There are quite a few ENT problems that can potentially be due to caffeine intake. Even death has been attributed to high caffeine intake in young adults who drink a lot of energy drinks like Red Bull.
In any case, caffeine can contribute to (some proven, some suspected, some debatable):
• Tinnitus
• Meniere’s Disease
• Migraine Headaches
• Headaches
• Dizziness
• Reflux
• Lump in Throat Sensation (Globus)
• Chronic throat clearing
• Dry throat
• Phlegmy throat
Alcohol and salt are other big as well as under-recognized items that may cause similar ENT issues.
As such, caffeine abstinence is one of the first things to be tried with some of these conditions. What many people may not realize is how prevalent caffeine is even in some food items not normally considered to contain caffeine. Such unrecognized items include decaffeinated coffee (it has been de-caffeinated, but not to the point of being caffeine free), tea, and chocolate.
Here is an infographic showing relative caffeine amounts in a variety of beverages taken from C&EN:
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2013 at 8:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.