Caffeine Allergy
 

My eldest was born with so many allergies, I couldn't even nurse her because the allergens came through in my breast milk and made her sick. She lived on pre-digested formula, which cost a fortune, for the first two years.

We narrowed down and cut out most of the foods/dyes/environmental triggers at a young age, and unless she combines a few allergens in one day, ie. playing out door sports (grass) + eating bark tree fruits (apples), she is normally ok.

She started getting bad headaches about a year ago, and it never occurred to us that it may be her allergies. Her doctor told her to keep a diary of what she ate to see if there was any pattern.

A few weeks back, she had like a migraine that didn't let up for about 5 days, and within a few days it was back. We started thinking about what she had eaten that day . . . and she mentioned she had a "Rock Star". She remembered back to the 5-day headache, and she had been at a ball tournament and sucking back Rock Stars for energy (1-2 a day).

We've been testing this for about two weeks now, and she has figured out that she gets sick or a headache, even with a 1/2 cup of coffee and/or a Coke. This seems to be escalating each time she takes caffeine now, which is what happened with everything I introduced when she was a baby too.

I started reading up on caffeine allergies recently, and there are a lot of reactions that can occur for people who are sensitive:

"Because a caffeine allergic person is unaware of the allergy, he/she continues ingesting caffeine and suffers from progressive poisoning (3-6). Symptoms include, but are not limited to, attention deficits, anxiety, obsessive thoughts, panic, delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, PMS, TMJD, rashes, muscle weakness, and numerous other symptoms (3-5). All symptoms do not have to be present for a diagnosis. However, most doctors do not diagnose allergic response to caffeine because most doctors do not know about caffeine allergy."

http://www.goodtherapy.com.au/librar...l_health/565/1

There's lots more information about this on the net too, especially about how it can trigger headaches and strange behaviour. Fortunately for her, it is so far limited to headaches . . . but perhaps some people might recognize "panic" or anxiety/ADHD-type reactions for themselves. Since PwMS sometimes have these problems, I thought it was worth mentioning to consider cutting out caffeine to see if it helps.

I'm sure glad I don't have to cut out caffeine. :)

Cherie

many of the schools around here have banned all energy drinks from the campus. don't sell them at sporting events either.

:hug: i hope she is feeling better.

btw...don't forget me, when you come here this fall. :D i'm closer to ft. worth, but here in the dfw area we are used to driving to dallas or all the suburbs.

LE44, as always, great info!

I hope my burning mouth, which HAS gotten worlds better (as I taper off the drugs that aren't helping me) isn't the result of coffee as well. I drink a lot of it. I love it. I've thought for a while it's probably contributing in some way.

They never allowed "energy drinks" in schools or (children's) sporting venues here anyway, but the kids know where to get them if they want them. ;) Last I heard, they were pulling ALL soda out of the school machines though.

Canada is fairly strict on caffeine actually, and has a law that the drink must be dark colored before it is permitted to add caffeine. Soda's, like Mountain Dew, are not allowed to contain caffeine as they are considered "children's drinks".

They can sell them as "energy drinks" though, so long as they are labeled that way ...

I just paid for my daughter's trip to TX, and am looking up flights for myself. I would love to be able to come down and see her games, as well as meet up with my board buddies. I want to make sure I am relatively stable before I commit though, as traveling takes a lot out of me. You'll know as soon as I do. ;)

Cherie

Wow, I didn't know this about Mountain Dew! I've always heard from friends in the USA that they drink Mountain Dew for the caffeine. I don't drink soda any longer, and have not in a long time, but I never knew that Canada will not allow caffeine in this! I knew sodas like Sprite didn't contain it.

I limited my caffeine intake when the MS "woke up" in 2006. I still will get a caffeine pop (soda) like Dr. Pepper or Mr. Pibb when I go to restaurants, but at home now, I tend to drink Caffeine-Free Coke when I'm at home. (my dad cant have caffeine because of his heart, so I drink what he buys)

I started drinking more water instead of pop this summer, because it's been so frying-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk hot lately. Yesterday I over did it out in the sun, and ended up hugging a couple of ice packs and sucking down water while watching Jeopardy last night.

Since I switched over to more water than pop a few weeks ago, I havent been getting as many migraines (had a migraine this morning, but I'm taking an antibiotic that usually almost always causes me to get a bad headache/migraine)

I'll drink maybe one pop when I eat, but the rest of the day, I try to stick with water. I dont get that weird after-taste from the pop as often as I had been. Pop is nice, but everything in moderation. Water is better for you anyways.

the schools didn't sell them, except some at ball games. they stop the kids from bringing them on campus.

still, it's sad to see kids be able to buy starbucks or the energy drinks in the store.

Amazing the valuable pieces of information one might pick up on a MS forum, eh? :p

Well, my b/f figured this out the hard way, actually. He is a die-hard Mountain Dew Southerner, and he had to buy the "energy version" in order to get his caffeine fix (here). He wrote this long letter to the Canadian FDA because he wasn't happy about standard Mountain Dew not containing caffeine. They wrote him a polite letter back about how the law is that no "non-dark" soft drinks can contain caffeine, so that parents have an easy way of defining which drinks are caffeine free.

Now the really sad part was that Pepsi discontinued Mountain Dew "energy drink" last year, so you can't even get it with caffeine at all now. :eek: He's thoroughly disgusted! :D

Cherie

LOL, I bet he's disgusted. If he's a coffee drinker though, Van probably has a much better selection than our 40+ Tims in Moncton lol!

I have a friend who is allergic to caffine - no chocolate! That is her worst! Drives her nuts - but every once in a while she slips and has some but pays for it.

TIM HORTONS . . . I LOVE Tim Hortons!! :) Yeah, we have lots of choices here . . . Vancouver must be the coffee capital of Canada.

He doesn't drink coffee at all, but still cracks his caffeine-free Mountain Dew every morning when he's in Canada. :(

My daughter TESTED allergic to chocolate, about 6 yrs ago. We knew some of her allergies had changed (she was about 8 or 9 yrs old, and apparently they change every 7 yrs or so), so I had her retested. Chocolate was one of the things that came up . . . but we never tested her for caffeine because she was too young to even try it. Then she became a mid-teen, and the rest is history. :rolleyes:

She's probably been allergic to caffeine since way back then.

Cherie

I adore Tim Hortons as well. ;) I brew it at home. It's not like the real thing!

I only allow myself the real stuff occasionally. 2 blocks from my house! If the weather's tolerable and I'm up early, I'll walk over. Crossing the road to get to the Tims is pretty sketchy. It's an extremely busy street, and that Tims is jam packed every morning (drive thrus on both sides, 10 cars at least in each entrance lol).

We have Tim Hortons here in Maine now - I love them!!! I have to admit there sour cream donut holes are so much better than DD's.....

Maine is pretty darn close to where I live!! (Moncton, NB). I'm sure you folks get the whopping amounts of snow in the winter as well huh? ;)

I do wonder how Tims in Maine compares to Tims in NB. I'd hope they're using the same delicious coffee. Do they have that brownie supreme ice cap there as well? I took a sip of a friend's and was like OMG!!!!!!!!!... I would never allow myself to drink even a small one for fear of the amount of calories in the thing LOL.

Well it's been about a month with no caffeine now, and NOT one headache this whole time. :)

Cherie

Glad you caught it, Cherie.

There have to be different "types" of caffeine. I can drink a whole 2 litre bottle of Mt. Dew and not shake and drink one cup of regular coffee and have a major reaction to it. Don't understand that--it doesn't make sense. Caffeine should just be caffeine! Nevertheless, I limit my caffeine intake severely.

Wow, didn't know that about Canada. Good thing I didn't need a caffeine fix when I was there. I would have gone for the Mt. Dew and been just as upset as your BF. :D

I started another thread about caffeine a few weeks back, where they explain the difference between the foods/liquids that we get caffeine from:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread52026.html

We did have something called "Dew Fuel" for a while, which was the American version of caffeinated Mountain Dew. It didn't take off here, but I think that had more to do with poor marketing/advertising then anything else.

Mountain Dew isn't really an "adult" drink here though either . . . so I don't think most people here care if what they add/take out. Cola's are the main "adult" soda here.

Cherie

Now i'v been reading that it may also have been the pestisides they are using in the bean fields.

I wont even experiment with an organic coffee , its not worth the pain.

Cherie, you go girl! Going caffeine free that long without a headache is amazing! Keep it up! :)