The no caffeine revelation

Almost a month ago, after having dropped coffee a year ago thanks to my problems with dizziness,  I thought I would give it a try again. I was dealing with sleep deprivation and thought how nice it would be to have a latte after so many months of abstinence.  I love a good cup of coffee, especially a well-drawn espresso. But coffee has not been kind to my digestion the last decade or so. There is the diuretic aspect, which seems to affect me more strongly as I age. I also experience occasional abdominal cramping and just general weirdness. Plus it really plays havoc with my energy levels- the depths are deeper, which make me cranky, and after enough crankiness it really made me (and Abbey) wonder if the moderate improvement in attention span and alertness was really worth it.

Adding to my stress about coffee drinking was my mother insisting I had inherited her "iffy" stomach. She has symptoms on a regular basis that sound a lot like Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Stressing out on something makes it even worse for her. And for a while, that was really starting to sound like me.

But, like the cub scout who has to poke the campfire with the stick and swish it around until someone's tent catches on fire, I had to keep trying to drink coffee. When I drank it regularly, I would have coffee-friendly days and coffee-unfriendly days. On the unfriendly days, I would still want my caffeine fix; since it was because my stomach was iffy that I couldn't have coffee that day, I would switch to soda, which I have relied upon to make my stomach feel better for quite a few years. Sometimes I could tolerate a cup or two of tea; but as often as not, I would end up with stomach discomfort, not as bad as with coffee, but uncomfortable enough that I regretted drinking it- and I am a bona fide tea lover.

So, back to the main story: I decided to indulge in the dark stuff. All went surprisingly well. No problems whatsoever. I felt just fine, and extra perky that day thanks to the stimulant effect. The next day came and, feeling emboldened, I thought I'd have another cup of coffee that morning.

I wish I hadn't.

I'll preface the following by saying I was not 100% surprised; coffee has caused this reaction in me before. But never with as much persistence. For thirty hours following that cup of coffee, I felt a weird spasm in my stomach, high and on the left. It would spasm for ten seconds. Two minutes would pass, and it would spasm again for ten seconds. This went on for over a day. The night of the first day, my sleep was interrupted several times thanks to the discomfort of the spasm. I wouldn't say it hurt- but it was quite uncomfortable.

Later the first day I thought I would have a soda, my old standby for stomach problems. It did not help at all- in fact, it only made it briefly worse. This was a conundrum. I had always been able to rely on some cola to get me through rough digestive times. But now it wasn't helping at all. I decided to stop drinking coffee, tea, or soda. I wasn't sure what was causing the spasm- I figured it was caffeine, but figured it could also be the acid in the coffee. If it was acidity, soda certainly wasn't going to help matters. So, if my confusion about was happening and how to stop it, I decided to drop all suspect drinks entirely.

It's been three weeks now, and I have to say, it's one of the best dietary decisions I've made. First and foremost, the "iffy" stomach is completely gone. My digestion feels the most normal it's felt in a decade. I now wonder if perhaps soda was creating the digestive problems that I was using soda to medicate, which would be pretty darn ironic.

The hardest part has been battling the brain fog. I have kicked coffee before a few times. One of the side effects of caffeine withdrawal is the dreaded brain fog, during which your brain seems to have been docked a few IQ points. Apparently the fog was so powerful that I had forgotten that I had even experienced brain fog before! Once that lifted, however, I realized I could feel as sharp as before without any caffeine, and that seems like the more desirable alternative.

So all I drink now is water- and it seems my digestive system is recovering from problems I had managed to ignore for years.  I highly recommend dropping all caffeine if you suspect you have anything resembling IBS- my experience makes me wonder if it might be the best thing you could do for it.