Coffee is a favorite drink of many people, and it is especially popular for breakfast. Due to the content of a large amount of caffeine, the drink has a tonic effect on the human body, stimulates the circulatory system and improves brain function. There are often situations when a person resorts to coffee for a headache, but this drink does not always help get rid of it. Its effect on the human body depends on the characteristics of the body, age, health status and many other factors. The effect of coffee on migraines differs significantly from its effect on headaches caused by other causes.
Is it okay to drink coffee when you have a headache?
When a headache occurs, there are not always medications at hand that will quickly get rid of it. A person often begins to look for ways to quickly restore performance using what is at hand. It is a fairly common belief that coffee will definitely help with headaches, which is what people use without taking into account the causes of the disease.
Before you go to brew a drink, you should try other ways to relieve pain:
- Go out into the fresh air or ventilate the room;
- Take a deep breath and exhale, repeating several times;
- Close your eyes and take your mind off everything.
If you have a choice between drinking coffee and tea for a headache, you should choose the latter drink. The reason for this choice is the fact that tea, like coffee, contains substances that stimulate the nervous system, but its effect on the body is milder and more gradual. After drinking a cup of tea, blood circulation improves, more oxygen reaches the brain, due to which vascular spasm goes away and the headache subsides. Green tea has advantages over black tea, since the positive effect after drinking it is achieved faster.
Ways to make coffee to relieve headaches
Some of them are considered more effective. The simplest and most popular is coffee with analgin. That is, if you have a headache, you need to take an analgin tablet, wash it down with water, and then drink a cup of coffee. The effect is almost instantaneous.
The second most popular recipe is to brew coffee and add milk or cream to it. The rate of relief of migraine symptoms with this method is lower, but the effect lasts longer.
Another recognized cooking method is to add a little honey when cooking. It will help prevent migraines and improve your well-being and health. You can add lemon for taste and use it to improve overall tone and immunity.
The way you prepare coffee is important for treating migraines.
Coffee in combination with ginger is also very good for migraines. Ginger is added during cooking. It can also be used to prevent colds.
The next option is not the most common, but it also works. This is making a coffee drink with mint and lavender. This method is not popular because its taste is quite specific and not everyone likes it. When using this method, you need to brew coffee as usual and add mint leaves to the finished coffee, having first crushed them.
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You can add cayenne pepper to your coffee to add flavor and speed up the pain relief process. You need to be very careful with this method, especially for people suffering from gastrointestinal problems.
You also need to remember about the dosage, and also that all coffee drinks can be drunk only after meals.
The effect of drinking coffee on migraines
A migraine attack is a sharp and unbearable pain in one part of the head, sometimes it happens on both sides at the same time. The disease is not caused by any injuries or pressure surges; it appears due to vascular spasms. This is a neurological disease that requires periodic medical supervision.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to relieve the pain of a migraine when it is not at the very beginning; all that remains is to wait for it to end on its own. At the first onset of symptoms, it is quite possible to prevent severe headaches by doing the following:
- Immediately lie down in a dark room, preferably with fresh air entering the room;
- Move away from any sharp sounds and noise, be in complete silence;
- Relax completely, self-massage your temples, try to fall asleep.
These methods will prevent pain or significantly reduce its duration, but it does not always come at the moment when it is possible to perform these actions.
Coffee is consumed quite often for migraines; some doctors even recommend drinking a small amount of this drink when attacks occur. Indeed, thanks to its high caffeine content, it can prevent the development of a migraine or ease the course of an attack so that you can continue working calmly. Migraines and coffee are quite compatible, but it will not bring any effect if a person regularly drinks large amounts of the drink.
Basic rules of diet for migraines:
- You should adhere to the rules of three to four meals a day. Skipping meals or prolonged periods of hunger can trigger an attack.
- It is important to avoid food excesses and not get carried away with fatty, salty, sweet and pickled foods.
- It is not recommended to experiment with various exotic foods and diets. An unusual diet, a sharp change in nutritional culture are a provoking factor for migraines.
- Fasting is contraindicated.
- Tolerance to various foods during migraine varies individually. Careful personal observations are required to accurately select a diet.
Coffee for hypotension
Hypotension is called low blood pressure in humans. Young people often encounter this. When pressure drops sharply, a person is forced to look for quick ways to return it to normal, because the sensations in this state are not the most pleasant:
- Severe dizziness and headache;
- Nausea;
- Mild lack of coordination of movements;
- The inability to perform not only physical, but also mental activities.
There are not always medications on hand that can bring blood pressure back to normal. There are many folk ways to stabilize your condition, among which coffee comes first. Its positive effect is associated with the high content of caffeine, which dilates blood vessels. Increased blood circulation increases blood pressure, due to which headaches and other symptoms of low blood pressure go away. In addition, coffee lifts your mood and gives you vigor, which is useful when restoring strength after a faint state.
If you are predisposed to frequent decreases in blood pressure, you should be attentive to the state of the body and its signals. At the first symptoms of hypotension, you need to take a comfortable position, relax and drink a cup of strong coffee slowly, in small sips. People who regularly use this method note that the feeling of weakness goes away almost instantly. As you drink the drink, your normal state returns, your head stops spinning, your hands become warm.
It should be noted that if a person has normal blood pressure, exposure to caffeine will not increase it. Vasodilation occurs, blood circulation improves, but the pressure remains normal.
Cereal or instant
Caffeine is found in the outer shell of the coffee bean. During the production of natural coffee, it remains untouched and therefore the amount of caffeine that it contains is enough to treat migraine headaches. A drink that does not contain caffeine is completely useless to drink; it will not help in any way. At the same time, the natural, freshly brewed drink has a wonderful taste and aroma.
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Soluble either contains no caffeine at all or contains a very small proportion of it, because during its production the caffeine-containing layer is peeled off and removed. It makes no sense to use it as a means to reduce headaches, but you can drink it with high blood pressure and hypertension, it will not harm. Of course, in reasonable doses.
In what cases does the influence of coffee worsen a headache?
Drinking coffee for headaches is only possible in cases where a person is absolutely sure of the cause of the illness. If during an attack of migraine and hypotension the effect of caffeine has a positive effect on the body and helps cope with pain, then in some other diseases drinking a cup of coffee can lead to serious consequences.
- Drinking coffee is strictly contraindicated for people prone to hypertension, that is, increased blood pressure. Even if you feel good at the moment, drinking a cup of this drink can lead to unbearable and sharp pain caused by a sharp increase in blood pressure in hypertensive patients. In this case, caffeine consumption can even lead to the need for hospitalization.
- When very tired, a person often drinks a cup of coffee to finish the work he started. When the effect of the drink ends, the exhausted body, which remained alert under the influence of the stimulant, gives up. Fatigue sets in and a severe headache appears.
Before trying to help yourself get rid of a headache with coffee, you should find out the cause of its occurrence and consult a doctor to choose the best option for quickly getting rid of discomfort.
When can it help?
You should not expect that coffee will relieve headaches associated with traumatic brain injury, atherosclerosis and other cerebral vascular diseases, cervical osteochondrosis or elevated body temperature. Theoretically, coffee helps with headaches, which are known as migraines. Migraine attacks develop for many reasons:
- Under the influence of trigger factors (consumption of certain foods, weather conditions).
- During the period of hormonal changes (before menstruation and menopause, during pregnancy).
- Due to disruption of normal physiological processes (hunger, physical and mental fatigue, stress).
People with a genetic predisposition often suffer from migraines. They have a lower threshold of sensitivity to irritating factors. The mechanisms of development of painful sensations are associated with neurovascular disorders. Patients who experience regular migraine attacks have decreased levels of serotonin.
A decrease in the concentration of this neurotransmitter is accompanied by an increase in the activity of the pain system and an increase in pain sensitivity. In this case, mild irritation can cause extremely painful sensations. Coffee will help increase serotonin levels, as it stimulates the production of the neurotransmitter.
At the initial stage of the development of a migraine attack, the blood vessels in the brain sharply narrow, which leads to a deterioration in the blood supply to the tissues. In the second stage of the attack, the vascular lumen expands, causing severe pain. At this moment, you can drink coffee to normalize the tone of the smooth muscles of the vascular wall when your head hurts due to a sharp dilation of blood vessels.
An invigorating drink will help cope with painful sensations if they are associated with hypotension - low blood pressure. The analgesic effect of caffeine is suggested in cases where cephalgic syndrome occurs due to adverse weather conditions.
How to drink coffee profitably?
What to do when coffee gives you a headache? How to avoid discomfort after your favorite drink? There are several ways:
- use chicory instead of coffee. The drink made from it is similar in taste to the original, but does not contain caffeine, alkaloids and nicotine;
- Instead of natural ground coffee, use instant, decaffeinated coffee;
- reduce the amount of coffee powder per cup (use 0.5 instead of 1 tsp);
- limit drinking your favorite drink to 1 - 2 cups per day;
- add milk and cream to coffee;
- drink coffee without sugar.
These measures will allow you to enjoy coffee drinks without harm to your health. Drink and have fun!
What is the correct way to drink coffee when you have a headache? First, don't drink too much. Of course, a little coffee every day won't hurt. But if you drink five or more cups per day, then you are very likely to become dependent on it. And therefore, when you decide to drink coffee to get rid of headaches, it turns out that, due to addiction, it does not help you as well as other people.
Secondly, try to take painkillers with coffee or another caffeinated drink. However, read the ingredients in advance and make sure that this drug does not already contain caffeine, otherwise you will consume too much of it at once. Also, before consuming caffeinated products, think about the last time you drank plain water.
Thirdly, when drinking a painkiller pill with coffee, try to do it slowly. The goal is for the drug to do most of the work, and for the coffee to only help. But if you don't currently have a pill, don't try to replace it with more coffee. Just drink it slowly so that your body absorbs the caffeine smoothly, which will relieve unpleasant symptoms after a while.
So, the next time you have a headache and you don’t have any painkillers with you that can quickly deal with it, pour yourself a cup of aromatic hot coffee. The caffeine it contains will not only help you feel energetic throughout the day, but also relieve headaches that prevent you from working productively.
Of course, I do not recommend constantly drinking coffee to get rid of it. Too much of anything is always bad and caffeine in coffee is no exception. However, if used in place of a painkiller or with a good over-the-counter medicine, coffee can quickly stop a headache so you can get back to work or play and enjoy the rest of your day pain-free.
Conclusion:
- Scientists have proven that coffee really helps relieve headaches, especially for people with low blood pressure and weather-dependent people.
- Coffee in combination with citramone or analgesics relieves headaches 70% faster, but it is advisable to drink it not on an empty stomach, especially with analgin.
- If you drink a lot of coffee, it will not help relieve your headache.
- Relief of well-being comes due to the caffeine content, which is why decaffeinated coffee is not able to reduce pain.
- For the best effect, it is recommended to drink coffee with lemon, milk or alkaline mineral water.
How coffee affects the body
Caffeine is not the only active ingredient in coffee. It contains tannins, organic acids, vitamins and minerals. Together, these ingredients give the product a number of properties that have a strong effect on the body.
With the right approach, the drink helps improve a person’s physical condition. Its main goal is to stimulate the nervous system in order to maintain a feeling of alertness and activate mental abilities. Violating the rules for preparing and drinking liquids is fraught with serious negative consequences.
Drinking the drink leads to the following results:
- stimulation of heart activity;
- increased blood pressure;
- narrowing of the lumen of blood channels; in some cases, coffee causes vasospasm;
- increasing the frequency of trips to the toilet due to accelerating the process of urine formation;
- irritation of the central nervous system and the launch of its intensive work.
In small amounts, coffee has a positive effect on the human body, but only if it is initially healthy (the exception is hypotension). If a drinker initially has high blood pressure, a diseased heart or kidneys, the consequences of drinking the liquid can be disastrous.
Use during pregnancy for headaches
During pregnancy, the problem is not the coffee, but the caffeine content.
About 300 mg of the stimulant caffeine per day (about 3 cups of coffee) is harmful to the fetus. Excessive consumption during pregnancy may increase the risk of low birth weight and related complications. More than 8 cups a day can increase the risk of miscarriage.
But don’t give up the aromatic drink completely. If you have low blood pressure or dizziness, a small amount may help. Sometimes coffee is recommended against toxicosis (when you feel sick in the morning), and inhaling its smell can help.
If you can’t wake up without morning coffee, you constantly want to sleep during the day, and only a cup of espresso can save you, don’t deny yourself the pleasure. Your child needs a calm, satisfied mother. Just do not exceed the risk dose.
Important! Each variety and brand of bean contains a different percentage of caffeine.
