TCM -NASA research caffeine and drugs on spiders

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

 

I am one of those unfortunates who is highly sensitive to caffeine, and it

does matter what the source it! As a person living with fibromyalgia, my

experience is that coffee caffeine increases muscle tension, stiffness and pain,

as well as coldness in my extremities.It greatly aggravates my TMJ symptoms and

causes pain in my teeth, not to mention making me overly hot all evening, even

if I only have 1/2 cup in the early morning. It is also likely to cause me to

have diarrhea and shortness of breath with dry coughing in late afternoon and

evening hours. This is too bad, because I love the taste of coffee, but my body

does not tolerate it well at all like it once did. Neither does my spirit - it

makes me terribly irritable, impatient, intolerant of others, and generally

unpleasant to be around. And I definitely know how that spider feels - I will

rush around manically, starting several projects at once, running from one to

another and really getting nothing done,

except exhausting myself early in the day feeling frustrated and unsatisfied.

Occasionally I can sneak in a cup of coffee without ill effect, but it is

increasingly rare and so I hardly want to make the attempt anymore. Decaf isn't

decaffeinated enough to spare me the symptoms of regular coffee.

 

I experience all of this quite clearly as binding up my liver qi and creating

this dynamic tension between explosive activity and the desire to reign it in

and make it useful. Literally, I feel this tension physically in my muscles and

viscera. I think the evening heat symptoms derive from the hot nature of

caffeine overlaid on my perimenopausally-developing yin deficiency. My mind

will race, and keep my up all night, thinking, thinking...

 

Black tea caffeine has similar effects, but to a lesser extent. But caffeine

in cola drinks does not do this at all, and neither does the caffeine in

chocolates. ;-D However, I feel most harmonious and well when I avoid caffeine

in all forms, and most of the time, this is what I do now.

 

 

 

 

Get your email and more, right on the new .com