TL;DR Much has been said about caffeine’s effect on headaches. Many say that it could cause migraine headaches, while others believe it could cure than do harm. But according to research, caffeine could in fact ease the pain from migraine because of two things – it has vasoconstrictive properties resisting blood flow, and that it speeds up the effectivity of painkillers. But too much caffeine could cause migraine too – mainly because of caffeine withdrawal and medication rebound.
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Migraines can get so painful that people who suffer from them are often only able to do little, if nothing at all.
Migraine headaches are very common and are a major health problem globally. In the United States alone, there are about 38 million migraine patients - adults and children alike [1]. That's about 1 in 4 households with people prone to migraines.
“Many people do not realize how serious and debilitating migraine can be,” the Migraine Research Foundation writes. “In addition to attack-related disability, migraine interferes with a sufferer’s ability to function in everyday life, whether that is going to school or work, caring for family or enjoying social activities.”
But there’s a silver lining:
Caffeine, which is in so many delicious products, actually helps relieve symptoms and boosts the effectiveness of medications.
Sounds too good to be true? Not really!
It's all backed by science.
Moments before migraine strikes, blood vessels start to enlarge. What makes caffeine an effective pain reliever is its vasoconstrictive properties that restrict blood flow, narrowing the blood vessels and eventually helping ease the pain.
More importantly, caffeine speeds up relief because painkillers work a lot faster with it. [2] Caffeine boosts the efficacy of acetaminophen, aspirin, and ibuprofen by up to 40 percent, [3] given that there's 100 mg or greater of the stimulant consumed. [4]
Here's a fun fact: caffeine and pain relievers work so well together that some over-the-counter medicines contain caffeine. If you're curious, Cleveland Clinic listed down the various OTC's and the amounts of caffeine in each through this link: [6]
Caffeine also helps cure other types of headaches. A rare type called hypnic headaches are experienced by elderly people, waking them up with intense pain in the middle of the night.
Caffeine is especially helpful for treating hypnic headaches that doctors prescribe a cup of coffee when it strikes, or even before grandma and grandpa hit the hay!
While caffeine helps provide a much-needed reprieve from migraines, it can also make them worse with over-consumption. These phenomena tell you that you've gone overboard:
A similar phenomenon is called caffeine rebound, which happens as part of withdrawal. While only 2 percent of the population suffers from it [5], caffeine rebound can cause a severe headache... even worse than a typical migraine!
Each person reacts differently to caffeine, so it's important to know where to draw the line.
A good rule of thumb is to be aware of how caffeine affects us while keeping tabs of how much we take in.
Here are some tips to make the most of our caffeine intake and say adieu to migraines:
[1] http://www.migraineresearchfoundation.org/fact-sheet.html
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16618262
[3] http://www.headaches.org/2009/07/24/does-caffeine-trigger-or-treat-headaches/
[4] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD009281.pub3/full
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3777290/
[6] https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/drugs/9645-caffeine-and-headache
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Stories of coming back from a downfall after great success are inspiring for anyone—even for young people who haven’t made their mark on the world yet. History and mythology are filled with people who were at the height of success, crashed and came back again.
Sometimes, people need to lose everything material to realize that they didn’t need it, or that the health and safety of their families are worth more than all the success and gold in the world. Sometimes people come back even stronger and more successful than before they “fell.”
Careful about falling asleep at work or you could become an Internet meme like this poor fellow.
Unless you work outdoors or indoors in a job where you are physically active all day, it can be difficult for some people who have desk jobs to stay awake at work without caffeine.
Maybe the most important thing you can do to make sure you don’t nod off at work is to get a good night of sleep, at least 7 to 8 hours, at a regular time every night. Boredom can also cause you to nod off. Other than getting a good night’s sleep and having a fascinating job, there are things you can do to stay awake.