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Do you love a great cup of coffee but sometimes feel dizzy afterward? Coffee can leave you feeling a bit queasy, especially if you drink it before breakfast. Find out the reasons why you may feel nauseous after a latte, cappuccino, or even an instant coffee and how to manage it.
Overall Dehydration
You may feel nauseated or drained when you’re not properly hydrated. So, when you wake up, don’t grab a cup of coffee immediately. Instead, drink at least a glass of water to help your body flush out toxins and hydrate your cells first thing in the morning. It is also advisable to drink eight glasses of water a day. Don’t use coffee as a substitute for sparkling clean water.
Abdominal Distress
Coffee is one of the major causes of acid reflux and heartburn. Caffeine stimulates the release of gastrin and secretion of gastric acid and may become more obvious when you take coffee in the morning on an empty stomach. The abdominal distress may make you feel nauseous. So, before you drink your favorite brew, have some food in your stomach.
Coffee contains various acids that add flavor to your brew. However, these acids, when drinking on an empty stomach, can lead you to feel dizzy. The irritation in your stomach lining can cause feelings of queasiness.
Coffee also triggers acid indigestion, but there are ways to manage heartburn and reducing the likelihood of experiencing acid reflux every time you sip your favorite drink:
- Try a low acid coffee bean. The darker the roast, the lower the acid; so choose your coffee beans wisely. You can also buy Sumatra and Mexico coffee or decaf because they are lower in acid.
- Reduce your consumption of sugars and, unhealthy fats, because they require more acid to break down in the stomach. Adding coffee to the mix increases acidity and the risk of heartburn. Caffeine is often considered an acid trigger, especially when taken in excess. But, avoid artificial and zero-calorie sweeteners because they could stir up your gut-bacteria, and in turn, lead to acid reflux. If you don’t like sugar, just settle for alternatives like stevia or cinnamon.
Non-dairy, low-fat and artificial creamers also contain fructose, hydrogenated oils and other harmful ingredients that can actually lead to nausea. So, just go for all-natural milk or creamer because calcium offsets acidity.
Coffee is a Stimulant
Caffeine can have various effects on your body. Aside from increasing your pulse rate and breathing, it can also cause anxiety jittery feeling and dizziness. But, ingesting a cup or so of coffee don’t usually lead to these negative reactions. Only those who consume large amounts of coffee may experience the unpleasant stimulating effects of caffeine.
To be on the safe side, just limit your coffee intake to 100 mg of caffeine. But, if you’re not experiencing adverse reactions from caffeine intake, you can take as much as 4 cups of coffee or 400 mg of caffeine without worrying about any issues.
Anthony is a professional barista in the city of Chicago. He has written for many online publications on various topics related to coffee.
Why do I get jitters from strong coffee but never from black tea?
The short answer is that tea has L-Theanine - a chemical that helps soothe anxiety. It is not uncommon for people to take L-Theanine with their coffee, or on the side as a supplement.
How to get rid of coffee jitters?
Begin by flushing your system with water, followed by some form of exercise. Next, you might reach out for some herbal tea that can help calm you.
I drink at least 10 cups of coffee a day . Now instead of getting a boost when i drink a cup of coffee i go sleepy and want to nap.
ten cups?? wow you are something
I drank two cups of coffee on an empty stomach and my entire head or brain started feeling weird, and I became very nauseous and very dizzy. I eventually vomited numerous times…. I was very frightened that something bad may happen due to the strange sort of tingling sensation throughout my entire brain. I began drinking water, and the feeling did not seem to subside. I only vomited more and when I made any slight movements, I became more nauseous. I had to lay sitting upwards … I then drank more water and went to the bathroom numerous times throughout this entire episode. Finally little by little… I guess my system was flushing everything out every 5 minutes or so that I had to run to the bathroom and in between urinating and vomiting. I did not start to feel better until maybe 11 pm or so. And I drank the coffee around 10 am , but did not feel the affect of it until maybe 11am, an hour after I drank the 2 cups of coffee on an empty stomach.
That’s how I feel now. What a scary feeling. I felt he Sam exact way and is hard to describe it.
This helps me so much thank you for sharing.💞 I’m off coffee from now on.
Thanks for sharing. I had exactly the same reactions today as you describe and I think it is related to coffee. I had three cups of coffee yesterday. This morning I woke up and had a very light breakfast followed by a medium cup coffee. After one hour or so of finishing my coffee I went to run some errands. I started feeling light headed, nauseous and went to the store bathroom. I ended up finishing my shopping not sure how, but when I got home, I had numerous bowel movements and felt exhausted. I didn’t vomit, but was very nauseous and dizzy. This was the worst possible feeling ever… Sumayah, as you describe it, i recovered only after 10pm. Thanks for posting this. I know I learned my lesson. 🙁
This happened to me today, it’s now 9:30pm and I’m still not well.
i drink coffee this afternoon (Half and then threw it away because i suddenly felt uneasy) and its make me feel sick but i’m high school. I’m kinda scared. Thank you for telling, right now, slowly recover, hopefully i’ll be fine.
I’m fairly young, and i had my first cup of actual coffee yesterday (not cream based). It was actually very nice, me and my friends were hanging out and it was decently warm weather outside. The next day (today) i woke up at around 3 am, and it was a struggle to get back to sleep. i only slept for about 5 hours, even so while being half conscious because it was very hot in my bed. eventually i got up because i just couldnt sleep. i woke up with heavy nausea, dizziness to the point where i couldnt stand straight, i had to bend over and hobble my way over to places. i have not thrown up (unfortunately i have a fear of nausea and vomiting, so i would resist as much as i could if i felt something coming on) but i just lost my appetite completely. i would pick at a tiny piece of bread for an hour and then not even eat it. (take note: i have a bad track history of my mental health being stable, so this is when i felt like i was finally on top of things and treated myself to my first coffee.) i also felt EXTREMELY tired, to the point where i couldn’t even look at my online classes for half a min without dozing off. My right leg was very jittery and shaky and if i stopped moving it, id feel sick again. i was honestly so scared by then. However, i didn’t drink the coffee on an empty stomach. I did some research and it did say that in some cases teenagers (13 for me) would feel nauseous either the same day or the day after. I told my mum about this and she told me that caffeine isn’t good for my age and i shouldn’t drink it again. I agree with her and i just want to know other people’s experiences, to see if they’re similar to mine. also sorry for the looong paragraph haha.
A dry roasted hazelnut coffee in the morning is triggering nausea. I have not experienced this with other coffee, , most often Sumatra or a breakfast blend. I haven’t noticed it with hazzlenut flavored, just roasted.
Thanks for posting this! I had a random afternoon coffee on an empty stomach and got super nauseated today. It was so weird, but I think the coffee I got from a Heavenly Donuts was highly acidic. I read the post, took some Antacid meds, drank a ginseng & peach herbal tea and then drank a bunch of water. Felt fine after 30 minutes. Thanks so much. I am a mom and you saved the day.