I’ve been on a little journey this year regarding coffee. I wanted to try to cut down on it for a few health reasons:
- Hormonal imbalance
- Inflammation at times in my knuckles
- A clogging feeling in my ears
- Migraines from having it too often and then skipping it for a few days
While I couldn’t fully point to coffee as the culprit, I was noticing correlations, so I decided to do my own experiment. Starting in January, I decided to cut out coffee as much as I could. This decision was made following a migraine that lasted maybe 3 days on and off – after not having coffee for a day or 2 prior to that.
I had also been reading a lot about hormonal health and found that coffee is not the best thing for women. We are on a (for the most part) weekly hormonal change – you 28(ish) day cycle brings you from menstrual phase to follicular phase to ovulatory phase to luteal phase. For about two years now, I have been reading information regarding hormones by Alisa Vitti (her book: Woman Code; her site: Floliving.com; her app: MyFlo). She provides a lot of guidance around hormones and your period from an all-natural approach. And one of the topics she covers is that of caffeine.
Vitti mentions that there is an enzyme needed to break down caffeine called CYP1A2 – and only 10% of people produce a lot of this enzyme, which enables them to process caffeine efficiently. Vitti also explains how caffeine affects hormones and that it contributes to benign breast disease, depletes your body of essential nutrients and can also impact fertility. I will leave links to these articles at the bottom of this post.
I know that there are often articles that come out stating “caffeine – not as bad we thought!” or the like. Studies have been done to show that coffee is healthy – it has antioxidants, and vitamins, etc. Another article came out within the past year saying that coffee is not as dehydrating as we once believed.
I’m not a scientist. I don’t do these studies. However, the fact is that coffee does affect everyone differently. One person can drink a whole pot in a day, while another can get jitters from just a cup. With all this information, and especially how I had been feeling in my body, I decided to do my best (and track it!) to lay off the coffee.
It’s not easy by any means. Especially working 50 hours a week, with kids. But I do my best to limit it to 2-3 times per week and spread out throughout the week. I also try to save it for days that I’m home. I look at it more as a treat than anything else now. And I must say, as far as the reasons I mentioned at the start of this post, I’m feeling much better.
However, there have been a few times that I stayed up too late or work was just too crazy, and I overindulged. And each time after that I cut back, I felt the migraines come, and the clogging in my ears might show up for a bit. During those times, here is what helped me (incase you’re dealing with something similar):
- Lemon water in the mornings
- Probiotics
- Jumping on the trampoline
- Yoga/Meditation
- Supplementing with a green drink powder (I use Amazing Grass) to replenish my body
I found that there was more of a causation than a correlation with me issues and coffee. So, I will be continuing with this experimentation indefinitely. I encourage you to try as well. Maybe you have coffee so often without a break that you don’t realize it’s not helping your body thrive. If you do try it, I’d love to hear how you feel after!
Alisa Vitti articles mentioned here:
https://www.floliving.com/caffeine-intolerance/
https://www.floliving.com/3-reasons-why-women-cant-drink-coffee/
Raising LeBar 