Am I drinking too much caffeine? Horrible headaches!

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I have been drinking coffee everyday for about 5 years now, I also have a love for various energy drinks. Yesterday I think I may have experienced some strong effects of caffeine withdraw.

In the morning, I had about 2 cups of black coffee. I ended up going hiking with a friend, everything seemed fine. When we got back he offered me a Coke. I felt great...that is for a while. I started feeling groggy, so I ended up drinking a Red Bull to wake me up a bit. It helped me for 20 minutes or so, but after that I had what can only be described as a burning, achey feeling that started in my eyes. It eventually moved on to my forehead and it was one of the most intense headaches I'd ever had!

I quickly told my friend that I had to get going, and went home to immediately take some Ibuprofen. It took nearly an hour for the headache to subside completely. I then realized that I may not have been drinking enough water. I only had maybe 24 oz the whole day.

This seems to be an isolated incident. I'm curious if anyone has ever faced these kind of headaches after drinking a lot of caffeine? Could the headaches be due to lack of water maybe?

Red Bull and similar energy drinks contain caffeine and taurine, both have a diuretic effect (makes your body produce urine, thus dehydrating you). Though Red Bull is marketed at sports events, these type of energy drinks are different from sports drinks. Sports drinks contain no caffeine and no taurine.

Also the coke and the energy drink both contain lots of sugar. These cause spikes in your blood sugar level and make you feel refreshed at first, and feeling worse when the effect wears off. It's better to drink water when hiking.

I don't think the headache is from caffeine withdrawal, because you just had an energy drink and if I remember correctly caffeine takes a few hours to get removed from the bloodstream.

It gives me headaches.

Is caffeine not a vaso-dilator?

I'm very sensitive to caffeine - (the trouble is, I like coke). I've never drank red bull - I think it would be very dangerous for me to do so.

It does sound like a caffeine headache. I'm sure drinking more water would have helped.

After a couple of days of drinking caffeinated drinks like coke, I'll get headaches when I stop - like withdrawl sort of symptoms.

I'd suggest trying to cut down, or trying some decaffinated alternatives, because maybe your body is rebeblling.

Caffeine is a drug, when all is said and done.

Did you look at the ingredients for Red Bull? Lots of chemicals. I doubt it was the coffee. It was probably the food colouring, artificial flavours, artificial sweetners in both the Red Bull and Coke.