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Comment by illnewsthat | Hacker News Reader

> Studies have shown that the ideal daily dosage of coffee is about six to eight 8oz cups, ideally consumed prior to 2pm so that it doesn't disturb your sleep.

I think this claim should have been backed up with a source for the studies that are suggesting people should drink 6-8 cups of coffee each day.

Seems crazy to me! I personally don't drink coffee because I've seen lots of people develop dependency/addiction, even though I'm sure it's not too serious.

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Caffeine dependence is real, but withdrawal symptoms are usually mild. I’m having some right now. :) But 6-8 cups per day sounds crazy to me. Aside from just crazy jitters and anxiety, I’d guess there are counter-acting health risks not discussed here when drinking that much coffee. It’s advised not to exceed 400mg caffeine, and it’d be easy to accidentally drink more than twice that much with 8 cups of strong coffee.

  six to eight 8oz cups

48oz is just 2.4 cups of Starbucks' venti size.

48oz of just coffee, mind you ... no padding with ice, foam, milk, cream, water, sweeteners, etc.

That's a lotta Joe.

Not serious at all. Speaking as someone who has drunk coffee every day for decades, the worst that happens when you don't get your coffee fix is a persistent headache - that ends within ten minutes of drinking coffee.

It gets worse when you fully quit. For me it took two weeks: headaches, muscle fatigue, flu like symptoms, anxiety, lethargy, etc

Then it was all gone. Not too serious. But, the headache you're describing is just the start of withdrawing.

The literature suggests 4-14 days for withdrawal iirc. Less sure about the lower bound.

Yes, me too - I had two weeks of constant headaches and both physical and mental exhaustion. I still went to work, but I got basically nothing done for the whole fortnight.

Still, I'm glad I did it - it was definitely an unhealthy addiction for me. I'm now 15 or so years mostly caffeine-free.

Same here. My digestion was worse when I was on it, as well as my overall energy levels.

It seems there is a gene that determines whether someone is a fast or slow metabolizer of caffeine. If I ever get such a test done I'll definitely check if I'm on the slow spectrum. It's associated with worse coffee outcomes.

https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/for-coffee-drinker...

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