My father and I are both allergic to caffeine. The symptoms I get are:

- skin problems (itching, cystic acne)
- heart racing/palpitations
- dizziness
- inability to concentrate
- headaches

The first symptom can persist for days, but the other symptoms usually wear off within a few hours or a day.

I’m wondering about this myself.. I’ve read numerous articles now including this website and I should at least give “going caffeine free” a real chance. I have Eosinophilic Esophagitis which basically means I have an excess of white blood cells fighting allergies in my throat. I don’t really eat all that much, I’m afraid to because I choke so often (food impaction/”dysphagia”). I have been seeing doctors for about 6 months now and taken tons of allergy tests (it is caused by an allergic reaction to foods).. and my problems persist, especially lately. I know I consume too much caffeine (usually a double espresso, a soda, and a red bull every day) and have had some episodes where I pretty much go crazy having all kinds of strange and thoughts that are definitely not real. I used to feel so smart and able to think clearly, but lately I’m always confused, reading more than a paragraph or two of news is a chore, or my thoughts go elsewhere.. so hard to concentrate.. again I gotta give avoiding caffeine a try…

I discovered that i was allergic to caffeine a few years ago.My symptoms are feeling dizzy,stomach pains, feeling jittery, heart palpitations, vomiting, weakness. pains in my legs. feeling horrible! I tend to stick to hot drinks that are naturally caffeine free like fruit and herb teas.

I was diagnosed with a caffeine allergy years ago, but of course I ignored it-until now. Has anyone else ever had a feeling of lightness/weakness in your body, mainly arms and legs? I don’t know how else to explain the feeling, but it’s scary. It’s almost a numbness; it feels really weird. I would love to know that I’m not the only one who experiences this!

(sorry for poor english)
My symptoms were acnes on head, very ugly. I used to have longer hair just to hide them. Doctors didn’t succeded to answer to what I am alergic.
I accidentaly discovered when stopped to drink coffee becouse busy schedule. Until then, I drinked 4-5 coffees at daily basis, and I think that my organism was overhelmed with coffein.

From time to time, I drink coffee (cannot complitely without it) and it comes back.

bloody coffein

I realized I had either a caffeine allergy or a caffeine chemical intolerance in 2001. It took me about half a year to fully give up caffeine from all sources (chocolate, tea, coffee). I am so sensitive that I can not even drink a cup of decaffeinated coffee (it has 4 mg of caffeine). My symptoms are as follows when I ingest caffeine: muscle pains all over my body that can last days depending on how much caffeine I have ingested, the glands in my throat hurt, I feel like I am being stabbed randomly by pins all over my body, and difficulty urinating. Initially I went to all kinds of doctors and they were clueless. I finally gave up on the doctors and now I just take anti-inflamatories and avoid caffeine. Unfortunately, there is something in processed foods that also aggravates my muscle pain problem but I haven’t figured out what it is yet. I have found in the past that if I will stick to nothing but natural foods (no added chemicals and preservatives, etc), I don’t have any problems but that is just too hard for me so I keep eating junk food and taking the anti-inflammatories. But even with the anti-inflammatories, there is no way that I will ingest anything with caffeine; the days of pain are not worth it!!! A person tipped me off to avoid a food additive called “xanthan gum” and I have noticed that it does appear to aggravate my muscle pain symptom. It is in a lot of foods.

I have been to so many doctors, had so many tests,been told I have anxiety. I do believe that I have it alittle but after finally hearing from a friend at school there is a such thing as caffeine allergy, I feel a lot better. Today my mom was making brownies for her company and I thought before eatting this let me look up this caffeine thing. And here I am ready all of your comments, realizing this is probably my biggest problem. I am a chocoholic!!!I guess I am not going to have that brownie…I have all symptoms…numbness..tongue swelling..rashes..dizziness..heart racing…muscle pain..headaches..cant think straight..feel like i am off balance..ringing earss..everyday i think i have something else..trying to figure out what is wrong, because doctors dont ever think this…caffeine allergy..I feel so releived that finally I know what my problem has been..I am 22 and I knew that I had to have something wrong,,,,but all of these symptoms I feel like I am 80..Thank God I am able to see that this is whats wrong!! I wasn’t going to write, but you all helped me have a good understanding of why i feel this way..so hopefully i can help someone else…if you feel weird like your on drugs people think your crazy…look into your diet if you dont know whats wrong because caffeine plays a BIG part..I hope everyone feels better I know it is scary I feel uncomfortable all the time,,but we are all here together,,GOD BLESS………………Jess

I have been reading and reading through all of these comments but have found nothing similar to the reactions I have to my Caffeine Allergy.

When I was 15 I remember drinking a lot of Coke/pepsi for a prolonged period of time. The following months I developed my first bladder infection. The Nurse Practitioner told me that it was probably due to a caffeine allergy from the soda, in combination with the fact that drinking sodas can cause a type of dehydration.

I am now 23. Since that first bladder infection, I stayed away from most caffeine. Occasionally I would drink decaffe mochas, but like we all know, even thoughs have 2% caffeine.

Anyhow, my allergy to caffeine is different from everything that I have been reading about.Basically, if I have anything (iced tea, coffee, dark chocolate) immediately afterwards (within the hour) I will fee the onset of a UTI or Bladder Infection. To prevent the annoyance, I will take a few cranberry pills and drink a half a gallon of water.

These symtoms won’t necessarily cause a full-blown infection of the bladder or Urinary Tract, howevever the symptoms are : painful urination, pressure at the bladder, and stinging at the bladder.

I have noticed that this is only caused by caffeine—

Ie: Since being made aware of this allergy, I drink a gallon of water a day (usually). Recently, I had a glass of iced tea. I thought that since I drink so much water, it should flush easily out of my system. By the time I got home from the restaurant, urinating was painful, and burning.

The most sever effect of this allergy is last year: I became dehydrated and had a sun stroke from a prolonged time in the sun. Once I got better, I started drinking REGULAR COFFEE because I was craving it, and was hoping that after years of avoiding it, perhaps it wouldn’t affect me.

The end result was a bladder infection…After a few days, it turned into a flow blown KIDNEY INFECTION, for which I couldn’t breath and was hospitalized. It took 12 days of Levaquin (an antibiotic) to clear the infection.

If anyone reading this has these symtpoms from caffeine, I would like to hear about it…

Thanks!

So it’s official. I’ve developed an allergy to coffee! Duh! I don’t get the rash and bumps but after drinking coffee, especially, I get the worse case of pins and needles all over my body, intense itching all over that drives me bananas that feels like I’ve got ants crawling on my skin, especially on the top of my head, and muscle pains etc… I’ve also notice a significant problem with my memory lately that I haven’t been able to figure out, I can’t concentrate much of the time, and I feel cloudy and fatigued a lot no matter how much I sleep and I get very irritable and moody and intolerant which is not like me at all. I try to control the moods because I do notice it but its very hard. I didn’t notice a link to coffee until the other day. I was perfectly fine and I walked into a Starbucks and suddenly I began sneezing profusely and my eyes began to water and itch. It was instantaneous and because I hardly ever go into a Starbucks I noticed it right away and thought it was odd. When I walked out I was fine again. Later I was at a convention and I sat the cup of coffee on a table and an hour later I picked up the cup and took a sip and vuala the feeling of sneezing overcame me again at that very second! That’s when I went searching because I’ve never heard of a coffee/caffeine allergy so I hadn’t put two-and-two together until just now. So that explains it! Thanks everyone!

I discovered I had a reaction to caffeine 13 years ago. I drank alot of coffee at work, then one day I started getting severe cramps in my legs, so painful I couldn’t stand up. It was only when I went on holiday and drank no caffeine that it started to go away. I still didn’t click untill on the way home I had a coffee on the plane and a few hours later the cramps started again. So I gave up coffee.

I carried on with a cup of tea a day untill this year but now have cut it out completely as my vision starts going and my heart starts going far too fast, also my whole body feels numb especially hands and legs.

Beware of green tea and cold and flu pills both of which have caffeine in.