Caffeine question: Anyone improve temporarily?

General
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Hi Everyone,
Before creating this post, I tried using the search tool on “caffeine”. The results are almost entirely about avoiding caffeine.

I’ve been testing caffeine and it temporarily helped. Has anyone experienced temporary relief from Eagles symptoms, particularly headache pain and orthostatic intolerance, from a high dose of caffeine, such as 200mg? (And equally important: rebound symptoms later, worse than baseline symptoms, after 2-4 hours?)

It’s my understanding that caffeine constricts blood flow within the brain, and it makes sense that it would reduce the venous outflow pressure until the effects wear off, causing a rebound effect. (So I don’t recommend caffeine.)

I’m asking for feedback because I want to be sure that what I’m experiencing doesn’t conflict with my current Eagles syndrome diagnosis (bilateral IJV stenosis). In other words, before moving forward, I want to ensure we’re not missing a differential that this caffeine effect is pointing toward.

BTW, I’ve been through extensive neurology work up to check for migraine, and I’ve tried every available treatment to rule it out. On the other hand, the IJV stenosis at C1 is positive, I had an high opening pressure lumbar puncture, and I have extensive related collaterals—hence the Eagles diagnosis.

Thanks for reading this. Has anyone experienced a similar effect of caffeine? Any thoughts about this are appreciated, actually.

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As you discovered, any discussions about caffeine haven’t mentioned it being beneficial to reducing IH symptoms possibly because of the rebound you noted when it wears off & due to it constricting blood within the brain which you also noted & which increased other symptoms. Perhaps there are members who’ve tried it & haven’t reported results. Hopefully if that’s the case someone will comment.

Typically, I think caffeine increases symptoms because it’s a stimulant, thus the reason for the negative comments you’ve read regarding caffeine usage. There have been some recent discussions about OTC supplements that seem to reduce brain fog especially for those who have had their ES/IJV decompression surgeries.

Have you had a consult w/ any of the specialists who do surgery for ES w/ IJV compression? If so, with whom have you met & what did you learn? If not, Dr. Nakaji in Scottdale, AZ, would be a good starting point as he is very experienced w/ both ES & IJV compression.

This information alone pretty well confirms that your worst symptoms are likely from your IJV compression, & if you have decompression surgery, & blood flow from your brain returns to a more normal level, your cognitive function should be restored to a pretty normal leve. It does take some months after surgery for the brain to adjust to the new level of blood flow. Positive results are usually not instantaneous.