when you HAVE to have caffeine, in what form do you have it?

Now that made my day.

In my experience, malpractice lawsuits over such small amounts of money just do not happen. I wanted to sue my first p-doc for letting the suicide attempt happen (and he misdiagnosed, under-treated, refused appointments, abandoned me, and did not follow up when I told him that I did not check myself in PER, against his advice - he never returned my call and it was easy to prove using phone company records) but no lawyer was interested, because pursuing the malpractice action with expert witnesses easily runs into more than 100K, and my lost wages, unreimbursed cost of treatment in the hospital etc. was less than that. For them, the only "worthy" damages are a corpse or permanent disability.

I've known about hydrolized vegetable protein as basically being msg. And see it on many labels. But I didn't know they were not required to put it on the label.

The only caffeine I allow myself is sweet tea. I do like coffee, but if I drink it--which is rare--it is decaff. I used to compulsively drink iced sweet coffees from McD's and such (OCD kicked in), and realized how jittery I would get after a few days....of course I would drink a large one daily, sometimes more than one a day. The same happens to me when I drink hot chocolate; again, very rarely.

Interestingly, I don't drink sweet tea to "wake up." It has no real effect on me anymore. I can go out to eat late on a Saturday and drink tons of it and fall asleep a few hours later. My P-doc clarified that neither tea nor coffee should be contributing to my anxiety. He may be right, maybe for a lot of people that's true, and it is for me regarding tea. Nor am I saying coffee makes me have panic attacks. But if the seed is already there, pour some coffee on it and it kind of blooms ya know?

I'm pretty anti-Sweet n Low, Splenda, etc. I've heard that one ingredient in Splenda is bleach, Years ago, to lose weight I drank unsweet tea with packets and packets of Equal or SweetnLow, and I never could quite get over the artificial taste. I have family that will only use those to sweeten drinks, and I point out that they're "fake" sugar (unlike Stevia), and they shrug, "You're gona die from something." Yeah, but I'd like to limit the chemicals I put in my body (aside from meds, sigh) as much as I can.

My bf used to live on those Monster drinks, along with Redbulls---he'd have a minimum of three a day. Did that for months. Then one day his left arm started to tingle all the way up and down, and his chest began hurting. Took him to the ER, did all the tests, thankfully he was fine, but they pointedly asked if he drank energy drinks. They asked how many a week, and he told them a third of what he actually consumed. "Stop them, now," they demanded. The nurse herself said she would have one every once in awhile, but that the cumulative toll they take on one's body is pretty dangerous. He cut them out immediately, and all of his physical symptoms went away. I hate to say it but I'm glad he went to the hospital; he wouldn't have listened to anyone else... it concerned me long before that visit. (I also suspect he has a sleep disorder--never feels rested, on no meds--but that's a diff post altogether).

Otherwise for me, besides tea (which I try to limit for the caloric count), I drink a lot of water and Gatorade/Powerade (it's nice and humid here). Also green tea is wonderful---I never had any side effects from it, and I'm convinced it helped me lose weight years ago---it's "proven" to increase metabolism.

I'm confused....?

What precipitated my joining this forum is that on June 16 my 26/y/o daughter dying after trying to self medicate a migraine.

Drinking Gatorade/Powerade while at the same time not wanting to put chemicals in the body is internally inconsistent. I suggest you switch to Vitalyte, a wonderful electrolyte drink without all the bad stuff Gatorade has. Plus, better taste. You can order online or purchase from your local REI. It is the drink of choice of Search and Rescue teams.

Livethroughthis - I see you're from the south, that's where most of my family is from, I love sweet tea I try to mainly drink plain unsweetened iced or hot black tea & green tea. But sometime indulge in sweetened. Sweet tea is such a feel good comfort food (drink) for me.

Your bf - was he having a heart problem from the energy drinks or general toxicity?

Also - hope you are prepared for the hurricane!?

One of my early jobs was working at a coking mill. In the locker room was a 15 gallon drum filled with s salt jell candies. We were urged to use these to prevent electrolyte loss. My shirts when dried would be lined with salt stains. This was good I was told. Later they became unhealthy and Gatorade replaced them as the preferred electrolyte replacement. Now that is bad. I can cast no aspersions on Vitalyte. Experience tells me that it too will find itself under a cloud of suspicion some years hence.

Vitalyte has been used for decades. Its inventor is a biologist, teacher, marathoner and orienteerer. He is physically and mentally active well into his golden years (I have met him a few times), a living proof of the efficacy of his invention. Also, Vitalyte (I know this is going to be painful) prevents migraines in large quantities. And in some people, even stops the attacks early in the beginning - again, in large quantities. For instance, my ex had a migraine start the other day, drank 6 glasses of Vitalyte and the migraine stopped, without Imitrex.

But - sugar and calories. Not without its ills. 10g of sugar and 40 calories per glass.

I sometimes think that I should try it in place of Depakote - sure, I will be consuming a lot of calories to prevent migraines with Vitalyte, but I won't be taking weight-gain producing Depakote, so maybe it will be a wash. Worth trying some day.

I wish you had appeared on this board before June 26th.

And, Search and Rescue has done due diligence before selecting Vitalyte as its drink of choice for saving lives.

Yeah, you can't beat homemade sweet tea, It is indeed a comfort. I think by now it's in my DNA.

My bf--he had I believe the EEG and I believe two chest X-rays. All were negative of any abnormalities. I honestly think he might have been somewhat dehydrated (doesn't drink much water) in addition to the energy drinks. It seems the heart problem had a strong correlation to the drinks.

I'm pretty far from the hurricanes. We get a lot of the wind/rain, but we get tornadoes on a regular basis.

I realize the internal inconsistency. If I had my way I would not be taking a single pill. But alas, not my reality. Also, aside from buying organically (which is expensive as h*ll, plus our town doesn't have a health food store), I am going to be ingesting some chemicals whether I like it or not. Right now, because I don't drive, it's simply easier for my bf to pick up a pack of Gatorade, etc. on his way home. I will look into the Vitalyte---if easy to access and inexpensive, I'll try it.

Something else I can't help but mention: No matter what kind of bottled drinks we drink--healthy or not--we continue to get chemicals from the bottles themselves (they're in 100 degrees+ temps in shipping trucks all over U.S.) due to the compounds of the plastic seeping into the drinks. Not saying that legitimizes downing Cokes, etc. all day long.... just pointing that out.

Vitalyte is a powder. You mix it with water in a real glass or a ceramic mug yourself. No risk.

Vitalyte is a powder that you mix in with water yourself, in your own safe glass. This also makes it very cheap because you are not paying for plastic bottles, for the process of bottling, and for transportation of individual bottles.

I have always thought that I negate most of the benefits of coffee and tea by adding milk (to coffee, because I cannot drink it otherwise at all; to tea, because I am impatient and like to drink it right away without waiting for it to cool on its own).

Apparently, this is not necessarily the case. The study quoted is not by an independent science lab, but by Nestle, but still is worth reading:

http://www.nutraingredients.com/Rese...k-Nestle-study

I find it hard to believe that milk is ever bad unless you're lactose intolerant. So, that doesn't surprise me.

But otherwise....Soda!! Diet Soda! Mostly Diet Dr. Pepper (my favorite), Diet Coke and Diet Cherry Coke. I have recently discovered that Coke Zero is far tastier but mostly far fizzier. (Is it me, or is Diet Soda just not very fizzy?)

I used to HATE caffeine -- it would make my heart hurt or pound and I'm sure a lot of people here know how uncomfortable of a sensation that is. But within the last year I've allowed myself some soda and haven't had too much issues. I've come to experience how insidious the transition into a unknown caffeine addiction can be. I kept craving soda and got to the point that I drank a whole liter and then wanted more...I understood why so many of my friends drink gallons of the stuff. I began to understand why I girl died from drinking 10 liters a day.

I really think that caffeinated soda has enough of a dopamine boost that it can cause your brain to signal cravings/desires that you're unaware of. Being bipolar can probably make it all that much worse...

I'm not sure if I'm quitting it completely but I have definitely decided to quit for now until I get my insomnia under control.

Soda and coffee like tonight I am drinking lots of coffee even though it doesnt do much good for me.

I've drank every form of energy drink on the market today, and keep switching it up when my body builds a tolerance to a certain brand. I also take a thermogenic weight loss supplement that contains caffeine. I have built up quite a tolderance to caffeine itself, so the different herbs and compounds make the difference in the energy drinks.
For example, I can take a regular "5 Hour Energy" drink and go straight to bed and fall asleep.
I also use nicotine HEAVILY to help increase alertness and mental focus, and as a mood stabilizer.

The data behind benefits of coffee is difficult to interpret, but it seems that there are benefits stemming from the antioxidant properties of coffee, and those occur in decaf coffee as well, and then there are benefits stemming from caffeine content, and then there are micronutrients in coffee that are beneficial. Compare that to soda and energy drinks and you only get the benefits of caffeine (helps to ward off Alzheimer's disease, for instance). So it is better to drink coffee than soda. Also, see the following from PubMed about why coffee is the best source of caffeine:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21422521

Black coffee also contains ZERO calories, compared to the hundreds of calories in soda and energy drinks

You are absolutely right. And lattes and cappuccinos, although with moderate amount of calories, contain protein and calcium and riboflavin, unlike sodas.

Espresso.
I don't have it often though - only when I absolutely need to stay awake. I do love the taste, but it makes me slightly hyper and the next day usually feels very drained out.

Earl Grey, black, is also good.
It doesn't jumpstart me though. I just like the taste and smell.

In overall I try to avoid caffeine. Less drugs in life, the better, I would think.

Probably not - tea and coffee have been consumed for longer than we can think of so I would be cautious to drop them altogether. Consider the history behind tea and coffee -- millennia -- and the history behind sodas -- a couple of centuries, http://www.usfirehouse.com/SodaHistory.htm. Also consider the spread - tea, in whole regions such as China, India, then the whole British Empire, vs. soda - America and later all americanized countries. Finally, the culture and the preparation technology and the social aspect - tea takes time to prepare, people gather and pause to have tea, there is a whole Japanese tea ceremony, English tea time, etc., so there is a lot of culture built on consumption of tea. Soda - just open the can or bottle, no tradition, no ceremony, no time to prepare, no nothing. So between tea and coffee on one side and soda on the other side, tea/coffee wins. Between tea/coffee and beverages without caffeine - hard to say and probably depends on individual reactions more than on anything else, but it has been proven by a hugely long tradition that people can do well while consuming caffeine. Plus, all the benefits of warding off Alzheimer's (caffeine), metabolic improvements (green tea but perhaps available through decaf green tea as well), antioxidants, beneficial micronutrients in coffee etc. Plus, less diabetes type II though causation has not been determined. And possibly less Parkinson's and Parkinson's is a very very bad disease both for the person and for people who care for him - my uncle had it and it was very burdensome for my aunt and cousin. So a lot to think about before making decisions. On the negative side, caffeine is not recommended for people with hypertension (http://goaskalice.columbia.edu/does-...blood-pressure) and can interfere with sleep but consumption early in the day mitigates that risk.

There was a ridiculous belief in the 1990s that caffeine causes dehydration. Imagine all those people in Iran drinking cup after cup of black tea with cardamom (very yummy) in hot weather century after century! Did they all suffer from dehydration? If so, how did they survive and reproduce in large numbers?? Luckily, that belief has been put to rest - normal levels of caffeine consumption are not dehydrating, http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caf...drinks/AN01661 (Mayo clinic is a reputable source of info)

When I was in college back in the 1970's, I was working from 6pm-6am, then had an 8am class to drive to. Sometimes I would schedule a date after that.......I remember taking something they called Vivram (I think)....it was a pure caffeine pill that you could get OTC......I would end up being awake for days & then crash for days. It definitely wasn't a very healthy way to get through college & I soon changed my job so that I could live a more normal scheduled life.

After that, I never drank coffee & I hated fizzy drinks so I never drank soda's.....just plain tea....hot or iced.......for some reason, I remember getting started drinking coffee......& we went on a camping trip with the Girl Scout troop our daughter was in.....& the leader forgot to bring any coffee. I had never had a headache before them....but the whole weekend, I couldn't get rid of the headache...it wasn't as bad as the migraines I have now....but I definitely remember how bad it was that whole weekend not having the caffeine. That was when I decided....NO MORE CAFFEINE. I drink it every once in awhile now...but never enough for it to cause the headaches when I stop drinking it.....especially now that I'm on pain medication for the migraines because nothing else worked to stop them....don't need to do anything to aggravate the pain any more than already exists. It's strange enough having the migraine symptoms without having the pain.

But then again, I don't seem to need anything to keep me awake....I am now at the point in life where I need meds to help me sleep.

Diet coke and 2 Excedrin .