What happens to your body when you give up caffeine

Coffee is glorious. Enjoyed by billions for its miraculous abilities to pick up and wake up, it's a uniter. People in the Middle East like it (Arabica beans!), people in South America like it (Colombian beans!), people in the U.S. like it (there's a Starbucks every 15 feet). But once in a while there comes a time when some poor soul must give up not just coffee, but its active ingredient, caffeine, in all its many forms. And there are good reasons to quit coffee and the like: it can destroy your stomach's lining, deprive you of sleep, or send your blood pressure sky high. Caffeine is a highly addictive substance, and your body goes through quite an ordeal when you try to break that dependence. Here's a look at what happens to your body when you quit consuming coffee, tea, soda, and energy drinks.



Your blood pressure will go down

Caffeine is a stimulant. Sure, it makes you more awake and focused, but along with that immediate speed-up affect on your brain comes the speed-up affect on the heart and blood. Because it's a vasoconstrictor, or substance that narrows blood vessels, caffeine raises blood pressure — from just a few points in some, to huge numbers in others. (The American Psychosomatic Society attributes 20 percent of all stroke-related deaths to caffeine consumption.) Eliminating it from your diet can restore your blood pressure to normal healthy levels, or at the very least, help you avoid huge spikes every time you pour a cup of coffee.

You'll sleep better

Caffeine helps you fight off the sleepies, of course, but it can work too well, providing not just a clean break from sleep when you need to be awake but preventing sleep when you actually want to be sleeping. Drinking too much, especially late in the day, can wreak major havoc on your sleep patterns. Its affects can be felt as long as six hours later — meaning a cup of coffee to get you through the last hour of work at 5:15 could be the reason why you're laying in bed, wide awake, at 11:15.


Your dental health will improve

Over time, consumption of coffee and tea can color teeth a subtle shade of brown. The sugar in caffeinated sodas leads to tooth decay. And then there's how large amounts of caffeine can lead to teeth grinding, or bruxism, in the middle of the night. Getting the culprits of tooth stains and jaw pain out of the picture can lead to better overall mouth health (not to mention prettier, whiter teeth).

You'll lose weight

No more unnecessary adrenaline spikes

Caffeine aggressively stimulates the adrenal glands, leading to the release of adrenaline into the bloodstream. But since your body (probably) isn't going through a "fight or flight response" on a daily basis, that adrenaline isn't necessary. The result is agitation and high anxiety. But switch out the coffee for something without caffeine, and it's likely you'll lose those adrenaline spikes and enjoy more stable moods.



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