[Vienna]

Hello Everyone - I used to drink a grande non-fat latte (ala Starbucks, 2 shots) every day. I did this for three years. 11 days ago, I switched to green tea. I see it as an easy way to save 1000 calories a week. Aside from a small bite of dark chocolate every other day, I do not consume any other caffeine. I have been experiencing horrible headaches for the past week, which is highly unusual for me. My working self-diagnosis is brain tumor vs caffeine withdraw. I am pretty sure it is the latter.
Any idea how much longer these headaches will last? I have never gone through a caffeine withdraw process, so I am not sure what to expect. Could the little bit of caffeine from the tea be making the detox process worse? IE: Should I eliminate all caffeine from my diet for a week or so, then introduce the green tea back? In previous attempts to ditch the lattes I have tried regular coffee, but I find it way too hard on my stomach.
Thanks for sharing your ideas and wisdom
-V

[The Last Noel]

Awww. You are experiencing caffeine addiction withdrawl symptoms. I hope it helps you just a little to hear that I did the exact thing you are doing 2 years ago and I feel your pain. Starbucks to Green Tea. For me the headaches lasted approximately 90 days. Excedrine Migraine is your friend.

Edited to add that I gradually took less and less caffeine with excedrine migraine until I switched to acetomeninphen (my spelling is atrocious) and plain aspirin (the two other active ingredients in Excedrine). I researched the implications and found that chemically this was the healthiest way for me to wean myself. I hope it works for you.

[Elvish Mistress]

I went through this too, in the past year. You can keep drinking the green tea. My headaches only lasted about 3 weeks, but I quit cold turkey. I alternated between tylenol and asprin until the headaches were bearable. Excedrin Migraine has about 60 mg of caffeine in it. It can be a tool though, just lessen the amount you take until you are getting no caffeine, if you choose to wean yourself that way.

Besides saving calories, after a couple of months with little or no caffeine you will have more energy and the caffeine jolt will work when you need to have it. BTW, if you go to starbucks, their vanilla rooibos tea latte is caffeine free and fantastic! although, it may be defeating your purpose calorie-wise. lol Good Luck!!

[bacilli]

I would stay away from Excedrin more than twice a week. It's been shown to cause rebound headaches, and that defeats the purpose.

The good news is the caffeine headaches will eventually go away. In the meantime, you can try rubbing peppermint oil under your nose to ease the symptoms. If you're not allergic to ragweed, you may want to try a daily dose of Feverfew Extract for a few weeks also, which helps prevent the headaches.

[Heather]

Are you sure you're having a lot less caffeine?

My quick (and perhaps wrong) internet search suggests that a Starbucks grande latte has 150 mg of caffeine.

Apparently, the caffeine in green tea can vary greatly. I found estimates from 7 mg to 75 mg per 8oz!! (apparently, better estimates are between 15 and 40 mg)

So, depending on how many lattes you were drinking and how much and what type of green tea you're drinking (and how you brew it) you may not be having that much less caffeine...

[Linsy]

It could also be sugar withdrawals if the latte had sugar in it.

[Robsia]

FWIW, caffeine withdrawal does cause headaches.

When I am pregnant I go off coffee - normally I drink about 6 large mugs a day (although I'm currently on 3 to reduce the calories).

But when I got pregnant I quit altogether - not intentionally, I just don't want it. And I got headaches! Nasty ones - every day.

Once I realised that that was the cause, I decided to start drinking one small (8 oz) glass of Diet Pepsi every morning, just so my body was getting a little bit of caffeine - and the headaches stopped!

Now if you're on a detox and don't want any caffeine at all, or don;t want to drink soda, feel free to ignore my post completely - just thought I'd share what worked for me.