Kick Your Caffeine Habit

I had a caffeine habit like you wouldn't believe in the early 90's, an addiction to coffee and soft drinks that kept me wired like a lit-up Christmas tree on the White House front lawn 365 days a year.

I mean, seriously, when I was still teaching in New Orleans, I'd drink as many as six cups a day of powerful black coffee with chicory and plenty of sugar. And then I'd wonder why I was jittery late in the afternoon.

Talk about dumb. Duh.

Well, I chilled it with coffee and other caffeine-containing drinks and foods when I started my grand natural health journey in 1993 and changed so many of my bad habits, but I often hear from people who want to know why caffeine is a bad thing.

My usual answer has been, "Well, if caffeine's not a bad substance, how come you get such awful headaches when you stop drinking the stuff?"

A true answer but rather lame. Now, thanks to my friend and correspondent, Doug Renz, I recently learned about a book called Caffeine Blues which has serious answers.

According to the author, Stephen Cherniske, a nutritional biochemist with more than 25 years of academic research and clinical experience and author of the bestseller The DHEA Breakthrough, Caffeine Blues is the culmination of more than a decade of research into the effects, side effects and "politics" of this amazing drug.

Cherniske goes on to write:

It is likely that there are millions of people who are adversely affected by the caffeine in coffee, tea, soft drinks, common medications and hidden in a rapidly growing list of foods and beverages. FDA does not presently require the amount of caffeine to be declared on a food or beverage label. In fact, manufacturers can use non-coffee sources of caffeine (such as guarana, kola nut or bissy nut) and completely avoid disclosure that the product contains caffeine!

Here's a challenge for you...

• Take a Friday off and stay home and kick your caffeine habit.
• Go cold turkey and stop drinking all coffee and soft drinks with caffeine in them.

In three days you'll have that caffeine monkey off your back for good.

If you are a real coffee freak like I was and carrying a serious caffeine addiction, be prepared for some mean withdrawal symptoms like headache, chills, sweating, stomach upset, and so on. That's why I recommend taking Friday off.

If you live with a spouse and kids, it's a good idea to have them visit the grandparents for the weekend so you can go through withdrawal by yourself. If your withdrawal experience is anything like mine was, you'll not only feel like crap for a few days, but you'll also be short-tempered, crabby, and downright mean. I kid you not when I say I was ready to spit nails during that weekend when I kicked my caffeine habit.

Happily, the worst of the symptoms pass in most instances within 48 hours and then, hurrah, you're free for the rest of your life from the caffeine habit.

I know it sounds hard, but, honestly, getting off caffeine is one of the best single things you can do for your health.

You're tough. You can do it if you put your mind to it.

Chet Day
Editor, The Health Circus
http://chetday.com

P.S. Click here for another good article on caffeine and its negative effects on the human body.