Caffeine alters your body's functioning in multiple, powerful ways. For example, it increases your metabolism, speeds up digestion and even alters your brain chemistry. Because this drug has such potency, your stomach might experience some negative and painful side effects as it works to digest caffeine.
Caffeine and Stomach Acid
Caffeine can cause your stomach to produce excessive acid, notes the Cleveland Clinic. This excess acid can wear away at your stomach lining or climb upward to your esophagus. As a result, you might experience pain or cramps in the middle and upper areas of your abdomen. If you experience severe or long-lasting stomach pain, contact your doctor.
Effects on Stomach Lining
Over time, as the excess acid irritates the stomach lining, painful inflammation can occur. As the acid begins eroding the tissue, it can create holes and sores, known as ulcers, in the lining of your stomach. Caffeine can also aggravate ulcers caused by other sources. Ulcers can cause severe pain, and they require medical attention. If left untreated, ulcers can bleed excessively, fully perforate the wall of your stomach, cause an abdominal obstruction or require surgery. Caffeine can also aggravate gastroenteritis or gastritis, conditions that cause inflammation of the stomach lining. Viruses or bacteria cause these conditions, but caffeine can worsen the pain.
Other Direct Effects
Caffeine, especially in excess or in a person with low caffeine tolerance, can cause indigestion. Although not serious or ultimately damaging, indigestion can cause pain in the stomach area, sometimes accompanied by bloating, nausea and gas. Caffeine also can cause or worsen heartburn, a burning sensation in your chest that occurs when stomach acid flows upward into your esophagus.
Indirect Effects
Caffeine can affect you emotionally and mentally, and the resulting mood can affect you physically. If consuming caffeine makes you feel nervous or agitated, those feelings might cause a stomachache.
What to Do
If consuming caffeine causes pain in your stomach, slowly begin eliminating caffeine from your diet. Most of the painful conditions caused by caffeine will increase in severity if caffeine continues to irritate them. The absence of caffeine, on the other hand, allows your body to heal itself. If your pain feels severe or lasts for several days, contact your doctor.
References
- Cleveland Clinic: Indigestion
- Net Wellness: Stomach Pain and Caffeine; Julie Kennel; March 2010
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Digestive Disorders -- Stomach and Duodenal Ulcers
- National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse: What I Need to Know About Peptic Ulcers
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, University Health Services: Gastroenteritis -- Upset Stomach
- MedlinePlus: Abdominal Pain
