My trip to visit my niece in San Diego for a dinner party for monthly donors to Wildlife Madagascar went well. However, after I arrived home Saturday, I started to develop a really bad headache.
I didn’t know if it was a migraine or sinus infection. I’ve had the problem in my travels of getting a respiratory infection after a plane trip. I’d worn my N95 mask on the plane and a blue surgical mask in the airport, but I did take off the mask on the plane to have a cup of tea.
I called the nurse help line offered by my insurance company, and the nurse thought it was a migraine. I wasn’t so sure.
I decided to take a hot shower, hoping the steam would help. It did. Also, for sinus infection, breathing in steam from boiling water on the stove can decrease the pain. It also helped.
However, I still wasn’t sure. I decided to read some articles on the difference between migraines and sinus infection.
I found a couple of articles that said caffeine can trigger headaches. I quickly reached for the migraine medication.
Migraines run in my family. My Aunt Jessie had them and her headaches occurred frequently. I remember her visiting from California once and, although she was fine when she arrived, she did get a bad headache.
Fortunately, I only have one or two migraines a year. And, they started a few years ago, so I haven’t had to deal with them throughout my life.
Why did I get a caffeine related headache?
When I drive a long way, I like to drink caffeine so I don’t get sleepy at the wheel. For years, I just drank a regular Coke, but recently it wasn’t working well. All that sugar, 35 grams. I’d get sleepy.
Lately, I’ve been drinking 5-Hour Energy, extra strength, for long drives. The bottle says it “fixes tired fast.” I had a couple of sips of it before I left the parking lot at the airport.
Then, earlier I’d purchased a can of Monster energy drink because I wasn’t sure how much 5-Hour Energy drink I had left.
I also ate a big chocolate cookie at the co-op when I stopped there on the way home. Then, there was the black tea I drank on the airplane.
5-Hour Energy, extra strength, has 230 mg of caffeine for the 2-ounce bottle. Maybe I had 25 mg of caffeine from it.
The Monster Energy Ultra Strawberry Dreams, 16 ounces, had 150 mg of caffeine.
In the large chocolate cookie, it probably had about 10 grams of caffeine.
For that black tea on the airplane, it may have had about 50 mg of caffeine.
That’s about 235 mg of caffeine, well below the 400 mg of caffeine a day that health care people say may be safe for most adults.
So, why did I get the bad headache?
Here are some reasons people get migraines related to caffeine from WebMD, a medical website:
- Caffeine withdrawal.
- Too much caffeine.
- Caffeine sensitivity.
- Medication overuse.
- Dehydration.
- Sleep loss.
- Allergic reaction.
I’ll be watching how much caffeine I’m getting from energy drinks in the future when I’m using them to stay awake when driving on long trips. Migraines are very painful, and it’s best to avoid them when possible.
