When a headache starts to come on, some people reach for a cup of coffee. A brain researcher and a neurologist explain what this really does.
When your head hurts and throbs, you’d like to pull the covers over your head. Or drink a cup of coffee. Many people consider this to be a tried and tested home remedy for headaches. That’s why an espresso with lemon is also considered an insider tip for headaches.
Coffee: The effect on headaches
Prof. Frank Erbguth, President of the German Brain Foundation, revealed to the German Press Agency (dpa) whether the caffeine it contains actually helps against a pounding head.
Can coffee help with headaches?
Frank Erbguth: In the case of tension headaches and migraines, coffee and the caffeine it contains are known to relieve the pain.
Many headache tablets also contain caffeine. What is better for a headache – taking them or having a cup of coffee?
It’s a question of dosage. To relieve a headache, you need between 100 and 200 milligrams of caffeine. If you break that down to a cup of coffee, you get 30 to 60 milligrams. So to meet your needs, you would have to drink between two and four cups.
The ideal solution is therefore a combination of classic painkillers such as paracetamol, ibuprofen or aspirin and coffee. Be careful: taking painkillers too often – that is, on more than 10 days a month – can lead to overuse headaches.
Can coffee also cause headaches?
The caffeine contained in coffee can cause headaches under certain circumstances. For example, frequent consumption can lead to a habituation to caffeine, which can lead to headaches when the caffeine is stopped.
Another possibility is that high caffeine consumption increases urine excretion, which leads to a lack of water in the body. The lack of fluids then often causes headaches. (Editor’s note: It is therefore advisable to generally make sure you drink enough water.)
A cup of coffee before bed?
Astrid Gendolla, a practicing neurologist and pain therapist from Essen, also confirms the effect of coffee on headaches. In an interview with Web.de, she says: “Reports and some smaller studies indicate its pain-relieving effect on so-called sleep-related headaches.”
People who suffer from this type of headache wake up at least ten days a month at night because of the headache, it is said. “A strong cup of coffee can be a good treatment option,” Gendolla continues. Therefore, the coffee is drunk before going to bed.
How coffee relieves pain
The neurologist explains the mechanism behind the pain relief provided by coffee: the caffeine it contains can reduce the diameter of the brain vessels. “This reduces both the cerebral blood flow, i.e. the measure of the blood supply to the brain in a certain time interval, and the flow speed,” explains Gendolla. “This could be the reason for the pain-relieving effects in headaches that are triggered by vascular nerves.”
Another explanation focuses on the cafestol contained in coffee in combination with substances produced by the body. According to this, the combination would increase people’s pain tolerance.
Sources: dpa, Web.de
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