Sara's Friend - Info about caffeine & nicotene withdrawal please?

[Guest guest]

Okay, this is rather weird, but I'm sure of it now. _Every_ time he

quits drinking coffee--and he has to *quit*, to have none at all--his

stomach feels almost entirely better the next day, and now, after three

days, he's still a little sore but having no pains, no " fullness " or

heartburn, and almost no belching.

Unfortunately, he's got an *awful* headache. I hear this is pretty

normal when a heavy coffee drinker like he (or I--but I'm weaning

myself; I'm down from three-plus pots a day (I know!) to under half of

one. quits suddenly. He can't really take any OTC painkillers for

it, since they upset his stomach too (none worse than Excedrin...which

has caffeine!).

Also, it makes me think back to how this started, with his quitting

smoking--and he was a heavy-to-way-heavy smoker for, seriously, 21

years, and he quit cold-turkey with me. I also read something, when I

quit the cigarettes, about how you have to drastically reduce your

coffee intake when you quit nicotene, because nicotene blunts the

effects of caffeine somehow. (I can't remember where I read that--can

anybody back it up?)

Any other information or links about caffeine and/or nicotene withdrawal

would be appreciated, as well. There's a lot of very _basic_

information out there, from the government and the tobacco industry, but

I've not felt like I've gotten the " real scoop " . And I trust you guys.