Coffee jitters: Why do you get them?
Coffee is one of the most popular beverages consumed daily and accounts for a high market share. It has numerous effects such as helping to focus and stay alert, especially when the coffee kicks in, you may feel more excited and energetic than ever. However, if you experience nausea, nervousness, and increased heart rate after a cup of joe, you’d better know they are side effects of coffee, which are known as coffee jitters.
What are coffee jitters?
Coffee jitters are symptoms like nausea, nervousness, fatigue, and even headaches that are similar to feeling drunk. The reason for this is that the body has tolerated too much caffeine. Due to the high caffeine content, the neurotransmitter adenosine can build up in the brain. When caffeine is metabolized, the brain is flooded with adenosine, causing feelings of extreme fatigue and lethargy.
Healthy adults can tolerate a minimum of 2-4 cups of coffee per day, equivalent to 400mg of caffeine), so consuming more than 400mg of caffeine a day will lead to coffee jitters. However, for people who are sensitive to caffeine, a lower intake can also cause them to have these symptoms. Some intoxicated coffee drinkers also experience hearing shrill sounds and seeing halos in front of their eyes. Besides, they also suffer from sweating and diarrhea.
So, how long do coffee jitters last? These symptoms will appear within 45 minutes of you ingesting coffee and can last from 5-6 hours.
Why do we get coffee jitters?
Caffeine intolerance
These signs occur when the body is sensitive to coffee, or specifically caffeine. Your body does not receive and eliminate caffeine quickly.
Caffeine allergy
Caffeine allergy is quite rare and is often more severe than caffeine intolerance. In this case, the person’s immune system sees it as an invading pathogen, from there, it will release self-protective compounds such as histamine to isolate and destroy the harmful caffeine.
In addition to the symptoms mentioned above, you may also experience a rash, itching, swelling of the lips and tongue, vomiting, difficulty breathing, or even a sudden increase in blood pressure and loss of consciousness.
How to cure coffee jitters
Drink a lot of water
Drinking water will help the body dilute and eliminate caffeine outside. You should drink about 1 – 1.2 liters so that the purification takes place faster as well as helps to re-balance moisture, compensate for minerals lost in the process of coffee consumption.
Drink orange juice
Using orange juice is considered one of the methods to recover from coffee jitters effectively. Since orange juice contains many vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin C to help increase resistance, support health, and also add an extra amount of water to help dissolve caffeine.
Load more starch
When you are high with coffee, adding a little starch such as bread, cereal, rice, cookies, etc., is also a reasonable measure. If the symptom is mild, the addition of starch will saturate the amount of caffeine to help the body feel comfortable and pleasant.
Do exercise
This is the simplest and most effective way you can do anywhere. When there are signs of coffee jitters, just get up and move gently, or do some yoga, simple exercise to help the absorbed caffeine quickly be consumed, thereby reducing the effects of caffeine hangover.
Take a deep breath
Another measure that is also worth noting is deep breathing; still, this is only effective when you have mild experience.
The way to breathe is as follows:
– For the first 4 seconds, inhale deeply through your nose.
– For the next 7 seconds, you hold your breath inside your lungs.
– You will have 8 seconds to exhale slowly through the mouth.
You repeat a few times until the symptoms subside, then stop and rest for a while before returning to normal work.
Supply zinc and magnesium
Foods high in zinc and magnesium like bananas can help ease coffee jitter symptoms, so consider eating a banana when you are coffee-sick.
Crave for coffee but afraid of coffee jitters? Here’s how you deal with it
Drink in moderation
To avoid coffee jitters, you should use an appropriate amount that’s suitable for your age and body. You can also mix it with water or milk. Besides, you should drink it after breakfast, when the stomach is stuffed, it will avoid a worse coffee high state.
Do not take coffee with medicine
In this way, it can produce side effects, like poison, drug reactions, or reduction of the medicines. It is best to take it 2-3 hours apart.
Do not drink coffee with alcohol or energy drinks
Absolutely do not use coffee to brew or drink with alcohol or energy drinks as the brain may be over-excited, mentally inhibited, or more dangerously, it results in activated dilation of blood vessels and increased pressure on the heart.
