Are you having full-on caffeine withdrawal headaches?
Or is caffeine such a magical substance that it was masking underlying head pain from something likemigrainesall along?
Caffeine withdrawal headaches are most likely your issue here.
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These can happen when your brain becomes used to that regular hit of caffeine over time.
But lets back up a bit so you know exactly which processes to blame for your head pain.
Caffeine peps you upby affecting a chemical in your brain called adenosine.
All of this can happen with even one cup of coffee.
Yes, caffeine withdrawal is a legit phenomenon.
Symptoms include intense fatigue, irritability, mental fogginess, anddrumroll pleasea horrible headache.
(Dr. Natbony says people often describe these headaches as diffuse and throbbing.
Not the most pleasurable experience.)
Translation: The more coffee you were drinking, the worse your withdrawal might be.
Thats about the amount in four cups of coffee.)
Its unlikely that your post-coffee-cutting headaches are actually migraines you had all along.
Its an interesting theory, but its a very unlikely scenario, Dr. Green says.
Neither she nor Dr. Natbony believes they have encountered this situation among their thousands of patients.
The pathophysiology ofmigrainesiscomplexand not yet completely understood, Dr. Green explains.
It appears as though caffeine may do this bynarrowing dilated blood vesselsthat might contribute to migraine discomfort.
But doctors believe theres much more to migraines than fluctuations in blood vessel width.
But thats not the case for most people with moderate to severe migraines.
It is not likely for someone to have undiagnosed migraines that they didnt know about, Dr. Green says.
According to theMayo Clinic, migraines can begin at any age, but they often start during adolescence.
Itistotally possible for a person with migraines to also experience a caffeine withdrawal headache, though.
National Library of Medicine.
Thats why its so important tofigure out how caffeine affects youif you have migraines.
And, interestingly, daily caffeine intake can contribute tomedication overuse headaches, Dr. Natbony says.
Also called rebound headaches, these typically occur in people taking medication frequently for chronic head pain.
In the end, the relationship between caffeine and migraines is complicated.
