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Comment by PaulHoule | Hacker News Reader

Both of those are substances that should be harmful based on the effects of the major ingredients: e.g. caffeine is addictive and when I am deprived of it my schizotypy flares up and I have paranoid episodes (I yell at my wife “why the hell are you always standing where I want to go next?”) I have had two doctors tell me three other reasons why I should quit.

Look in the medical literature and it seems outright spammed by reports on the positive effects of caffeine and negative reports on any of the harmful effects one would expect.

Similarly the main active ingredient of red wine (alcohol) is harmful, red wine in particular causes a lot of discomfort, dispepsia, hangovers and other unpleasant effects if you get a bad vintage but look the literature and it is like it will transport you to a blue zone and you will love forever.

And you find those kind of papers spammed in “real” journals, not MDPI or “Frontiers” journals.

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Yes but that's not something you can automatically draw inferences from. Exercise is harmful to you in a short enough time interval but benefits you on the long run.

Furan content in coffee too. Very low amount but still.

Coffee prevents headaches for me so I'll always drink it. And no it's not related to physical dependence although at this point the withdrawal will guarantee a headache.

Interesting. I was at one point diagnosed with "tension headaches" and prescribed a medication called Fioricet which is a combination of caffeine, acetaminophen, and a barbituate called butalbital. Incredibly effective. I'm sure the harm profile of coffee alone is lower so if it's totally eliminating headaches as a problem for you it's perhaps a better solution, but thought i'd throw that out there as it could be worth seeing a neurologist if the problem becomes unmanageable for you

I can relate. I never drank anything with caffeine and would get headaches fairly often. Headaches were never too bad or too often to need medical attention but was just normal part of life. I started drinking coffee on road trips and drives over 3 hours long and noticed that my headache coming on would go away right after. Now i drink coffee twice daily and i'll get a headache once a month at most.

I drank five or six cups of coffee a day for decades. I’d even have a cup before going to bed — that’s how tolerant I had become.

Got a mild flu/Covid/cold couple years ago. Better in a week. But, during the illness and since, the slightest bit of caffeine would make be incredibly wired to the point of panic attacks. Had to quit cold turkey. I’ve tried a cup now and again, and it’s the same thing: 6 hours of overwhelming anxiety.

Wierd. It’s like I became hypersensitive to caffeine. Oddly, though, nicotine doesn’t have that effect, and I always figured the two stimulants were similar.

Try yerba mate, like seriously. It gives you a very smooth caffeine-induced motivation boost without any of the anxiety effects.

I frequently switch between that and coffee (coffee has a much more pronounced effect and sometimes you have to grind)

Yerba mate is my caffeine of choice and I suggested it to my Dad who gets bad migraines. He claims that when he feels a migraine coming on, he can drink a can and it will result in a mild headache instead of forcing him to lie down in a dark room for hours.

>caffeine is addictive and when I am deprived of it my schizotypy flares up and I have paranoid episodes

Dose size matters.

... and I find it very hard to stay at a low dose. If I quit entirely for a few weeks I could probably manage one small coffee a day for a while but inevitably I'd have a rough night and then I need a small and then another small or maybe just a large and pretty soon I can be drinking two whole carafe a day.

I have the same issue w/ cannabis. Right now I have a few plants (legal) in the garden and also a bag that is going to a friend and I don't care. If I had a little puff though the next day I would want another little puff and another and in a week or so I would be like the guy in the Bob Marley song

https://genius.com/The-toyes-smoke-two-joints-lyrics

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