Research done on the health benefits of coming off caffeine, done in a stupor of de-caffeinated exhaustion, has led me to some interesting findings that I'd invite you to consider, as you sip your quad/short/soy/extra foam/latte. Doing this research was purely an effort to find any benefit remotely close to the benefit I feel when blissfully caffeinated. Just so we are clear, this research NEVER would have been entertained had I been able to have the substance my soul so tragically misses. Fibromyalgia, however, is a condition that has provided many, here at Ramey Nutrition, with unexplained pain and discomfort that seems to top charts on pain scales everywhere, and keeps me in a constant state of research for relief options.
Fibromyalgia, a relatively new discovery in the medical world, is a condition where patients have reported symptoms of chronic widespread pain, intolerance to pressure, debilitating fatigue, sleep disturbances, bowel and bladder abnormalities, numbness and tingling, depression, anxiety and stress-related disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder. A Ramey Nutrition patient recently reported, “…the pain is so intolerable, I don’t want to take a bath, because the water pressure hurts. I hate this!”
How does caffeine enter the equation, you ask? Fibromyalgia is believed to be medically linked to brain chemical imbalances that control mood, and is often accompanied by chronic fatigue. Obviously, you can see how a patient with fibromyalgia would migrate toward anything with a stimulant-like effect, and the stimulant most widely used, legal and available, is caffeine.
Without fibromyalgia, the normal mechanism of caffeine works by increasing the density of serotonin receptors, giving us a sense of euphoric energy. A 1993 study on mice published in "Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology" notes that density of certain serotonin receptors in the brain, including 5 HT1 and 5 HT2 serotonergic receptors, increase by 26 to 30 percent when mice take in an equivalent dose of 100 mg caffeine per 2.2 lbs. body weight a day.
Right about now you're probably midway through that quad/short/extra foam/soy latte thinking, "Well that sounds like a cure to me!" As it was mine, if this is your thought, please continue reading with caution...
When there is a serotonin deficiency, which is likely in fibromyalgia, the use of caffeine starts to require ever increasing amounts in order to produce the same effect. Patients often find themselves with depression if not adequately caffeinated, and as the need for the drug increases, the signs and symptoms of depression present themselves in greater intensity. This increased need tends to spiral downward into a cycle of over-stimulation of the nervous system, and exacerbation of chronic fatigue syndrome.
Either insomnia ensues, when caffeine's half-life lasts through what should be REM sleep, or unending fatigue sets in when the nervous system crashes without its beloved drug. As the nervous system, which is stimulated to feel more pain than normal, is over-stimulated by caffeine, pain tends to become exorbitantly unbearable.
“Caffeine is a loan shark for energy. We recommend not using a lot,” says Kent Holtorf, MD, founding medical director of the Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers, located across the country.
Getting on this roller coaster of increased pain, fatigue, and depression, just to get a short, false sense of euphoria, which quickly tends to turn its ugly head toward barely awake, might not be worth it.
Again, I write this from a catatonic state of sober melancholy, wishing I had a quad/short/soy/extra foam/latte in my hot little hands. This should assure you that this is not written from a "natural healing perspective," or that I am someone who believes caffeine to be anything but beautiful, and lifesaving. Those with fibromyalgia, however, might entertain the idea that getting off of it (God forbid), might alleviate pain, fatigue, and depression, so prevalent in this disorder.
-Scarlett Ramey, MS, RD, CD
President and CEO of Ramey Nutrition
