A Lesson From Personal Experience
I was drinking a full pot of coffee per day, for that last several years, of my own design that included thick viscous leaded Starbucks French Roast, ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon, vanilla extract, honey, and 2% reduced fat milk until I experienced something "strange" at work one day. I'll give the recipe for the coffee after I explain what happened.
One day after lunch I was walking back from the company cafeteria to my office and noticed that I could not see correctly out of my left eye in the region of the fovia. I made a doctors appointment two days later and explained the symptoms to my doctor, being very specific with the size, geometry, and location of the visual anomaly in the fovia: a slightly bowed and thick horizontal line that had a downward directed sweeping/refresh rate of about 5 Hz (I used to work in Neurology at the Medical College of Ohio, specifically with EEG). The doctor was a little concerned that a "layman" was speaking to him about symptoms in his terminology. He asked me what I did for a living and I replied that I worked at Pfizer. He asked "what do you sell?" and I replied "I'm a scientist, not a sales consultant." That probably had some bearing on his judgement as a patient who probably knew a little about what he was describing. The doctor darkened the room, and examined both of my eyes, turned on the lights and asked if I had experienced any headaches recently. I said "no". He then inquired about my diet, asking if I drink coffee, tea, colas, etc... I said that I drink about a pot of Starbucks French Roast throughout the day. He then asked if I had any processed food products lately, specifically egg-beaters, processed meat products, cheese, etc... I responded that I usually had a "breakfast special" most mornings as I read my email that included eggbeaters some times w/ cheese, 2 to 4 strips of bacon, and hashbrowns. He then explained to me that I experienced a "migraine equivalent" and I immediately said that I did not experience any pain whatsoever. The doctor said "that it why it's called a migraine equivalent - you experience all of the symptoms of a migraine headache except the pain." He then gave me a printed list of food products "to stay away from" that can cause these symptoms. He told me to stop my coffee intake completely for two weeks and I should feel pretty good without it. It was somewhat difficult not drinking coffee for a month and a half. I quite drinking coffee that day. For four days my brain was in a fog the likes of which I have never experienced - I was concerned I had brain damage (mild stroke?) because "things seemed different." After two weeks I was pretty much back to feeling normal - no brain fog/haze. Since that time I resumed drinking my precious leaded coffee, though I usually have only two large cups per day (Pfizer has a contracted company serve Starbucks coffee and other goodies in little stations throughout it's R&D facilites, though it's no match for my personal blend).
In researching Pfizer's digital library, I have learned a little about caffeine and it's effects on the body. In excess amounts, like I was taking in, it can have mild to moderate side effects, visual anomalies included. Your body builds up a tolerance to caffeine, and over time requires more to get the buzz or "get you going" and then the side effects start happening when the increased caffeine concentration starts affecting other processes in your body.
Caffeine increases insulin production, very bad for people who are hypoglycemic (low blood sugar due to innate increased insulin production), like me. So having low blood sugar, I shouldn't be ingestiing an insulin producing stimulant - bad, very bad because your pancreas has a limited lifetime of producing insulin before it cannot perform that function anymore, leading to adult-onset diabetes.
Just thought I'd share an experience.
My coffee recipe:
1/3 cup Starbucks French Roast in your coffee maker.
1 Tspn ground cinnamon (in the coffee pot/carafe)
1 Tspn ground nutmeg (in the coffee pot/carafe)
1/3 to 1/2 cup vanilla extract
In your coffee mug:
1/8 to 1/4 cup honey
coffee
1/4 cup milk
Honey was chosen as the sweetener because of three reasons: I'm hypoglycemic, honey has complex carbohydrates that are more friendly to hypoglycemics/diabetics, and honey is loaded with vitamins and minerals. Ground cinnamon (not the extract) in any food has a molecular mimic for insulin. It was recently accidentally that consuming about 1 tspn of ground cinnamon (not the extract) can alleviate some diabetic/hypoglycemic symptoms.
