Extreme caffeine sensitivity vs. Migraines with zero caffeine intake

January 30, 2018 11:03 AM

I'm a caffeine-sensitive person who gets migraines when I have zero caffeine intake. I'm trying to find a balance of beverages that will keep the migraines at bay without leading to dependency, jitters, or insanity.

I am a 37-yo woman, and I became intolerant to caffeine in my late 20s. Prior to that time, I was able to drink as much coffee as I wanted and I never felt any ill effects. As my body switched over to intolerance, I noticed jitters, sweating, and anxiety that weren't tied to any events I was experiencing. Switching to half-caf, then decaf, and eventually to tea, stopped those symptoms.

Then, late last year, even half-caf tea was giving me the jitters. However, when I switched to herbal teas, I started getting migraines—no, not caffeine withdrawal headaches—bona fide migraines with auras et al., for months after I cut out all caffeine. I suspect the migraines had been held at bay by regular (if scant) caffeine intake.

Within the last few months, the migraines coupled with work-based fatigue led me to start drinking a quarter-cup of coffee at work every morning (mainly because it's on tap here, but then also because it made me remember how delicious it is), which stopped the migraines, but has led to an annoying dependency (complete with its own headaches if I don't feed the beast).

Today I looked up a chart of caffeine content in all the beverages listed above, and was surprised to see that decaf coffee actually has less caffeine than black tea (6mg vs. 42mg/8fl oz), yet a full cup of decaf coffee gives me crazy jitters that I have to have two cups of black tea to achieve. WHY WHY WHY?! (Sorry to get excited; I just finished a quarter-cup of full-test coffee and I'm feeling it.) Is it something about the acid content, or some other chemical compound within?

I'm trying to find a balance of beverages that will keep the migraines at bay without leading to dependency, jitters, or insanity. One issue is portion size—it's annoying to brew a half-cup of tea, for instance. I'd love to find something of which I can have an entire, satisfying cuppa, and come away feeling like a well-adjusted human being who doesn't have a migraine. Anything you can tell me about why decaf coffee and its meager 6mg has this effect on me? Any suggestions on a regimen that you think would be effective?

Many thanks.

Notes on my tastes:
* I'm not a huge fan of green tea
* I generally like a good quality black tea with milk and sugar
* I have found that most decaf black tea is bland and unsatisfying
* At work we brew Starbucks medium roast House Blend, which I like with cream and sugar but everyone else here thinks is gross (though they still drink about 10 carafes per day)
* I am able to brew a carafe of decaf, but no one else drinks it and then I feel wasteful

posted by SixteenTons to Health & Fitness (36 answers total)

Try Red Bull. I'm serious, I know two people who keep migraines at bay with energy drinks, well specifically Red Bull. Of course dose it carefully (a spoonful?). Good luck!
posted by TheGoodBlood at 11:18 AM on January 30, 2018

Different caffeine delivery systems get absorbed by our systems at different rates. And of course this differs individually as you know. Some people feel that green tea's caffeine gets absorbed more slowly than coffee's, so they get a more even lift and slope of a buzz. Some people want a triple shot of espresso to jolt start the day but don't want anything more until the next morning. There's all kinds of elaborate chemistry and biology involved but the fact is that we don't really exactly know the answers to your WHY WHY WHY?! and the different amounts of caffeine listed in nutrition facts don't take into account rate of absorption or the likelihood of consuming that product in tandem with other things that would affect it, either. Sorry about that!

But anyway, have you tried chocolate? Dark chocolate has noticeable caffeine in it, requires no preparation, and is honestly pretty good for you to boot. Well, depending on how sweetened the chocolate is, but if you live in a city chances are you can find some really fantastic chocolate that you love.

White tea also might be a thing to try. Personally I hate it, I'm a smoky black tea and jasmine green drinker, but some people absolutely love white teas. They supposedly have less caffeine than green tea, although I can't really speak to that and they are a bit finicky to brew.
posted by Mizu at 11:18 AM on January 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

Can't help with the science/medicine side of things, but you can brew half-cups of tea by skipping tea bags and getting loose tea and using a strainer. (Won't help if you want a full cup to sip, but can cut down on the feeling of wasting tea.) I love Adagio, especially their fandom blends. And their individual types of tea listings tell you whether they're high or low caffeine - maybe you can find a blend you like that has low enough caffeine to do full cups.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 11:18 AM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

I wonder if this is a psychological thing more than purely down to caffeine content. Drinking coffee might create an association in your brain where you expect it to make you go jittery and hyper. I'll leave that one to the experts.

I definitely feel sort of anxious if I get too much caffeine, plus I get heart palpitations, so I've vowed to cut back while still getting my full cup. I recently bought a small Chemex coffee maker and filters for it, plus a gooseneck kettle to boil water and pour over. I only use a little bit of coffee for a lot of water, and Chemex filters are extra thick so they pull out any sediment and acids. It's a very clean, light cup of coffee. It tastes much lighter than any other coffee I've had because of the thick filter. I'm thinking of getting some water-processed decaf and cutting back my caffeine even further. It's been a good solution for me, and very satisfying.

That size Chemex can make coffee for one person, no problem, no waste. You would probably need to make this before work, unless your office has one of those boiling water spouts like my office does, then you could make Chemex at work if you wanted. You could also make your own cold brew you bring to work and either drink cold or you can see if microwaving it would taste good.
posted by AppleTurnover at 11:19 AM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

It sounds like there might be more going on, but have you thought about experimenting with known quantities of caffeine? You could cut up No-Doz or whatever so that you have a bunch of 10mg doses of caffeine, by which you can measure where the jitter-line is for you. Alternatively, sports food companies like Gu and Clif make gels and stuff with defined caffeine amounts, though I don't know if I've seen any lower than 20mg (about the same as your 1/4 cup of coffee).
posted by rhizome at 11:20 AM on January 30, 2018 [4 favorites]

White tea? Varietals well, vary but on the whole it has less caff than green tea. Buy loose leaf and play with oz and steep time.
posted by fritillary at 11:20 AM on January 30, 2018

You could get a blended tea with mostly herbs and just a bit of black tea. No specific suggestions, but I've seen similar things in most tea shops I've been to.
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:21 AM on January 30, 2018

South American Mate is reputed to be a gentler release of caffeine throughout the day and is sometimes sought out by people who develop adverse reactions to coffee. I keep a bag around for occasional tired days when I need energy but don't want a harsher, jittery feeling.
posted by seasparrow at 11:23 AM on January 30, 2018 [6 favorites]

Liquid caffeine exists as a supplement. You can experiment with the number of drops you need and then add that to whatever else you're drinking-- juice, herbal tea, or whatever. It's more reliable than brewing a beverage and easier to know exactly the mg of caffeine you're taking in so you can more easily track what gives you the desired effect.
posted by blnkfrnk at 11:36 AM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Agree that delivery mechanisms strongly influence caffeine uptake and reactions -- and those reactions are annoyingly personal. I dislike soda, but the only form of caffeine that will help my migraines is Coca-Cola. I asked my neurologist about this; he shrugged and said he had no idea but that his migraines could only be quelled by Nescafe (which he doesn't like the taste of, either). Bodies: they are odd. The difference you feel between decaf coffee and black tea may be due to the theanine in the tea, or the acidity of a full cup of decaf coffee may upset your stomach a bit and trigger the other reactions you associate with ingesting a full cup of coffee. Different brands and brews of decaf can also vary in caffeine content, so you may be ingesting more than you think.

To portion out your intake, you might try Go Cubes. Each cube has 50mg, they're easily quartered or halved, and you can keep them in a desk drawer. They taste... okay? Not great. But they get the job done. (They also have l-theanine, which may be helpful since black tea works well for you.)

Seconding the suggestion of mate, if you do want a beverage specifically. Taste-wise, you may not enjoy it, since you don't like green tea, but its flavour profile is slightly different, and you can blend it with mint tea or add citrus peel. It's also rather nice with sugar and milk, or iced and mixed with fruit juice or seltzer. Mate brewed with bags usually has 30mg of caffeine per cup, and anecdotally people claim it's a calmer buzz than other forms of caffeine. (There is some research suggesting it may actually *help* with sleep but results seem mixed and research is scant.)
posted by halation at 11:38 AM on January 30, 2018 [5 favorites]

Rooibos tastes quite tea-like to me so maybe you could mix it with black tea 3:1 and brew a whole cup. It has no caffeine.
posted by Botanizer at 11:50 AM on January 30, 2018

Nthing the idea to get your caffeine some other way where the dose is more exact and drink non-caffeinated warm beverages instead. My husband had a lot of success tapering his caffeine intake with caffeine pills, at least until we had our baby and now he needs more coffee to stay awake!

Also, what herbal teas were you drinking when your migraines started after decreasing your caffeine? I drank rooibos for awhile because caffeine gives me migraines, and then discovered that rooibos gives me headaches too! Could the herbal tea have been causing the migraines rather than the lack of caffeine?
posted by bananacabana at 11:55 AM on January 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

I managed my caffeine sensitivity (no migraines, though) with a steady intake of green tea, but I see you’re not really fond of it. Just making sure: are you using boiling water on your green tea? I thought I hated green tea until I learned to brew it properly, with much cooler water. You don’t have to get too fancy or precise, just let the water cool down for a minute before adding the tea.
posted by third word on a random page at 11:58 AM on January 30, 2018

A lot of people have success counterbalancing their caffeine with L-Theanine in the 1:2 proportion. So if your coffee has 100 mg of caffeine (typical cup) then you take two 100 mg L-Theanine tablets.

Another thing to try is fiber, about 15 minutes before you drink your coffee. It slows down caffeine absorption so you get a "slow release" coffee.

For brands, I use Natural Factors' Suntheanine (a type of L-Theanine produced in Japan to high standards) and PGX fiber (more absorbent than other fibers by weight).

I would try those two before you give up coffee altogether.
posted by rada at 12:04 PM on January 30, 2018

Have you tried Excedrin or other OTC painkillers with caffeine for the migraines? I just checked and the caffeine dosage for Excedrin is more than a cup of coffee so be careful, but because the delivery system differs it might help? It might be worth experimenting with. Maybe a quarter pill when needed and drink water or other non-caffeinated beverages otherwise?
posted by cgg at 12:18 PM on January 30, 2018

I've used a largeish 7-day pill case, loose-leaf tea, and a tea ball, combined with a thermometer to be sure I'm getting the same temperature water -- and thus the same caffeine content -- with each cup.

That way, you can measure out exactly the quantity of tea you want. Caffeine content might vary between batches of tea, but it's pretty close, and you can gauge your own reaction to see if it's especially high or low.

Then, if you want more flavor than the tea alone gives (at the concentration you want), you can add an herbal tea to mix in.

Bonus: you can get some great loose-leaf tea which will be just, you know, nice to drink.
posted by amtho at 12:30 PM on January 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

Seconding third word: green tea is meant to be brewed at 160-180 Fahrenheit. It makes a big difference in the flavor (less bitterness and astringency) and effect on your stomach.

For some reason, Starbucks, and the vast majority of cafes and even tea stores, don't seem to know this.
posted by amtho at 12:31 PM on January 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

If you don't like green tea you are probably really not going to like Mate, but you can buy it in blends and flavors that are quite different and tasty.

I order from here; http://www.goyerbamate.com/
posted by bongo_x at 12:36 PM on January 30, 2018

How about coffee milk? It's coffee syrup plus milk. I like it because I like the taste of sweetened coffee, but coffee and espresso drinks upset my stomach and can give me the jitters, but coffee milk never has. This brand says it has 14 mg of caffeine per two tablespoons (the recommended serving), and you can mess around with what proportion of syrup to milk you want. It's more caffeine than decaf, but maybe it'll absorb more slowly given the higher proportion of milk.

I figure this is way too much sugar for it to be your choice for daily caffeine intake probably, but if you're really missing the taste of coffee and already drink coffee with cream and sugar, it's worth a shot.
posted by yasaman at 12:56 PM on January 30, 2018

I also developed caffeine sensitivity in my late 20s. You don’t like green tea (I wasn’t the biggest fan ever) but after a few years of decaf and drinking approx 8 gallons of black tea to get a buzz (and getting the concomitant stomach problems) I became a matcha convert and never looked back. I buy it from Adagio Tea online; it comes in “flavors” which tbh are more like scents. Every morning I make one tsp of matcha powder whisked into 3/4 cup hot water and add 3/4 cup chocolate almond milk. Mostly covers the taste, pretty low calorie, and I only need one cup for an exceedingly smooth, long lasting caffeine high. It’s the most gentle up-and-down I’ve had from caffeine and it’s quite high caffeine.

If you really just hate the flavor, it’s very easy to mix the powder into yogurt or smoothies and not notice it at all. You’ll probably get used to it if your aversion is not too intense.

If I need a boost later in the day I drink Red Bull. It’s effective!

I’m the same where despite caffeine content, my body just processes tea and decaf differently. It’s annoying but unfortunately I don’t know why.
posted by stoneandstar at 1:01 PM on January 30, 2018

If you want something completely different, Crystal Light has a caffeinated line of those individual water bottle packets. I think they've got, like, 40-50 mg of caffeine per serving, so it'd probably be pretty easy to dose out.
posted by floweringjudas at 1:07 PM on January 30, 2018

Not exactly the answer I think you're asking for, but what about getting treatment for the migraines without caffeine? So then you can just have non-caffeinated coffee/tea/other beverage?
posted by Tandem Affinity at 1:22 PM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Perhaps invest in demitasse cups so that a smaller cup of hot beverage feels more complete and satisfying to you?

Coming at this problem from the opposite angle, prescription-grade vitamin D supplementation reduced my caffeine sensitivity by leaps and bounds.
posted by Andrhia at 1:37 PM on January 30, 2018

Seconding trying to take the caffeine out of the beverage zone and try Excedrin. (I'm a migraineur and it's done wonders for me.)
posted by BlahLaLa at 1:42 PM on January 30, 2018

Response by poster: Wow, as always, the green delivers. This is helping me look at things from other perspectives. Some quick responses to your comments:
• All my tea is looseleaf.
• I will definitely try mate. Sounds intriguing.
• I know that I do indeed brew green tea too hot, because I don't have the patience to A) let it cool down after boiling in my whistling kettle, or B) use a pot and thermometer. I recently visited a friend who had a cute electric kettle with a built-in thermometer—I might just pick one of those up to help me in my quest.
• I don't *believe* that it's a psychological effect... but then again, I wouldn't. But seriously, sometimes my reaction does go so far as heart palpitations, which makes me lean towards an actual physiological response.
• I am allergic to aspirin and other NSAIDs, so Excedrin Migraine is off the table (though I see that their Tension Headache product omits the aspirin, containing only acetaminophen and caffeine (65 mg)—I will bear that in mind as an option).
• When I cut out the caffeine altogether, I was drinking a blend of decaf black tea and rooibos chai. I suspect the decaf black tea still has a little caffeine in it, but I never felt it, no matter how much I had in a sitting or throughout the day. I had not considered the possibility that the rooibos was causing the migraines; I'll keep an eye out for a correlation when I drink it in the future.
• I actually do like matcha a lot, especially since it works with milk (I do like a hot, milky anything). I even have a little bit at home; I'll try it tomorrow and see how I do with it.
• I am intrigued by the idea of dosing myself with portions of caffeine pills, liquid caffeine, etc. (or adding L-theanine to my normal regimen), but I want to try the mate/green tea/matcha options first, as I am romantically attached to idea of a naturally brewed, hot beverage in the morning, and slightly averse to the clinical feeling of dosing myself like a lab rat. I know, I know—I'm really dosing myself either way, but I'm an irrational human animal. If I can't quite strike a balance with the brewed options, I may try the clinical ones.
posted by SixteenTons at 1:53 PM on January 30, 2018

If you boil water in a kettle, pouring it back and forth between cups a few times cools it down for green tea, and more quickly than waiting for it. 5 cup-swaps seems to work well for me, when I'm in a place without my temperature-controlled kettle and feeling very impatient.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 2:08 PM on January 30, 2018

Keeping with the dark chocolate idea, if you get a really good bar, you can grate it and mix it with hot milk to get a super decadent and delicious hot chocolate that will also provide you caffeine.
posted by Night_owl at 2:17 PM on January 30, 2018

If you do try matcha I’ll just note that I’ve had different results with different brands, which I’m guessing is due to quality. If what you have on hand is more food grade you might be able to compensate by double dosing but I’m not actually sure!
posted by stoneandstar at 2:34 PM on January 30, 2018

- Chocolate has a bit of caffeine but it mostly has theobromine (we nearly named our chocolate cookbook Theobrominated but figured nobody would understand)
- In French (I'm told), caffeine from tea has a different name than caffeine from coffee. Probably because in addition to caffeine, it also has some of that L-theanine.

For the migraines: have you tried magnesium citrate? It fixes magnesium-deficient migraines.
posted by aniola at 3:17 PM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Delivery method matters—I stopped drinking coffee after I had my first panic attacks while drinking it and realized it was making me feel super jittery. Tea doesn't generally make me feel that way. I also get migraines and feel a bit foggy when I don't drink caffeine every day now, so I've had a standing order for a case of Water Joe from Beverages Direct every month for almost 10 years now. I just drink a bottle of that every morning, then keep filling the bottle up with water over the course of the day, so it works well for me for both the initial caffeine infusion and encouraging subsequent hydration.

I don't know what they buffer or encapsulate the caffeine with to make it tasteless, so I sometimes worry that I've been inadvertently running a long-term study on myself with a sample size of 1. But realistically I don't know that it's actually doing anything to me, and I continue to recommend it to people as a caffeine option you really don't have to think about whatsoever. I like that as a ritual, it doesn't require any more work than just grabbing a bottle of water every morning. Your mileage may vary!
posted by limeonaire at 3:21 PM on January 30, 2018

Anxiety symptoms are horrible for psychosomaticization, because it is possible for mental processes to cause trembling, jitters, heart racing, headaches, chest pain, nausea, etc. all by themselves. For me I just have to think about them enough.

But it's also not necessarily something you can control yourself at a conscious level. I remember learning that drug addicts who inject in an unfamiliar place are more likely to overdose, because their bodies automatically respond to the routine of getting ready to take the drug by ramping up the chemicals that metabolize that drug, and if the routine changes their bodies don't do that same chemical preparation. Similarly, even if the numerical quantities of caffeine are similar, you likely have a different set of habits and expectations wired into your brain (at a subconscious level) around coffee, and it may be the easiest thing to do is to change those habits and change what you drink rather than try to rewire your brain all at once.
posted by Lady Li at 3:41 PM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Your situation may be entirely different, but my migraines are tied to blood sugar levels. (I have PCOS.) When I realized this, I was able to alter my diet and cut down the incidence of migraines from 3-4 a week to maybe 1 a month. And in those rare cases, ingest some amount of caffeine as soon as I feel it coming on.

It sounds like you're well-informed on how caffeine is a vasoconstrictor and how it helps keep migraines to a minimum. And, that it may be why you've largely kept them at bay. One thing to try might be altering your diet to a more low-carb one which minimizes blood sugar spikes. Blood sugar crashes are migraine triggers.
posted by pdxhiker at 5:25 PM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Just like decaf coffee, decaf tea also has some caffeine in it. I found this out the hard way, even though I also couldn't feel the caffeine.

Nthing the idea of chocolate. I drink a little bit of caffeine daily (half caf or tea only) and on days when I know I won't be able to get it in liquid form, I keep some dark chocolate covered espresso beans on hand. Just a few can prevent the headaches.
posted by Preserver at 6:07 PM on January 30, 2018

Being allergic to aspirin and NSAIDs means salicylate sensitivity, which is relevant to your migraines and your tea and coffee issues. I also became allergic to NSAIDs/aspirin/ developed a hypersensitivity to salicylates. I’m jet lagged and on a tablet and on my way out the door and can’t say much or link to anything useful at the moment, but holy crap do I have a lot to say on this subject. I manage my caffeine medicinally as well. Memail me if you’re interested and I can send links or commiserate or whatever.
posted by you must supply a verb at 3:03 AM on January 31, 2018

Response by poster: Update: I tried matcha this morning, and so far so good! I feel much more balanced than with that 1/4-cup of coffee, and it was yummy. Mate is next on my list, after I procure some. I also memailed 'you must supply a verb,' as I really want to know what the hell is wrong with me. ("Wrong" being a slippery term, but you know what I mean.)

I can't really do a "best answer" yet as this is going to be a process, but EVERYONE has been extremely helpful. Many thanks.
posted by SixteenTons at 8:42 AM on January 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

Have you consulted a doctor? As woman in your late 30s, developing migraines with aura could have been triggered by non-diet-related causes.
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:01 PM on February 12, 2018