I don’t get the rashes that some of you are reporting but I do feel very irritable even if I have only a few ounces of tea. I used to drink about 6 cups of coffee a day and could not quit smoking until I quit the coffee as well. I guess I was using coffee for the boost in energy while the cigarettes were for balance, and somehow the combination was just splendid. For me at least, the combo also demonstrated how powerful caffeine can be for some people. Well, I guess there was also the time I was browsing through a sort of drug encyclopedia at a university library and found that caffeine was categorized under pscychoactive drugs with chemical similarities to opiates.

Rarely drink coffee but when I do it has an immediate affect of sinus drainage and sour, bloated stomach. This is also the case when I take an Exedrin (only one). I drink about two cokes a day and have noticed consistent headaches and a white film on my tongue. I am on day 2 of fasting and taking an herbal cleansing and am feeling a little relief in my stomach. I wonder if others have similar symptoms.

I was never very sensitive to caffeine when I was younger. But in college, I started the energy drink binges for those long nights cramming for exams or just for an extra boost at the club. Then suddenly I started having panic attacks at school. By the third time, it finally clicked that the attacks only occurred immediately following a fresh infusion of red bull, bullet, blast or doubleshot. It was exactly as what is described as an allergy to caffeine. I’d have the intense feeling/need to get up and leave, getaway, from wherever I was. My heart was pounding and skipping beats, I felt extremely hot, couldn’t focus, my mind would race, I talked rapidly and all over the place, everything would look far away and blurry.
Obviously I stopped taking energy drinks and I never had another panic attack. However, I continued drinking green tea and my sensitivity seemed to invade here as well. Now, less than two cups of regular green tea ingested in the morning will leave me dysrhythmia jittery all day and with trouble sleeping at night. I never really thought of it as an allergy, but I guess it is and a very serious one for some people if not recognized as such or misdiagnosed.

Jasper & Kevin. I too believe I’m allergic to caffeine. My tongue has been swelling for years and it has become worse since starting thyroxine hormone replacement. For a while I blamed the meds…but am wondering if it is worse for the combination of thyroxine and tea…. I’m so addicted to tea that I’m having difficulty stopping drinking it.

I’m not sure if I’m allergic to caffeine but I have certainly become very sensitive to it. When younger I used to drink loads of coke (a litre a day) and never seemed to have any problems, although I suppose my body became used to it.
Last year I went through a stage of feeling very anxious and panicky, mostly whilst at work. I would feel hot, restless, shaky, over-stimulated and my heart would race. It was an awful feeling. At first I thought it was stress-related but I finally realised most of it was actually caused by drinking tea, coffee and coke which all contain caffeine. I started to reduce my caffeine intake considerably and the anxiety went away.
Nowadays I find if I have just one cup of tea or coffee the anxiety feelings return quickly, until I flush it out of my system.
Funny how some people don’t seem to be affected by caffeine at all.

I drink a 32 oz espresso with an extra shot (so about 7 shots) just about everyday. It wakes me up, but relaxes me. Without it I am agitated and get frusterated easily! I need my coffee to function, and work, without I just want to sleep all day, and I have no motivation!

Just about 3 weeks ago, I thought I was breaking out with acne all over my forehead. I realize now that they are welts and I am probiby allergic to my addicton!! I have been drinking it anyway, because I am afraid of who I am without it!! NEVER, in a million years, did I ever imagine I would be both addicted and allergic to CAFFINE!!! CRAZY!!

The welts are small ike bites like the other member poster before, and they itch, and hurt. I am hoping it is the milk allergy like another wrote about, as well! I am perplexed!!

I’m not sure if I’m allergic to caffeiene but whenever i drink any of it my heart always goes into an arrhythmia so what would that mean?

I am wildly allergic to caffeine. Now and then, a little bit of it makes me feel better, but I know that when I have too much of it, the lining of my nose and sinuses swell up and I have some difficulty breathing; even worse is that my vision blurs, extremely badly, and I get really tired. I also am ultra-depressed later. When I’m smart, I avoid caffeine, or only take a few sips (I am addicted – the first few sips make me feel great psychologically). I’m 29 and had minor symptoms from this throughout my life, but have gotten unbelievably bad in the past couple of years. Other allergies are kicking in severely too… I’m getting allergy shots for things like pollens and hope that once those allergies are under control, maybe ones I’m nt being vaccinated for will be better too.

I seem to have an allergy to tea but not to coffee. I don’t know about the caffeine, but the tea irritates my mouth. My tongue gets a burning sensation from drinking tea. It is an irritation. A while back I had a long period of a sore tongue while living in a Yoga Ashram. After I left, the sore tongue went away. Then I drank some tea it came back! But I don’t get the burning or rawness from coffee, just tea, so i don’t think its caffeine. But with all the searching on the net, I could find no one else who also is allergic to tea with the effect of a burning/raw tongue/mouth.

For Paul… Black tea irritaes my mouth and throat. It makes my tongue sore and swollen. It seems to be associated with a flare of fibromyalgia. Green tea doesn’t seem to be as bad. Coffee is fine. Oddly enough diet coke is fine also. I’m going to try switching from Lipton to Kurchika. Maybe it’s something in the tea bags?