Has Caffeine Headache Been Proved?
Michalis 'BIG Mike' Kotzakolios


Defined Tag: Caffeine Headache.

Caffeine is commonly known as a stimulant. As such, it acts on the central nervous system, and make one more alert. Its vasoconstricting properties, implying that caffeine makes blood vessels constrict, have been used to justify caffeine as a migraine remedy.

However, lately, it has been questioned whether there might actually be something called caffeine headache.

Many caffeine consumers complain about headache. It is most often believed that caffeine withdrawal would be the cause. However, new studies show that large consumption of caffeine too might cause headaches.

As a stimulant and when combined with sugar, caffeine can ‘raise’ a person, only to have him ‘crash’ later. This also often happens when caffeine and sugar are consumed on an empty stomach, leading to wild swings in blood pressure levels. This drop in blood sugar combined with the initial high burst of stimulation by the caffeine might result in a caffeine headache.

To reduce this incidence, experts suggest keeping a consistency in the caffeine consumption pattern. Caffeine headache might result in the weekend, when people ‘miss’ their usual weekday coffee because they are sleeping in. Sticking to the daily dose of caffeine at around the same interval might help to counter this.

Experts also suggest that the amount of caffeine consumed be kept between 200 mg to 600 mg. Such a low dose might help keep the caffeine at a low level in the body, thus reducing the risk of such headache. Too much caffeine can also have a reverse effect on blood vessels- instead of constricting it, it makes them expand, resulting in another form of caffeine headache.

Caffeine headache might also be the result of dehydration caused by the diuretic property of caffeine on the body.

Caffeine abstinence and caffeine maintenance are two suggested techniques for controlling caffeine headaches. In the first case, all products containing caffeine should be eliminated from the diet. But since this is not an easy thing to do, many prefer to revert to the other option. Caffeine maintenance implies keeping the level of caffeine in the body steady over the day. It encourages regular consumption of caffeine-containing products, or the ingestion of low doses of caffeine tablets.

BIG Mike is a well known author, developer and Adsense expert as well as the owner of Niche Maniacs - a unique Adsense Marketing System designed to build long-term passive income streams from Adsense, Amazon, YPN, Chitika and other PPC services.