[Teslazar]

I had a similar problem. Coffee, decaf, even dark chocolate would be very stimulating and would mess with my sleep, even a single cup in the morning. I tried quite a few things to solve this and ended up discovering that supplementing with molybdenum solved it. Molybdenum is an essential element important in the metabolization of some compounds, including caffeine. It's cheap and may be worth trying.

Also, I found that L-Theanine helped but only for maybe a week or so before it became less and less effective. For me, it was obviously a band-aid solution that wasn't correcting the underlying problem.

[hcrisp]

I couldn't find any citations that mention molybdenum as a way to increase metabolism of caffeine. However, I found one reference [0] that mentions, "Consumption of broccoli and brassica vegetables in general and absorption of large quantities of vitamin C increase caffeine clearance".

EDIT: It would seem that the vitamin C paper [1] concludes the opposite of what [0] states. "These results indicate that the elimination of caffeine in the elderly is not affected significantly by the concentrations of vitamin C achieved during this study."

    [0] https://www.coffeeandscience.org/health/coffee-and-caffeine/caffeine-and-metabolism
    [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7064899/

[TeaBrain]

A limited number of studies suggested tobacco smoking increases the metabolism of caffeine, an effect possibly mediated by caffeine.

"Caffeine metabolism is increased by smoking, an effect mediated by an acceleration in its demethylation (it also increases xanthine oxidase activity) (Parsons and Neims, 1978). Smoking cessation returns caffeine clearance rates to nonsmoking values (Murphy et al., 1988)."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223808/#:~:text=Caffei....

[Teslazar]

I'll add some more info to my post.

Caffeine is a purine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine).

A Google Scholar search for "molybdenum purine" will come up with many studies discussing how molybdenum is involved in purine catabolism. For example, the following article states "[molybdenum] is considered essential because it is part of a complex called molybdenum cofactor that is required for the three mammalian enzymes xanthine oxidase (XO), aldehyde oxidase (AO), and sulfite oxidase (SO). XO participates in the metabolism of purines". (https://aspenjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.117...).

When I was younger I was able to drink multiple pots of coffee in a day and even drink coffee right before going to sleep without any obvious issues. So when I couldn't even drink a single cup of coffee in the morning on a regular basis without problems I had reason to believe there was something wrong with me and it wasn't simply a genetic quirk.

[hilbert42]

I find discussion about caffeine sensitivity in humans rather fascinating given the very broad range of the amount required to induce an effect.

If those above are to be believed (or not suffering a psychosomatic response) and are still affected by decaffeinated coffee then the dosage between different individuals for given psychotropic effects to occur could be as high as 100:1.

As someone who can drink copious nubmers of cups of coffee in a single sitting and notice very little effect I'm curious to know why this range is so wide (heaven help patients, doctors and pharmaceutical manufacturers if all drugs had such a wide range).

Whenever I raise this the common retort is that I've developed a tolerance to caffeine, and no doubt that's true to some extent. But from experience it's pretty limited, I've been in situations where I've not had caffeinated drinks for months and not noticed any difference when I returned to them. Also, decades ago when I was a student I took up coffee to help stay awake whilst studying and it was pretty inefective. I tried evey strong brew availabe including up to five heaped teaspoons of Moccona instant coffee per cup and it was like water off a duck's back—almost useless/inefective.

The question is why do some people have a supersensitive response to caffeine whilst others do not.

[pillefitz]

Did taking molybdenum improve metabolism of caffeine in your case?

Did you have blood markers checked? For me, some values like GPT/GGT are in fact increased for unknown reasons.

I recently and unsuccessfuly researched ways to participate in studies, as I'd like to understand why I can't eat chocolate or drink coffee anymore.. I'm slightly concerned other toxins wouldn't be metabolized as well either, leading to early cancer down the road.

[herbst]

Stopped here to say L-Theanine as well. It's part of my morning routine for years now and without it coffee turns literal poison for my nerves.

[pillefitz]

Very interesting suggestion, will look into it. L-theanine has long been a staple of mine to counteract the effects of coffee. Typically have to redose at 4am, as the cortisol spike keeps me awake otherwise (that is, from a small coffee 26hrs ago..)

These days I'm limiting my intake to once a month or so