust those. Not saying that they're scientifcly wrong, but similar studies have been made for red wine and dark chocolate. Also, there was / is the green tea trend. You need to take all effects of a substance into account when judging the health benefits. If you want to do something good for your health, drink herbal tea. But why do most of the people prefer coffee or…

And they are physically addicting

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#288

Post by Waterluvian »

Every so often I hit a ceiling where I worry that I'm going to kill myself with caffeine and hypertension or whatever so I stop for a week. Recently I took 400mg in pill form at 10pm in order to keep me up until 2am. I get 6-8 hours of sleep a night and everything else about my life is within the error margins of "healthy". I just like stretching my day, and find that caffeine's efficacy has dropped off a cliff since university.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#289

Post by ApolloFortyNine »

JTenerife wrote: post #281
StanislavPetrov wrote: post #209

What the author didn't mention, and I haven't seen mentioned in these comments, are the extremely beneficial health effects of coffee (not caffeine, decaf has shown the same benefits). Most significantly, studies have shown that coffee reduces overall mortality rates significantly, with the reduced chance of dying from any cause increasing with coffee consumption (up to a point). >Compared with nonconsumers, particip…

Where there're sponsors there're studies. Don't trust those. Not saying that they're scientifcly wrong, but similar studies have been made for red wine and dark chocolate. Also, there was / is the green tea trend. You need to take all effects of a substance into account when judging the health benefits. If you want to do something good for your health, drink herbal tea. But why do most of the people prefer coffee or…

Woah woah woah. Did I miss the bandwagon for hating green / black tea? How are those bad? Is it just the caffiene?

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#290

Post by rockostrich »

morley wrote: post #226
gedrap wrote: post #170

I am a coffee drinker but I don't really get boost or anything. Nor do I feel tired or anything else that could be called withdrawal during the weekends, when I don't drink it. For me, making a cup of coffee is just a... ritual of sorts. Weighting the beans, pouring over water, all these things. And I really enjoy the taste, trying different beans. I don't want to sound pretentious, it's just a hobby for me. Maybe th…

If you love coffee, the best alternative to coffee is decaf. If you buy directly from a great roaster, you'll hardly be able to tell the difference. I'm not sure I'd be able to in a blind taste test (decaf if anything takes a little less bitter in latte form). If you have a grinder, you could buy beans from any number of places online, like Blue Bottle. I'm lucky enough to live near a ton of roaster coffee shops that…

I'm curious as to why you have the roasters grind the beans for you. Quality of ground coffee deteriorates much faster than whole beans. It depends on the grind size, but I'm pretty sure it's hours compared to weeks. A manual grinder like the Hario Skerton only costs $40 which is about the cost of a month of coffee beans for people who drink a cup or 2 every day.
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