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A year without caffeine
- ryandvm 14y agoStrange he thinks Mountain Dew was highly caffeinated. Most "normal" soft drinks have half or less caffeine than a cup of coffee. http://www.straylight.org/dave/caffeine/beverage.html http://www.straylight.org/dave/caffeine/beverage.html
- chadzawistowski 14y agoIt seems to have more caffeine than most other sodas, at least.
- AdamTReineke 14y agoIt ranks among the highest among soda.
- recoiledsnake 14y agoYou have to factor in the serving sizes. Cup of coffee = 8oz Can of Soft Drink = 12oz Bottle = 16oz
- jere 14y agoI don't get what you're saying. The link does figure in serving sizes. Sure, a bottle is slightly more, but that's negligible. It would take nearly 36 oz (a liter) of mountain dew to equal a single cup of regular coffee. If you're drinking that much Dew, you have bigger problems than caffeine. Let's start with: your diet is now about 25% sugar by calories.
- npsimons 14y agoNot to mention all the other crap that's in soda; at least coffee (and tea) have health benefits.
- darrylb42 14y agoOr drink Canadian Mountain Dew which has no caffeine.
- georgemcbay 14y agoInteresting start, but not much to talk about when this is just a setup for a "To be continued" blog post. "To be continued" is, IMO, a pretty terrible thing to do on blog posts... Why not just hold off on publishing until it is, you know, continued?
- jere 14y agoI think it would be fine if the HN post also said Part 1. I don't have a huge problem with "to be continued", but in a post just called "A year without caffeine" you expect something about a year without caffeine.
- doctornemo 14y agoI was hoping to get it all done in one post, but the thing just kept growing. The mad extent of my habit wasn't something I recalled all at once. Part 2 is cooking up now. Maybe when it's done I'll paste 'em together.
- csomar 14y agoAnd how do I keep up with your blog? Should I subscribe to RSS, reload the page a few times in the next days or look if it made to HN? You see, the problem isn't about getting the information quickly. It's not stock information. It's about getting it complete. If I'm reading, I'm allocating time for a precise matter; and when I don't get the result, my time was probably lost.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- doctornemo 14y agoRSS, if you're interested in what I normally think about: education, technology, the future. Otherwise, you can use the contact form to send me your address. I'll ping you when part 2 goes live.
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- recoiledsnake 14y agoAnyone know what the pains in the gut were about?
- doctornemo 14y agoThree ulcers, for one. That's in part 2.
- gknoy 14y agoThat's what I suspected when I read your symptoms. Thank you for sharing your story, by the way -- I don't consume a lot of caffeinne, but I'd always wondered whether it would have bad effects. Your description of your doctor's facial expressions were very entertaining, as well. :)
- doctornemo 14y agoThank you!
- epoxyhockey 14y agoI was going to guess kidney stones from all of the sodium in the soda.
- Dirlewanger 14y agoCmon man, why the hell would you split something like this up???
- doctornemo 14y agoI started off writing the whole story as a single post, georgemcbay, but it ended up being far longer than I expected. Part 2 is coming up soon.
- JohnFromBuffalo 14y agoPatient to the eye doctor: "Whenever I drink coffee, I have this sharp, excruciating pain." "Try to remember to remove the spoon from the cup before drinking."
- darkarmani 14y agoIt sounds like you have adult ADD and self-medicate.
- mtrimpe 14y agoWhat exactly are you basing that on? Not snarky, I'm truly interested since I fit the OP's description fairly well; luckily including having quit in December 2012.
- darkarmani 14y agoI'm basing it solely on the amounts of caffeine he was taking. If he feels he needs that much caffeine to be productive it is a very large hint. If you are concerned I suggest the book "Delivered from distraction." http://www.amazon.com/Delivered-Distraction-Getting-Attention-Disorder/dp/0345442318/ http://www.amazon.com/Delivered-Distraction-Getting-Attentio...
- jamestc 14y agoI thought you might be basing it on the fact that he couldn't even finish his blog post.
- doctornemo 14y agoActually, I've never had a sign of ADD. I don't lose things, have decent impulse control, can pay attention for long periods of time, don't job-hop. Heck, I homestead and adore the films of Andrei Tarkovsky. :)
- X-Istence 14y agoI don't lose things, have good impulse control, can pay attention for long periods of time when something is interesting, and I don't job-hop ... but I sure as hell have ADD and take Aderall for it. It has solved so many problems for me. I can focus on menial tasks that I used to dislike with a passion, I can work for hours on end without getting distracted in the open plan office, I no longer have issues with not finishing projects (although one problem I do have is working on too many at once ...) and because of the aderall I no longer feel the obsessive need to speed while driving (which is actually a sign of ADD). Just because you don't have the ones that most people consider to be associated with ADD doesn't mean you don't have ADD. I used to use caffeine as well to be able to work and focus, when I stopped that my work suffered but I was sick and tired of the side effects from caffeine. Aderall gave me my sanity back, and work ethic. I am having a much easier time getting stuff done and not procrastinating.
- steveplace 14y agoAs with many other supplements, the devil's in the dosage.
- Mz 14y agoI kind of want to flippantly ask "Can someone shoot me an email when part 2 comes out?" but I suspect that would be viewed as snark and not accomplish my real goal. So I will ask if anyone has any suggestions for how I can follow up with this? (or on this? Not sure what the right phrasing is.) Thanks.
- gknoy 14y agoCheck his blog again in a week, or tomorrow. His last post was five days ago, so this post probably took at most five days to write. However, he obviously is interested in telling the story, and likely knows what he wants to say in part 2, so I'd be surprised if it took more than a day or two for him to write that part out. I'm very interested in part two as well.
- Mz 14y agoCrap. I thought of that already. I was hoping for something my brain damaged memory didn't have to work for. But thank you and have an upvote.
- doctornemo 14y agoI'm shooting for a weekend followup, Mz. If you like, use the contact form to send me an email address, and I'll ping you when it's done.
- Encosia 14y agoClick the "+Follow" button that floats at the bottom-right of the page. You can subscribe to his posts by email there.
- Mz 14y agoI am honestly not finding this button you speak of. :-/ (Brain damaged and blind -- but I knew that already.)
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- nnq 14y ago> “Either I hospitalize you tomorrow, or you go cold turkey on caffeine. Immediately.” You do realize how wrong was what your doc did, right? You never just cut-off and addict from his substance like this! Yeah, for caffeine you can do it without risk killing the poor addict, and probably with most other weak stimulants too, with depression and occasionally getting dizzy because of low blood pressure, but... I imagine your work productivity dropped to a record low and this will last for at least a week! And gradually reducing the dose would have prevented this and other inconveniences...
- mtrimpe 14y agoHis doctor got the patient to quit. One week of lost productivity is a low price to pay for successfully turning someone's life around.
- nnq 14y agoWhy on earth should quitting be the desired outcome here?! If he's more productive on coffee than off it, he should just reduce the quantity to something that doesn't kill him... Just take care of the medical problem that gave him the "gut pain", check your cardiovascular health, and considering these two, adjust the caffeine intake to highest maintainable dose... Wish you happy sipping! EDIT: Ok, I read about the ulcers now. Yep, listen to the doc then, at least until they heal, and then keep antiacid pills handy :)
- debacle 14y agoQuitting caffeine cold turkey can lead to agonizing migraines.
- lostlogin 14y agoI can't find the article now, but heavy coffee drinkers often have lower BP immediately after drinking coffee. And cutting coffee doesn't necessarily lower ones BP.
- frozenport 14y agoCaffeine made him the Übermensch. I should try it sometime.
- tibbon 14y agoI had to go a few years without caffeine as well. I had always drank a great deal of coffee. I joke that my grandfather would put it in my spill-proof cups as a toddler. At this point, I don't know if that's true or not, but even when I was 6 or so, I'd order coffee at breakfast. My household was definitely one that went through multiple pots on a daily basis. When I started playing guitar in 5th grade, I really looked up to my teacher and we bonded over drinking espresso drinks from a small bookstore/coffee shop down the street which is sadly no longer there. I got my first espresso machine for Christmas in 6th or 7th grade. Fast forward to me working in startups, and I was at betahouse in Cambridge making dozens of shots a day with our Silva espresso machine trying to learn to get them perfect- drinking all the failures to force myself to learn. I was probably drinking at least 12 caffeinated drinks per day. I had terrible headaches without caffeine. Having it didn't help anything much, but it was a life-long habit. Then, when I was working at gamerDNA in Cambridge, I had just left a meeting at Andala (where I had an espresso naturally) headed back to the office to provide moral support for a code-deploy night (I wasn't coding at this point much myself). And while crossing Mass Ave my heart suddenly started beating fast- really fast. I went to the office and kept sitting down to check my pulse. It seemed wrong. 180bpm? I must be counting in triple. I had a few others in the office try the same. It was weird. I didn't feel right. I went homeward, stopping at the neighbor's place next door. After an hour of this I had them take me to the hospital. My heart had been beating at 180-200bpm for over an hour it seemed. My counts weren't wrong. It appeared that I had triggered some heart arrhythmia. It stopped on its own a few hours later, but the long term diagnosis was to avoid all caffeine and stimulants. The doctors were utterly shocked when they found out how many drinks I had that day (around 14 so far). The next week was terrible, between beta-blockers they put me on and no caffeine. I missed caffeine. But having even a small amount would send me into panic attacks and arrhythmias (neither was fun). Finally, about a year or so ago I had a heart abalation which fixed my issue there completely. No medicine needed. And no ban on caffeine. Now I'm back to drinking coffee- albiet not as much as before (now 2-3 drinks/day is totally enough). I've also been able to get on adderall which is a magic wonder-drug for me. If I had this in college and high school, I would have been 10x more productive and a straight A student.
- taterbase 14y agoI enjoyed your story up until adderall. While I'm sure the added pep it provides now is great I think its potential for addiction and health problems make it a bigger burden than caffeine ever was. Synthetic productivity is not sustainable. Take care and watch out for your self. Speed is not to be taken lightly.
- gojomo 14y agoI expect the followup description of the 'cold-turkey' period to be harrowing. Quitting from even a much smaller daily intake can prompt a several-day withdrawal period of strong headaches (and other symptoms). In my experience, it's best to taper off for a week (or several) before eliminating caffeine entirely.
- alpb 14y agoThe second I opened the web page, I said "nice new design Mr.Stallman!" then I suddenly noticed it's not him.
- doctornemo 14y agoI get comparisons to rabbis more often. And to the Taliban. Makes TSA interested in me.
- alpb 14y agoNo man, you are like stallman for sure.
- lazyjones 14y agoI stopped drinking coffee about 3 months ago, until then I had undergone different phases with sometimes 2-3 cups/day (recent years) to 20-25 cups/day (last few months at university). I stopped because I simply couldn't stand the "routine" element anymore, I felt there was probably no real purpose, just a habit behind my coffee drinking. I did expect to sleep more, be more tired during the day or even become less choleric and more approachable, but none of these actually happened. Needless to say, I do not miss coffee at all. ;-)
- w1ntermute 14y agoI'm so glad I never got into coffee. I stopped drinking soda as well in high school. I'd hate to be dependent on a caffeine just to get through my daily life.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- jlarocco 14y agoI recently cut way back on caffeine. I realized I was waking up tired and drinking coffee through the day, but then I wouldn't go to bed till late because I had drank too much coffee. And that would ensure I wouldn't get enough sleep and would wake up tired the next morning to start chugging coffee all over again. I wasn't sure the caffeine was even helping any more because I had such a tolerance for it. And I just don't think I should need an energy boost every day. So I switched over to black tea, and I've been gradually switching over to caffeine free herb teas. I've found two benefits. First, I don't get caffeine headaches when I can't get coffee. And when I really do need some extra energy, I can drink a coffee and actually get an energy boost.
- dholowiski 14y agoWhat? That post says nothing about going without caffiene, that's a pretty bad headline. Anyway, sounds like he was self-medicating.
- kilroy123 14y agoI'm impressed people can drink that much coffee in a day; period. If I had that much coffee, I'd be a nervous wreck! Probably would have a flat out panic attack. Too much caffeine started giving me anxiety. So I cut back to only 1 large cup of in the morning, and that's it. Seems like a good balance. I never have coffee after 10am, and if I do, I can't sleep. On Sundays, I take a break and don't have any coffee at all. I sleep much better when I give my body a break.
- rimantas 14y agoThe most amusing thing about coffee for me are the articles which pop now and then in the media alternating between "Scientists discover that coffee is bad, because X" and "Scientist discover that coffee is good, because Y". Althought lately I only saw a positive news. For me coffee is just a hot drink, it does not affect energy levels at all. Neither do energy drinks, for some reason. This can be unfortunate, because I have no means to fight sleepnes if there is a need for that :(
- moeffju 14y agoI stopped taking caffeine about four years ago, and it was a very good decision. After a few days of withdrawal symptoms, I became more focused, more alert, would sleep better, would wake better, would be more awake even when getting 'too little' sleep, and be way more productive. I guess I should write a blog post.
- X-Istence 14y agoI've been without caffeine for almost two years now. I too was a complete addict, I would drink a two liter bottle of Mountain Dew upon waking up. Since I have been without caffeine I have actually found it easier to stay awake, stay up longer working on problems and I don't have the same downs where I am craving caffeine or the shakes. I'm calmer, more collected and my colleagues have to deal with less "abuse" from me. So far being with caffeine has been a huge win for me personally.
- kyt 14y agoI'm actually doing the opposite. Up until a year ago I didn't drink coffee or any other caffeinated beverages. In fact, I really didn't understand why people liked coffee as the taste never appealed to me. Nonetheless I started off trying mochas from Starbucks in the afternoon at work and noticed a huge boost in productivity. I felt energized and started to cruise through projects. Before I started drinking coffee I would get so tired that I would have to take naps during the day (and this is on 8-9 hours of sleep). Now it's a reason to get up in the morning. I've switched over to normal coffee and I'm still a pretty moderate drinker (5-6 cups a week). I don't drink soda either, so it's my only source of caffeine generally. I think it's fine in moderation and there are definitely some health benefits as well.
- X-Istence 14y agoHave you been to a doctor and checked to see if you have ADD? I have ADD and I used to use caffeine and it had the same sort of effects as the aderall that I got prescribed. I stopped taking caffeine because of all the side effects I noticed.
- kyt 14y agoI haven't, but I wouldn't be surprised if I did.
- wutbrodo 14y agoAfter a short while of regular caffeine consumption, tolerance kicks in. My understanding is that the cognitive and focus boosts largely disappear in the sense that your new baseline is lower and your morning coffee simply raises you up to your original baseline. This knowledge is what's kept me from becoming a regular coffee drinker; The awareness that I'll get a few weeks (?) of added productivity but will then simply start at a lower baseline makes me want to preserve my caffeine sensitivity for those days when I _really_ need a pick-me-up.
- durpleDrank 14y agoUsed to drink 2 redbulls and a ton of coffee everyday. Soy Lattes were my fav. Towards the end of my caffine run I was getting a shot of espresso put into my coffee. Anyway, about 5 months ago I got a huge pain in my abdomen, fast forward a few weeks I had a mild stroke says my doctor. I can't eat anything acidic now or else my body goes into weird fits. Seeing doctors etc. It sucks :P I miss coffee so much, but being off it so long I realized it's not as good of a pick me up as I used to think. Naps are superior to coffee.
- monksy 14y agoI've cut caffeine out when I stopped drinking soft drinks. Its great. After being used to the caffeine kick of soft drinks, you develop a tolerance for it and it becomes necessary to perform tasks [without feeling like crap]. Now the most caffeine I get is from very few and far between softdrinks, or through unsweetened tea [which is a small amount, and interacts with your body differently]. It feels a hell of a lot better to be off the stuff. [Also, I never liked coffee]
- doctornemo 14y agoHere's part 2: http://bryanalexander.org/2013/01/06/a-year-without-caffeine-part-2/ http://bryanalexander.org/2013/01/06/a-year-without-caffeine...