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.
Benefits of coffee for migraines
Doctors all over the world talk about the “irreparable damage” that coffee causes to the body, and that the drink is prohibited for people with headaches. The facts they operate with are very vague. However, people have long been using this type of “homemade pain reliever” for migraines, passing on the “secret recipe” from generation to generation.
More recently, scientists made a pleasant discovery after conducting a series of experiments. They stated that caffeine does help with certain headaches, reducing them or eliminating them altogether. The drink constricts blood vessels, and also additionally improves mood and invigorates. The effect of one cup of drinking occurs after an hour and lasts up to five hours.
It should be understood that the daily intake of natural coffee is 300 mg or literally two small cups. If you are a coffee lover and drink more than three to four cups a day, you most likely will not feel the analgesic effect.
Keep in mind that only natural coffee can help. Its soluble analogue has minimal effectiveness, but does not affect the nervous system too much and allows you to go to bed without problems, even if you drink a cup of drink beforehand. The same cannot be said about the original - it is often the cause of insomnia.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
To use caffeine as a preventive measure for migraines or not: let’s figure it out
What is the effect of drinking coffee for migraines? Does it help or make it worse? Or does it have no effect at all?
The cause of headaches, as a rule, is low blood pressure due to dilated blood vessels, which causes a feeling of severe pain. When caffeine is consumed, the blood vessels narrow sharply, blood pressure rises, and the general condition returns to normal.
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Therefore, the answer to the question “can you drink coffee when you have a headache” is, of course, “yes.” However, it is worth remembering that not all coffee will help people suffering from migraines. To prevent migraine attacks, the required amount of caffeine is only available in natural form. In instant coffee or other caffeinated drinks, the caffeine content is much lower, so consuming them will not give such a quick and complete effect.
Caffeine helps with migraines, but is addictive
This method will not help people who have a “caffeine addiction,” since the caffeine content in their blood is high, and another cup will not change the condition and the migraine will not go away. And increasing the dose of caffeine can lead to problems with blood vessels and other systems and organs. For a person who practically does not drink coffee, 1-2 cups will be enough to relieve a migraine attack.
Do not forget that this method of migraine relief is not suitable for everyone and not in all cases. For example, if a person has hypertension or has signs of it, a cup of coffee will become a catalyst for raising blood pressure and causing headaches.
Just as if a tired, sleep-deprived person drinks a cup, then for the first 20-30 minutes he will feel cheerful, but when the effect of cheerfulness wears off, the body will respond with sharp headaches and increased fatigue.
You cannot use coffee as a method of treating migraines if you have diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, allergies, pregnancy, or other neurological diseases.
When a drink doesn't help relieve a headache
Many migraine sufferers recommend drinking coffee for headaches, claiming that just 1 cup of the drink sometimes stops a severe attack. Several studies have attempted to confirm or refute this theorem. But the answer is not as simple as it might seem.
It has been shown that the effects of caffeine on the human brain depend on the amount and regularity of doses. If you drink the drink periodically, it can help with moderate headaches. On the other hand, if you use it regularly and a lot, it leads to tolerance and dependence.
