caffeine question

i have a question i hope you netters can help answer.

i have been told by my ob/gyn to cut the caffeine out.  hmmm, seems a lump
in a breast is the reason.

i drink maybe a couple diet cokes or on a rare day three.  i drink no coffee
tea or other caffeine containing beverages, do not eat chocolate, etc.

the only other factor is my migraine medication which has 40 mg caffeine in
each tablet, and i usually take three at a clip, sometimes six to eight a
day on a bad day.

does anyone know what is acceptable in terms of ?fibrocystic breast disease?
and caffeine useage?

i have switched to caffeine free soda.

thanks for all your help.

3 Responses to “caffeine question”

  1. admin says:

    In article <1991Aug12.204752.618…@locus.com> kris…@locus.com (Krissie Griffiths) writes:
    >i have been told by my ob/gyn to cut the caffeine out.  hmmm, seems a lump
    >in a breast is the reason.
    >does anyone know what is acceptable in terms of ?fibrocystic breast disease?
    >and caffeine useage?

    First, it isn’t a disease.  It’s just a description of an often benign
    syndrome which many women have, with a severity which ranges from being
    unnoticed to being quite painful.

    Now, I’m not an expert.  I’m not even a doctor.  But all the literature
    I’ve seen on the association between caffeine and fibrocystic "disease"
    indicates to me that first of all it was a hypothesis based on an incorrect
    biomedical hunch–that excess cAMP levels might be involved in such
    lumps [wrong], and since caffeine and other methylxanthines inhibit
    phosphodiesterase [wrong--only at superphysiological levels], this
    caffeine-induced rise in cAMP levels [wrong--no rise] would account for
    the lumps [wrong].

    Women initially told to restrict or eliminate caffeine from their
    diet often reported an improvement, and this, together with the initial
    unsupported factoid about caffeine’s role in the syndrome somehow made
    it "stick".  When studies have been tightly controlled and don’t rely
    simply on anecdotal reports, it appears that caffeine has not much of
    an effect on the syndrome one way or the other.  This kind of negative
    result rarely gets much media attention.

    Since it can’t hurt, and since there really isn’t anything else to do,
    a trial of caffeine withdrawal is still recommended.  I suppose it beats
    rubbing frogs on them (a la warts.)


    Steve Dyer
    d…@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer
    d…@arktouros.mit.edu

  2. admin says:

    kris…@locus.com (Krissie Griffiths) writes:
    > ?fibrocystic breast disease?

    Ask your doc about Vitamin E intake; I believe there was an article
    a couple of years on vitamin E and fibrocystic breast disease in the
    New England Journal of Medicine.

    Best Wishes

    == Bob Yazz ==

    == Bob Yazz ==

  3. admin says:

    kris…@locus.com (Krissie Griffiths) writes:
    > i have been told by my ob/gyn to cut the caffeine out.  hmmm, seems a lump
    > in a breast is the reason.

    > i drink maybe a couple diet cokes or on a rare day three.  i drink no coffee
    > tea or other caffeine containing beverages, do not eat chocolate, etc.

    > the only other factor is my migraine medication which has 40 mg caffeine in
    > each tablet, and i usually take three at a clip, sometimes six to eight a
    > day on a bad day.

    Caffeine does not have any analgesic activity and may itself induce
    headache in excessive dosage or on withdrawal.  High doses can
    produce insomnia, anxiety and gastric ulceration.  Furthermore,
    polypharmacy (the combination of many different drugs) is something
    which is to be avoided, especially with unnecessary ingredients like
    caffeine, as it complicates the clinical picture when unwanted signs or
    symptoms appear (as in the above case with the lump in the breast).
    Does anyone know what the reason is for caffeine being included in
    antimigraine preparations?


    Gerry Macridis, PO Box 3929, Wellington, New Zealand
    Phone +64 4 899444  Mail: xa…@tornado.welly.gen.nz