Is my Girlfriend Caffeine Intolerant?

[g-pants]

After drinking coffee my girlfriend complains of feeling strange after drinking coffee, 'drained and tired'. After about an hour she may go on an extreme high and become very hyper. Is this caffeine intolerance

[dg100]

Update: I found out shortly after the 2nd episode of caffeine intolerance that I had a severe Vitamin D deficiency (it's actually very common). I don't know if this caused my coffee problems or not. I know that it happened twice and lasted 1-2 weeks and eventually I was able to go back to drinking a cup or two of coffee every morning. For the past couple of days, it's been happening again (after about 1.5 years).

I'm currently in the process of getting tested by an endocrinologist. It seems my adrenal glands may not be functioning properly. If that's the case, it would make sense because caffeine increases your adrenaline levels and normally cortisol would be released to compensate, but if your adrenal glands don't function, you can't produce enough cortisol. (I think that's how it works.) I have a read that caffeine is very hard on your adrenal glands- maybe that's the problem people are having? It seems like most people had some sort of physical stressor around the time their caffeine intolerance began...

[loutygirl]

I had the same experience as you after taking a weight loss product, my heart was racing, I kept going to pass out, had chest pain and tingles all over was like this for two weeks, i stayed off caffeine for a further 3 weeks then tried a cup and back came the chest pains etc waited another week then today had another cup and had a reaction yet again looks like no more coffee for me either :(

[caffeineabuser]

OMG, so strange. I too was an avid drinker of coffee. I was paralyzed without it. A few weeks ago I started taking a weight loss product( which was supposed to be unharmful and effect the gi system only) but I STOPPED IT BECAUSE MY BLOOD PRESSURE SHOT UP TO 170/100! My pulse would race out of the blue. I went to the er because I was so deathly feeling. Well, once I stopped the weight loss product, I would occasionally have my coffee in the morning. I would be ok but later in the day, my pulse would start to race. I have never had an issue with coffee. I needed my coffee strong too, no one could drink my coffee without having the shakes...lol.
It is so tuff trying to wean myself off. I would have a small, diluted version of coffee, and still my heart starts to race. It's like my body has an intolerance now :(

[dg100]

I'm so relieved to find other people with the same problem! For me, I've developed a slow but continually worsening intolerance to my morning coffee. I used to drink 2 large cups of coffee with sugar-flavored creamer every morning. Then about 3 years ago, for about 5 days I started feeling really sick and gross every morning. At first I thought I might be pregnant because it was only in the morning (I wasn't). I felt tired and gross and anxious.

I temporarily cut back on the coffee and it kind of went away. I thought maybe I'd gotten a bad batch of coffee creamer. Well, I went back to my regular amount of coffee, but occasionally I'd get that same sort of gross feeling so I cut back to one big cup. For about a year, that's been ok, but now I'm having another episode of bad coffee sensitivity. I tried having breakfast with my coffee and that helped a tiny bit but not sufficiently. I tried stevia instead of sugar because I thought maybe I was having a blood sugar reaction to having just coffee with sugar in the morning, but I'm still feeling bad. I think not using sugar helped a little bit because I don't feel as gross, but I still feel anxious and panic-y and tired. This has been going on for about a week now and I consistently feel much better by dinner time.

Weird... There must be some physical explanation for this. How can someone whose body is used to coffee and caffeine suddenly have a problem with it?

[3_cats]

I had a sudden onset of coffee/caffeine intolerance in May, and it's taken me until now (July) to figure it out.  It came on overnight.  Until then I was drinking two cups a day, which is nothing special.  I couldn't figure out why it happened so suddenly - very upset stomach, crampy, gassy feeling - I thought it was a mild case of Giardia. When I finally decided to stop the coffee my symptoms went away in about two days.  I weaned myself off the caffeine with a cup of tea every time I got a headache from the withdrawal.  When I had the tea, I had mild symptoms again, so I think the problem is a combination of coffee (highly acidic) and the caffeine itself.

Put this in perspective:  you're looking at a possible situation where you won't be able to drink stuff that isn't good for you.  It could be a lot worse!

[Kelly_Fitz]

I have had a serious problem with caffeine ever since I got the Gardasil vaccine. Whether or not the two are related, I have no clue, but I was an avid coffee drinker, soda drinker, what have you, before I got this vaccine. About two days after I received the vaccine I started to suffer something I cannot even accurately describe--my hands would tingle, I would feel like I was dying, I felt like I had the flu and I had a horrible fever. Beside the fact that I was having a bad reaction to the vaccine, I didn't realize that at the same time I was having a bad reaction to caffeine. All of the sudden, any time I had any coffee, soda or anything, I had a horrible panic attack and felt like, for lack of better words, like I was going crazy. I have suffered this since February of 2007. Just today I had HALF of a diet coke, no kidding, HALF, and the entire day couldn't even exist in my own skin. It is as if my body cannot metabolize it properly and it honestly makes my blood pressure go sky high---i'm talking like 150s or so without me even being anxious. What do I do??? What caused this?? Does anyone else have a similar experience??

From someone who is completely lost and feeling like they have no answers, there has to be someone else who has experienced what I have. And if not, then maybe I have no hope of anyone helping me explain what happened....I went to the dr. who administered the vaccine, who wouldn't help me, and countless others who dismissed my problems. But this is a last ditch effort to find someone else who either shares this problem or who can help me out.

Thanks.

[Dr_Aparna]

In humans, caffeine is a central nervous system stimulanti.e. a brain stimulant having the effect of temporarily warding off drowsiness and restoring alertness. Beverages containing caffeine are coffee, tea, soft drinks and energy drinks.
The bodies of individuals who regularly consume caffeine adapt to the continual presence of the drug by substantially increasing the number of adenosine receptors in the central nervous system. This increase in the number of the adenosine receptors makes the body much more sensitive to adenosine.
Reduced catecholamine activity may cause feelings of fatigue and drowsiness. This could explain her feeling tired and drained.
Feeling hyper is what stimulants do. So what she experiences could be due to  one of the many effects caffeine has on the system.

[Freeaire]

I don't like to drink beverages with caffeine, especially coffee.  When I do, I have that feeling of a rapid heart beat, I feel gittery, and the very next day, without fail, I get a headache.  It's almost like someone who has been drinking caffeine for a year, then suddenly stop and go thru the withdrawls.  I sometimes like the caffeine high, but it is always followed by a horrific headache.

Same happens when I take Excedrin asprin for Migranes.  Because of the caffeine in the asprins.  They work, but then I have to take them everyday.

Weird HUH!

[AJWS6]

I cannot drink coffee, I tried a small cup of coffee when I was in my 20's, for the first time and was super hyper for about 3 hours, I was flipping out, then crashed out, for around 14 hours, never drank coffee again.  

But I had a bad caffeine addiction, I drank up to a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper everyday.  So it wasn't the caffeine but some ingredient in the coffee.  

[Bean79]

have you ever had coffee/ caffeine give you a rash or irration on your skin??? I have developed a rash/ itchiness on my skin, not sure if it is caused by excessive coffee intake.

[Deeds]

again, you CAN be allergic to coffee (I am allergic to tea) and you CAN be sensitive to caffeine ((makes my heart race and sometimes skips))  If it's really bothersome - she can have an allergist test her for coffee allergy - it may not be the caffeine but, the actual coffee..

[tmv]

I cannot drink caffeine at all, it gives me a feeling of anxiety attack. I get the same hyper feeling that you described. If I drink pop, i go with the 7-up, root beer or anything that states caffeine free. You'd be surprised at the drinks that you wouldn't think have it, read the ingredients.  I was told that I was just sensitive to it, not actually allergic to it.  I am very sensitive to other meds as well.  Like, I only can take a childs dosage of antihistamines, cough syrup, etc.  Best of luck to her, tmv

[Deeds]

There are times when coffee 'wigs me out'...one CAN be acutally allergic to coffee!  Does she react the same to caffeinated colas?  I'd stay away from coffee if it isn't pleasent for her!