If the below medical study is accurate then it stands for the proposition that heavy caffeine drinkers would be  well advised to keep an eye on their caffeine intake and to consider reducing it by roughly one-half when quitting.   It isn't necessary to give up caffeine but simply to  understand that, depending how much you drink,  you may likely need less in order to get the same effect.   There's no need to be climbing walls.  Only one rule, no nicotine today!

 

---

 

Addictive  Behavior 1997 Jan-Feb;22(1): pages 55-68

The impact of caffeine use on

tobacco cessation and withdrawal.

Swanson JA, Lee JW, Hopp JW, Berk LS.

Department of Health Promotion and Education, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University, CA 92350, USA.

Continuous caffeine consumption with smoking cessation has been associated with more than doubled caffeine plasma levels. Such concentrations may be sufficient to produce caffeine toxicity symptoms in smoking abstinence conditions. To test whether caffeine abstinence influences smoking cessation, 162 caffeine-using smokers were enlisted from American Lung Association smoking cessation programs. Volunteers were randomly assigned by clinic to caffeine-use and caffeine-abstinence conditions and measured for 3 weeks post-smoking cessation, at 6 months and one year. Results showed a significant linear increase in caffeine sputum levels across 3 weeks post cessation for those who quit smoking and continued using caffeine. Three weeks after cessation, concentrations reached 203% of baseline for the caffeine user. Typical nicotine withdrawal symptoms occurred during the first 16 days of cessation. The caffeine abstainers, but not continued users of caffeine, reported increased fatigue during the first 3 days of cessation. Among complete caffeine abstainers, compared with caffeine users, there was a significant increase in fatigue, a decrease in stimulation, and a marginal increase in caffeine craving immediately following tobacco cessation. There were no differences between the groups on other withdrawal symptoms or in cessation success at 16 days, 6 months, or 12 months.

Publication Types:

 

PMID: 9022872 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

 

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9022872&dopt=Abstract