Is Coffee Contributing to Your Back Pain?
Is your favorite morning beverage, coffee, possibly contributing to your back pain? In this post, we’ll be discussing how coffee may be exacerbating your pre-existing back pain symptoms, or how coffee may be causing your muscles to twitch and tighten due to its diuretic effects. Read on to learn more about how you may benefit from cutting back on your coffee consumption if you’re experiencing back pain and you happen to be a heavy coffee drinker.
It’s Not Exclusively Coffee, It’s Caffeine
The issue isn’t coffee itself so much as the components of coffee. The components of coffee being caffeine and its dehydrating nature when you happen to drink too much over a shorter period of time. When you consume large amounts of caffeine over a short period of time, which coffee can provide, your anxiety/stress levels may increase, your overall bodily inflammation may increase, and you may have trouble falling asleep, leading to a poor recovery from your back pain. Again, any caffeinated beverage will likely have the same effect, it just so happens to be coffee is the most popular caffeinated beverage in the world.
How is Caffeine Linked to Back Pain?
Caffeine is linked to back pain in the following ways:
Heightened Stress & Anxiety
Whenever you have heightened stress or anxiety, you often carry it in your neck, shoulders, and back. If you’re consistently consuming caffeinated beverages such as coffee every day, and your anxiety and stress levels are heightened from said caffeinated beverages; you’ll likely find greater levels of stress being carried in your neck, shoulders, and back.
Muscle Tension
Muscle tension can be created by the effects of too much caffeine consumption. As coffee drinkers, we’ve all felt the effects of too much caffeine at once and maybe it’s as minute and annoying as twitchy eyelids, or it could be something as troubling as a back spasm which throws off your whole day. Consuming too much caffeine for your personal tolerance level may certainly create unwanted tension in the muscular system of our bodies, resulting in back pain.
Dehydration
Coffee is inherently a diuretic, which means it causes the body to pass more urine, more often. This diuretic effect can cause dehydration, which in turn may cause back pain in certain individuals.
Ways to Reduce Caffeine Consumption in Your Life
If you’re trying to reduce caffeine consumption in your day-to-day routine, you may want to try replacing your coffees with tea (black or green), or even a fruit and vegetable smoothie. These lower-caffeine or no caffeine options could greatly reduce your reliance on coffee and help you live the life you want.
Contact Us for Help with Your Back Pain
If you’re experiencing chronic back pain, and nothing seems to be helping you return back to a normal life, you’ll want to contact us using the form below. We’ll be sure to have our team reach out to you with the next steps regarding your appointment with one of our excellent medical providers. We look forward to hearing from you soon!
DISCLAIMER: No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
