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I discovered that if I only consumed caffeine when I had a Migraine headache, that it was the most effective medicine I could take provided I didn't already hav

• allemagne 11y ago
  >I am convinced that Caffeine is a much more powerful stimulant than we coffee drinkers think it is. Absolutely. I really don't think I'm some sort of outlier, and when I'm not in a cycle of dependence on caffeine and have a cup of coffee I feel an intense high. I'd compare the euphoria to being very drunk. I definitely feel awake, alert, and very focused -- but I can also tell that I'm not using the exact same kind of judgement as I do sober.
• tylermac1 11y ago
  What was the medicine that ended up helping your migraines? I suffer from migraines semi-regularly and have at separate times taken Maxalt, Imitrex, or generic OTC migraine meds + caffeine.
  • Skunkleton 11y ago
    I think he meant caffeine + no caffeine tolerance.
    • maaku 11y ago
      "until about a year ago when I finally found a medicine that has successfully prevented Migraine (completely)"
  • thinkharder 11y ago
    No the op, but for me 50mg nortriptyline daily is the no-migraine magic. Been thru most of the other available meds and nothing worked, except zomig, which you take after onset and for me, relived the pain, but none of the other symptoms. Nortriptyline is a really old tricyic antidepressant/nerve pain med, with pretty low risk of interaction/bad reaction. Without it I have clusters of 2-6 migraines over 4-5 days every 3-6 weeks. If you don't get them regularly, you may not want to have to take something every day, but if you get them with any frequency, it's a million times worth it. I can miss up to 2 sequential doses without problem but if I miss 3 or 4 I will get a migraine every time. Best of luck.
  • jawilson2 11y ago
    Excedrin worked for me before I quit coffee. Also, since starting a low-carb keto diet two years ago, I haven't had a single migraine (I used to get 2-3 per month, both painful ones and visual auras). When I was a pediatric neurology prof a few years ago, a keto diet was standard of care for the kids, and the department was starting research into keto for chronic migraines. Give it a try!
    • dv35z 11y ago
      For those unaware: Excedrin's principal ingredients are acetaminophen (Tylenol) + aspirin + caffeine. Each pill contains about 65 mg of caffeine (roughly equivalent to a shot of espresso).
    • pixelperfect 11y ago
      I had the same result after switching to a keto diet 10 months ago. Do you know if there are any research papers on this? I was really surprised how effective the change in diet was because I did it on a whim without receiving medical advice.
      • reitanqild 11y ago
        Not exactly research paper, and not migraine but it was mentioned in a ted(x?) talk linked from HN a week ago or so IIRC. The talk was about keto and cancer but touched into keto against epilepsy as well. I think the Charlie Foundation or something was mentioned as well. Maybe some of that research can hold some pointers?
  • blacksmith_tb 11y ago
    I have had some luck reducing the frequency of my migraines with high-dose vitamin B2[1], around 400mg a day. Caffeine (I only drink tea) is helpful for recovery from my migraines. 1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15257686 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15257686
    • lcfcjs 11y ago
      Thanks for sharing, I drink a ton of tea, black tea has about 30 to 60mg of caffeine in it. So I find that caffeine doesn't do much for me, but the Vitamin B2 is interesting, i'll try it!
  • mdip 11y ago
    I've had Migraine for the last 20 years of my life, on and off, about monthly in the summer/winter and 4-8/month in the spring and fall. The frequency of the problem actually caused me to write a Visual Studio plug-in so I could use my monitor in low-contrast in a dark bedroom. I didn't share the medication in the original post because there are a lot of caveats, but I take Depakote at 250mg twice daily and it works completely without side-effects (same dosage for 1.5 years and not a single instance of Migraine). I happened upon this cure by accident, though, due to my body's intolerance for a myriad of common medicines used for Migraine treatment (and nothing OTC worked except Caffeine) I cannot take Triptans (Maxalt/Imitrex). They work, but with huge mood side-effects. I was prescribed an anti-depressant (name escapes me) that showed promise in Migraine prevention. I got a Migraine headache while I was taking the anti-depressant and took a Maxalt (OKed by the doctor) and was hospitalized with Serotonin Syndrom. I cannot take anti-depressants, I learned later, due to my genetics[1]. I've seen many specialists but it wasn't until this hospital visit (on a holiday) followed by a misdiagnosis, that I was prescribed a rather high dose of Depakote (1000mg/day). It was prescribed in August and when I went through September without Migraine (this has never happened according to my log), I brought it to the attention of my headache specialist. He reduced the dosage at my request (Depakote is prescribed for BiPolar--an illness I do not have--and at the original dose, I felt emotionally flat[2]). At 500mg/day (2 doses), I don't have a single side-effect (other than headache relief, which is not why it is usually prescribed) and have been on that dose for 1.5 years without a single headache. My headache specialist said that some of his other patients got relief from this medicine but that it's hit/miss. My experience is that this drug is basically everything you'd ever want in a treatment -- side-effect free, and works 100% of the time for me. [1] Genesight test indicates that the medicine will remain in my system far longer than it should. I strongly recommend paying for this since it would have saved me a trip to the hospital. All of the SSRI medicines are in the high risk category for me. Glad I've never experienced depression! [2] Nothing like the movies where a guy walks around with no expression on their face staring blankly. The best way I can describe it is that when something would happen and my wife would react, I'd feel like "Data from Star Trek" not understanding why she was reacting so strongly/emotionally. At this dose, I have the same level of intensity I'm used to.
• aidenn0 11y ago
  I had some time off between jobs once, and quit caffeine cold-turkey. I slept for 14 hours a day for the first 3 nights. I felt normal on about day 6. Now if I have a cup of coffee, I am wide awake until about 3 hours after I usually fall asleep. Interestingly enough, this led me to discover that A&W cream soda is caffeinated; with my previous caffeine tolerance I would not have been so jittery after drinking one, and surely enough on the back of the can was a "contains caffeine" label.
• VLM 11y ago
  I've been fooling around with caffeine medicinally as a decongestant when I have a cold. Psuedoephedrine being strangely hard to acquire in these meth days. I've had excellent results. I believe my tolerance from tea drinking lets my brain sleep but the stimulant effects none the less let my sinuses clear. Aside from jittery feelings, I am actually physically jittery if I drink too much caffeine so some hobbies involving couple square mm surface mount components have to be scheduled with tea or energy drink consumption. Two cups of nice black tea and I'm not hand soldering 0402 components that day, although its easy when I'm "sober".
• jawilson2 11y ago
  I inadvertently quit coffee a while ago after a bad flu, and not drinking it for a week. What it helped me discover is that I was not getting ANYWHERE near enough sleep. I thought I was functioning fine on 5 hours, but when I didn't have coffee, I was hitting a wall after lunch. When I started getting 7-8 hours, I felt great without coffee, and I started making progress in the gym and losing more weight. Caffeine is supposed to help with those things, but it was actually masking bigger issues for me.
• InclinedPlane 11y ago
  The funny thing is that if you asked people how much caffeine is in a cup of coffee vs a can of redbull I'd bet a lot of people would say the redbull. But a single cup of coffee actually has, on average, maybe twice as much caffeine. People don't realize how much caffeine coffee has, it's a ridiculous amount. Pretty much the only beverages you can get at starbucks that has significantly less caffeine than an 8oz redbull are the teas, hot chocolate, smoothies, and decaf.
  • Xixi 11y ago
    I think people underestimate even more the amount of caffeine in green tea. Some kind of green teas, especially the like of Kabusecha/Gyokuro, have way more caffeine than coffee. Up to three times as much in a cup of tea than in an expresso in the case of Gyokuro...
  • CptJamesCook 11y ago
    In addition to 80 mgs of caffeine, a redbull has 1000 mgs of a stimulant called taurine.
    • InclinedPlane 11y ago
      Taurine is not a stimulant. Unless you have some research to prove otherwise?
      • CptJamesCook 11y ago
        It is a stimulant biologically. Stimulants are labelled based on effects, not chemical structure. Based on increases in neurotransmitter activity, heart rate, and dozens of other measures, taurine is a stimulant.
• ild 11y ago
  If I stop drinking coffee for 2 days, the first cup I'll drink will end up in diarrhea.
• Odin78 11y ago
  How many cups of coffee did you drink per day? I limit myself to one cup a day and I feel like it has very little impact on my alertness and energy levels. Do you think just one cup a day already makes your body build a tolerance?
  • adrusi 11y ago
    Yes, your body will build a tolerance to any amount of anything you put into it, if you're doing so frequently. It's easier to form a tolerance to small quantities than large quantities. The best way to avoid forming a tolerance is to use large, infrequent doses. In other words, drink a few energy drinks once a week for an all-nighter instead of cup of coffee every morning. Heavy, infrequent use also makes it easier to reflect on how your drug usage is impacting your life. The same logic applies to most things, although with some other drugs there are additional factors that come into play and complicate matters.
    • eru 11y ago
      > The best way to avoid forming a tolerance is to use large, infrequent doses. In other words, drink a few energy drinks once a week for an all-nighter instead of cup of coffee every morning. Not that you should do an all-nighter in the first place.
• hellbanner 11y ago
  Try massaging yourself with heated sesame oil when you have a migraine. It's worked for me 4 times now.
  • zues 11y ago
    I'm not sure if I should lol or thank you.
    • eru 11y ago
      Why? What's so weird about hellbanner's comment?
    • hellbanner 11y ago
      Both, if it works. I don't know the science behind it I just know that it's worked for me.
• mathattack 11y ago
  I discovered that if I only consumed caffeine when I had a Migraine headache, that it was the most effective medicine I could take provided I didn't already have a tolerance built up so I gave up caffeine in my 20s. I have heard the same. Very potent. I've also detoxed from Caffiene in the past to reset, and been amazed at how little I can get by with.
• klodolph 11y ago
  Interesting that you mention migraines. I get occasional (very rare) migraines, and my mother and brother also get them, although they have it worse than I do. My mother used to take caffeine to make a migraine go away, but she believed that the continued use of caffeine (even only to mitigate migraines) made the migraines worse in the long run. It had something to do with the effect of caffeine on blood vessel size, but I don't remember the details. She has given up caffeine almost entirely and switched to large daily doses of vitamin K on the advice of her physician. I've tried to figure out if she was right but all the literature on the subject seems to say the same thing: "There's a lot we don't understand about how caffeine affects the brain, and there's a lot we don't understand about migraines." For what it's worth, I mostly gave up caffeine fifteen years ago. My friends would have caffeinated drinks but at five o'clock when the party is dying down, I'd be the only one left with any energy. Anecdotally, it felt like caffeine didn't give you energy, but it let you borrow energy. (Later in life I discovered caffeine could also trigger hypomania.) Now I just use caffeine to medicate my lack of interest in my current job.
  • mdip 11y ago
    the continued use of caffeine (even only to mitigate migraines) I agree with that statement. It would reduce them by about 80% but during the fall/spring when I would get many in a row, they'd be more intense and caffeine would work less effectively. Unfortunately, with pain, there are a lot of variables at play, here, so I'm not sure if it was tolerance and worse headaches or if it was perception that they were worse as a result of fatigue from the "OMG, another one?!" For me, it wasn't such a dramatic difference that I could convince myself that the caffeine was not working any longer. It was never "nearly gone" vs "barely helps" for me, but a feeling like they were getting, maybe, 10% worse each time. Duration was also, unfortunately, pretty consistent around 2-3 days (with day 3 being nearly symptom free).