Caffeine Addiction
Both caffeine and nicotine are known to affect cardiac muscle cell receptors, which raise the heart rate during and after consumption according to a recent 2019 study.
If you are familiar with the Reset360 Detox programs, you may know that caffeine is often an eliminated item to reset hormone levels. These detox programs are formulated by Dr. Sara Gottfried, MD. We were fortunate to catch up with Dr. Sara on caffeine addiction and why it’s important to eliminate during detox.
Here are a few questions to kick-start the seemingly 'impossible' task of detoxing from coffee:
Why is it so hard to decaffeinate? What’s stuck and repetitive in my thinking about caffeine and what it does for me? Are you similarly addicted? What are the reasons? Better energy? Better concentration? More creative? More on your game?
Many of my patients look at me blankly when I suggest they detox off caffeine. A doctor has never told them to decaffeinate before – and that may have something to do with the fact that 90% of doctors are addicted to caffeine. Yet the same patients tell me they’re exhausted, they don’t get restorative sleep, their sleep is disrupted with awakenings at 1 am or 2 am or 3 am or 4 am or all of the above, they have a hard time winding down, they’re “wired but tired.”
We check their labs and cortisol is too high after their cup of Peet’s, and there’s a muffin top emerging in their mid-section. They have blood sugar instability and get irritable unless they eat frequently. Even worse, caffeine increases inflammation, which is the final common pathway for many bad things from bad aging to cancer.
All related to caffeine. Kick the habit!
Substitute real sources of energy rather than fake sources.
My top suggestions to replace caffeine:
“But I only drink decaf!” is another common refrain in my practice. I drink decaf too, well Blue Bottle Night Light Decaf to be precise. It has a fair amount of caffeine (usually 1-3% to comply with international standards), and the process for decaffeinating is not exactly good for you. Here are 5 methods that are currently used to create decaf coffee as described by WiseGeek:
I’ve taken a fair amount of chemistry and biochemistry courses, and I can tell you that “solvent” is almost never a good thing.
To assist in the detoxification process, I suggest:
I’m lovin’ my liver again and so can you!
Dr. Sara Gottfried, MD
Thank you again, Dr. Sara, for your insight into the addictive properties of caffeine. If you would like more reading material in regard to recent studies on caffeine addiction you can read this case study, published in December 2018, on the consumption of caffeine and it’s detox inducing symptoms after discontinuing its use. This case study, published in November of 2018, explores the effect caffeine has on the liver and subsequent cardiovascular system.
If you are looking for additional support during the caffeine detox process, our favorite is Detox Essentials, which has been formulated to safely help the liver detox.