What happened when I stopped caffeine
On doctor's orders I have almost entirely quit caffeine and carbonated drinks[1] for the last 3 weeks to help deal with some gastritis. Up until now I have been drinking coffee in the morning daily, sometimes with a second coffee later in the day, and normally some pepsi at lunch. All of these can upset the stomach lining, and so I quit cold turkey.
The main thing to report—what makes this post worth writing—is that my resting blood pressure during the day has dropped by about 15, from hovering around 140 systolic to around 125 systolic. This takes me out of the danger zone of high blood pressure
and sits me quite happily in the normal
range, if not quite the optimal
[2]. I was surprised by this, and on the face of it think it is enough of a benefit to my health to justify continuing to abstain from coffee/pepsi after the gastritis is resolved.
The first week of quitting was hard, and I continually had cravings for either coffee or pepsi, depending on the time of day. Coffee in the morning, and pepsi at lunch and in the afternoon. I guess this was just a general caffeine craving, and my body knew the sorts of things that were likely to get me caffeine at any given time. This craving faded after the week, and the fading also coincided with finding I woke up a lot faster in the morning, and had more energy throughout the day. The effect temporarily reversed when I had an emergency
coffee to keep myself alert during a concert I was performing—I found it very hard to sleep after the concert (not usual) and had a significant crash the next day (also not usual). That was just a passing feeling though.
In the same way, avoiding carbonated drinks was hard for the first week, but after that it has been easy to have water with my lunch instead of pepsi. This change has also helped me to break out of a cycle where every 45 minutes I would go to the loo, and pick up a drink on the way back, wasting lots of time. Now I only visit the toilet a couple of times during the day, and don't drink more water than I need.
My experience quitting these has been positive, and I hope the anecdote helps some other people to try it! Particularly if you have high-ish blood pressure, quitting caffeine might have meaningful health impact.