It is possible that some people's tolerances with caffeine may have fluctuated back and forth over time after quitting. But whether it has happened to one or two other people or not really is not important. All that is important is where your body has adjusted to.
When it comes to caffeine, blood sugar issues, sleep adjustments, and other such issues, it is crucial that everyone learns to recognize his or her owns body needs and requirements after adjusting back to your non-smoking physiology. Again normal is what is normal for your body, not what is normal for the majority of other people who have quit or to other people who might be exceptions to certain rules.
Your body is getting normalized and will stay normalized for you over time as long as you never put it through the abnormal process of nicotine induced pharmacological effects or the nicotine induced withdrawal syndrome by simply knowing now to never take another puff!
Joel
Related readings covering adjustments to your new body after quitting:
Anyone who feels jittery after a few days of a quit should examine his or her caffeine consumption levels. Many find that they cannot tolerate caffeine consumption at prequit levels. If you are experiencing a jittery feeling you may want to experiment with reducing quantity or strength of caffeinated drinks or products. If you are not having these difficulties it probably is not important to alter anything now.
There is an interaction between nicotine and caffeine, just as there is an interaction with nicotine and alcohol. We discuss it here often how when people drink alcohol it causes them to lose nicotine at an accelerated pace thus resulting in heavier smoking while drinking. As I said, there is a similar situation with nicotine and caffeine--similar with one huge difference. Alcohol makes you lose nicotine, thus is responsible for smoking more when drinking.
Nicotine on the other hand interferes with the body's ability to absorb and utilize caffeine, often resulting in a person who is used to or needs to be maintaining a certain caffeine level requiring more of the products to maintain their minimum needed level. When they quit smoking and consume the same amount, that old quantity will now basically overdose them. In the case where they even increase quantity, they can experience a real overdose effect with the corresponding anxiety and sleep altering effects.
So be careful with caffeine if symptoms are going longer than a few days. It is not saying you need to get rid of it all together, just keep it in doses that don't cause unwanted effects. Your general state will likely be calmer and a feeling of overall well being that you should be able to maintain for the rest of your life as long as you always remember to keep yourself from over stimulating substances and always remember to never take another puff! Joel
No Adjustment May be Necessary It isn't necessary to surrender our coffee or anything else when quitting - nor pick up any new crutches either - but due to the 4,000 plus chemicals present in each burning cigarette (and in caffeine's case nicotine), a few intake adjustments may be necessary for some of us and caffeine intake could possibly be one of them. As indicated in the Swanson study in Message 66 , nicotine accelerates the rate at which caffeine is metabolized by the body. It does so to the extent that if a smoker quits using nicotine and continues to consume the exact same amount of caffeine that they did while using nicotine, that their blood serum caffeine level will double (203%). The capacity of each of us to handle differing levels of caffeine varies greatly. If you normally drink one or two cups of coffee in succession but know from experience that you can handle three or four without experiencing unwelcomed symptoms - like the jjitters, anxiety, shaking, insomnia, or gastric and digestive disturbances - then no intake adjustment may be necessary. On the other hand, if during those times when you did double your normal caffeine intake you did notice unwelcomed symptoms then you need to act accordingly so as not to add those symptoms to any associated with nicotine withdrawal. Look on the bright side - it's cheaper being an ex-smoker because we only require half as much caffeine in order to get the same punch. The next few minutes are doable! John |
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