Has anyone quit coffee?

[Fazer]

Hmm... I had a realization just before, after starting to feel a bit jittery like usual, even though I've only had a cup of coffee in the morning today - and that was that I snus WAY too much. I've had almost exclusively strong/extra strong portions today without even thinking about it, and I use one almost each hour, without waiting one second between them. That's where the problem might be... I'll try cutting back my snus usage instead I think (and still remain on my low 1-2 cups of coffees a day consumption).

I start to spin-out and get a bit jittery, mixing strong snus and coffee. It happed to me a couple weeks ago, i went to sleep for a couple hours because i was feeling like shit... must have been around 4 hours until i was back to normal. I've only had about 5 skruf stark los today, mixed with snuff and redbush tea, i feel a lot better. i've had about 5 mugs of coffee
today.

[Mayhart]

Having my 3rd mug right now. *slurp*

[heders]

I start to spin-out and get a bit jittery, mixing strong snus and coffee. It happed to me a couple weeks ago, i went to sleep for a couple hours because i was feeling like shit... must have been around 4 hours until i was back to normal. I've only had about 5 skruf stark los today, mixed with snuff and redbush tea, i feel a lot better. i've had about 5 mugs of coffee
today.

5 prillas sounds perfect to me! I'm probably up at 10-15 prillas per day now, most of them being strong ones. Not good... I'm pretty sure that's why I have a strong reaction to coffee - it just puts me over the edge.

Time to reduce the nicotine though... For real. I can't walk around feeling overloaded all afternoon and night anymore.

[chibre]

I've been drinking black coffee since I was 14. No more than 1-2 a day, I have taken breaks for 1 week to see what happens and no withdrawal or anything! I guess I don't drink enough to become addicted. And no, I will never quit lol I've never even considered it. I always drink tons of water to re hydrate too.

[heders]

I've changed my mind YET again and will give this another try. What I've noticed when not having my morning cup of coffee is how calm I am. After I've had two cups of coffee and some snus, I can't even sit through a movie without pausing and starting to mess with other stuff.

It seems like coffee and snus is not the combination for me. I can imagine it being good if you're working and doing stuff, but when I sit in front of my computer as much as I do, the jitteriness of coffee is not really needed for me.

I had two cups of black tea yesterday, and two cups of green tea today. I'll switch the coffees for green tea. Who knows if I will dare to have one cup here and there... that's often what makes me start drinking it again. It's a shame because it just tastes soooo good! Oh well.

[heders]

I'm happy to announce that I have gone one week without coffee now (approximately)! I don't even crave it anymore. Just got so tired of it, and chanted these reasons to quit the shit:

1. According to the author, Stephen Cherniske, “Caffeine is a biological poison used by plants as a pesticide.”2. “Over 700 volatile substances in coffee have been identified, including more than 200 acids and an incredible array of alcohols, aromatic compounds, carbonyl compounds, esters, hydrocarbons, heterocyclic compounds, and terpenoids… Coffee often contains a raft of pesticide residues and other contaminants such as nitrosamines, solvents, and mycotoxins. These carry well-defined health risks, and some are carcinogenic.”
3. Caffeine raises blood pressure.
4. Caffeine increases homocysteine (a biochemical that damages artery walls).
5. Caffeine promotes arrythmias.
6. Caffeine constricts blood vessels leading to the heart.
7. Caffeine seems to give you energy but it is not real energy — only “chemical stimulation”. According to Cherniske, “The perceived ‘energy’ comes from the body’s struggle to adapt to increased blood levels of stress hormones.”
8. Children are the most vulnerable to caffeine because they don’t detoxify the drug as easily. “Caffeine stays in a child’s brain and bloodstream much longer than an adult’s and subsequent doses produce a cumulative increase in stress and addiction.”
9. Cutting out caffeine can reduce and even eliminate chronic pain. Pain and tension in our bodies are related to the level of stress hormones in our bodies, which caffeine increases.
10. Caffeine is a stimulant. “Using stimulants is like a whipping a horse. They work for a short time but prove disastrous when used repeatedly.” In other words, coffee may help you in the short term, but in the long term, it hurts you in myriad ways.
11. Caffeine powerfully affects stress hormones. “It takes three weeks or more after withdrawal from caffeine before stress hormones return to normal.” Cherniske recommends that you eliminate caffeine for a minimum of 60 days in order to see how you really feel without caffeine. (I can personally attest to this. I have so much more energy today — but it did take several weeks off caffeine for me to feel it.)
12. Caffeine damages the nervous system. “Human and animal data suggest that dopamine and benzodiazepine receptors are involved in hand tremor, and the condition is common in both habitual and casual coffee drinkers.”
13. Coffee, even decaf, taxes your liver. “Coffee contains a host of chemicals, not just caffeine, among them a group of extremely toxic compounds known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons… The liver also has to deal with all the aldehydes, alcohols, and sulfides found in coffee.”
14. Coffee and drugs don’t mix. (That’s because coffee is a drug!) Many prescription and over-the-counter drugs contain caffeine. Many drugs (including birth control pills and heartburn drugs like Tagamet) “interfere with the liver’s ability to detoxify the chemicals found in coffee. “Other pharmaceutical drugs have been shown to increase blood levels of caffeine by more than 600 percent.”
16. Caffeine impairs digestion. I could write a whole blog post on this one. It’s not just coffee but also decaf — the oils in decaf are damaging to the gut. (Yes, I’m quitting decaf as of today.)
17. Caffeine causes stress on the body. Stress is a factor in most diseases.
18. Caffeine lowers your stress threshold. In other words, coffee drinkers handle stress less effectively.
19. Caffeine elevates cortisol.
20. Caffeine taxes the adrenal glands, which in turn negatively affects your thyroid, sex hormones, and your metabolism.
21. Caffeine suppresses immunity. “In all, more than 150 hormones are produced by the adrenals or metabolized from adrenal hormones. One group, known as glucocorticoids (including cortisol), act as a brake on the immune system… Scientists have recently learned that excess glucocorticoid production (caused by stress and caffeine) can profoundly suppress immunity.”
22. Caffeine depletes GABA, the calming brain chemcial that makes you feel in control and centered, not overwhelmed. “Caffeine disrupts the normal metabolism of GABA. Here’s this wonderful brain biochemical that increases the ‘filter mechanism’ of the brain, helps you to step back and see clearly even under stress, and caffeine screws it up.”
23. “Caffeine has been found to shorten total sleep time… Research shows that people who consume more than 250 milligrams of caffeine per day tend to have poor sleep quality.”
24. “There is a popular notion that coffee before 3 pm can’t disturb your sleep. Caffeine at any time of the day can cause sleep problems, especially if you are under stress.”
25. Caffeine plays a role in hypoglycemia and blood sugar disorders. “As part of this (flight-or-flight stress) response, the liver rapidly raises blood sugar levels. This is felt as a ‘lift’ by the person who drank the coffee… but the body must then deal with the metabolic emergency of hyperglycemia (elevated blood sugar).
26. Coffee plays a role in malnutrition. Caffeine causes an increased loss of thiamin and other B vitamins, calcium, minerals, sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, and zinc. “…studies showed that a single cup of coffee can reduce iron absorption from a meal by as much as 75%.”
27. Caffeine causes depression and anxiety, and can lead to panic attacks. Cherniske says that many people turn to antidepressants due to the fatigue, diminished sleep, and various mental problems they experience from drinking coffee. At the same time, SSRIs like Prozac seriously interrupt sleep patterns, which makes you feel drowsy during the day — at which point people reach for more coffee. He said (and this is one of my key takeaways from the book) that you cannot get off of an antidepressant if you are still consuming caffeine. And remember, it takes a minimum of eight weeks to truly get off caffeine.
28. Coffee can lead to stroke. “One study illustrated that a dose of 250 milligrams (approximately 15 ounces of coffee) produced approximately a 30% decrease in whole-brain cerebral blood flow. This is not only unfortunate, but it’s dangerous, because at the same time, caffeine increases blood pressure in the brain, leading to an increase risk for stroke.”
29. Coffee makes you crazy! “If a person were injected with 500 milligrams of caffeine, within about an hour he or she would exhibit symptoms of severe mental illness, among them, hallucinations, paranoia, panic, mania, and depression. But the same amount of caffeine administered over the course of a day only produces the milder forms of insanity, for which we take tranquilizers and antidepressants.”
30. Caffeine can lead to allergies, food allergies, asthma and reduced immune response. There is evidence that caffeine interferes with the secretion and immune activity of secretory IgA, and stress is once again the principal factor. As the stress hormone cortisol rises, sIgA tends to fall. This is demonstrated even in mother’s milk.”

http://www.cheeseslave.com/30-reasons-to-quit-coffee/


I've been doing a lot of Rooibos tea lately and love it. Works great as a substitute. Today is the first day totally without caffeine, but I will have a cup of green tea here and there.

I don't feel that much of a difference without it really yet, but as it says above: “It takes three weeks or more after withdrawal from caffeine before stress hormones return to normal.”. What I do feel though is that I am calmer, get more tired at night, sleep a bit more and don't feel so messed up when I wake up. All positive stuff. Have to pick up the book "Caffeine Blues: Wake Up to the Hidden Dangers of America's #1 Drug", and if anyone wants to get good reasons to quit (or even for those don't want to quit) - read it.

[Fazer]

A few points in that list ring true with me mate, i did 3 days last week with only 4 mugs over the whole day. It was kinda nice really, i was doing the same as you, lots of Rooibos tea. It's all gone out the window this week, and im back to normal. Not sure if i will ever quit 100% but if i can get down to 3 mugs a day, i'd be happy with that!!