• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
The Healthy Home Economist

The Healthy Home Economist

embrace your right to a lifetime of health

Get Plus
  • Home
  • About
  • My Books
  • Shopping List
  • Archives
  • Log in
  • Get Plus
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Get Plus
  • Log in
  • Home
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Archives
  • My Books
  • Shopping List
  • Recipes
  • Healthy Living
  • Natural Remedies
  • Green Living
  • Videos
  • Natural Remedies
  • Health
  • Green Living
  • Recipes
  • Videos
  • Subscribe
Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Healthy Living / Is Caffeine Causing Your Chronic Back Pain?

Is Caffeine Causing Your Chronic Back Pain?

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • How Caffeine Weakens the Adrenals and Leads to Chronic Back Pain
  • How to Determine if Chronic Back Pain is from Adrenal Burnout
  • Strengthen the Adrenals to Help Resolve Chronic Back Pain
  • Sources and More Information

coffee and back pain

Back pain affects 9 out of 10 people at some point during their lives.  It is one of the most common reasons for people to miss work or visit the doctor to find relief.

Many cases of chronic back pain can be traced to structural problems with the spine such as scoliosis or, of course, injuries such as car accidents.

However, for many who suffer from chronic back pain, the reasons are less obvious and in some cases, downright baffling.

What if a simple caffeine habit like a daily cup or two of coffee or even that afternoon chocolate pick me up is causing your sore lower back?  Is this really possible?

Could your morning cup of Joe be having unintended consequences? Let’s find out.

You see, caffeine stresses the adrenal glands, round disk-shaped organs only a few inches across which sit atop each kidney on the posterior side of the body which is, you guessed it, right in the area of the lower back.

Just a single caffeinated drink stimulates your adrenal glands which translates into the energy boost that is the primary reason folks consume caffeine in the first place.

While this little boost is not a problem for most people on occasion, it can rapidly lead to weakened adrenals over time when this hit of adrenaline is sought day in and day out or even several times a day if that morning cup of coffee is followed by a caffeinated soda or chocolate bar in the afternoon and an espresso after dinner.

What about those 5-hour energy shots at the grocery store?  I call them “chronic back pain in a bottle”.

How Caffeine Weakens the Adrenals and Leads to Chronic Back Pain

Here’s what happens as explained to me by a chiropractor friend…

Stressing out the adrenals all the time with an unchecked caffeine habit weakens not only the adrenal glands but the entire area around them which includes the lower back. Weak adrenals also suck vital nutrients away from the ligaments and tendons as keeping an important organ like the adrenals happy is more important than strong connective tissue.

The body is very good at sending nutrients to the area that needs them most.   Trouble is, the less vital areas that get shortchanged in favor of the adrenals – such as the ligaments and tendons – suffer and over time, the first ligaments to go are typically the ones that support the sacroiliac joint which supports the weight of the entire body.

Where is the sacroiliac joint?   In the low back/pelvic area of course!

Have you ever gone to the chiropractor to get an adjustment for a sore lower back only to find that by the time you got into the car to drive home, your back was out again?

This is what happens with weakened ligaments and tendons – chronic subluxations and folks who practically live at the chiropractor’s office.

Wouldn’t it be smarter to end the caffeine addiction once and for all, give your adrenals some relief, and strengthen those tendons and ligaments so your back doesn’t go out all the time anymore?

caffeine causes back pain

How to Determine if Chronic Back Pain is from Adrenal Burnout

If you suspect that adrenal burnout is causing your chronic back pain, here are some simple at-home tests to determine if you are on the right track as described by Dr. L. Wilson MD:

  • First, take a fork and run it gently across the inside of your forearm.  Within about 10 seconds, the lines should turn red.  If the lines don’t turn red very readily, this can be a sign of adrenal fatigue. This article contains other little known adrenal fatigue symptoms for you to check such as wrinkles on the underside of your fingertips.
  • Another way to test your adrenals is to lay down on the floor for a few minutes and then get up very quickly. Does your blood pressure drop and do you feel lightheaded like you might even pass out?   This is another sign that your adrenals are struggling.
  • The final test is to take a flashlight and look in the mirror.  Shine the flashlight into one eye and notice if the pupil very quickly contracts as it should.  If not, adrenal weakness is a likely cause.

Strengthen the Adrenals to Help Resolve Chronic Back Pain

If you discover that you do in fact suffer from weak adrenals, getting off dependence on caffeine is one of the very best ways to strengthen them and thereby indirectly reduce your chronic back pain.  Three other effective strategies are:

  • Adequate rest – get to bed no later than 10:30 if possible.  If you are a night owl like me, resolve to get to bed by 10:30 pm at least a few nights a week at a minimum.
  • Reduce dependence on grains and sugars in the diet.
  • Increase the amount of salt in the diet – not processed salt, also called sodium, but sea salt which is full of minerals and is very soothing and healing for the adrenals (click here for quality sources).  Ignore the low salt dogma which is dangerous to health and has no effect on hypertension anyway according to recent reports and salt your food to taste.

Getting off or at least reducing caffeine intake is one of the very best things anyone can do for a healthy back and/or to resolve chronic back pain issues

This article shares some of the best coffee substitutes out there. Don’t forget about yerba mate and matcha tea when you are removing stimulants from your diet that are negatively affecting your back health. These beverages are both extremely high in caffeine – nearly as high as coffee.

If you have chronic back pain that is baffling you as well as your doctors or you find yourself living at the chiropractor or acupuncturist’s office, the time may be right to take a look at these two little glands that may need some serious TLC.

Sources and More Information

Why You Need to Change WHEN You Drink Coffee
Bulletproof Coffee Shoots You in the Foot
Your Morning Coffee Fix
Coffee and Gluten Sensitivity
Gluten Sensitivity or Celiac? Don’t Drink Coffee!
Adrenal Burnout, Dr. L. Wilson MD

FacebookPinEmailPrint
Category: Healthy Living
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: Amazon #1 bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

You May Also Like

Big Brother Is Checking Your Child’s Lunchbox

Free Updates Now Available for “Get Your Fats Straight”

Teacher Suspended for Showing Gardening Tools to Class

cup of nondairy yogurt on a table with a spoon

6 Ways to Thicken Homemade Plant-Based Yogurt (and which is best!)

2011: The Year of Opting Out En Masse

red meat allergy from tick bite

Can Tick Bites Trigger Allergies to Red Meat?

Feeling Tired More Than You Should?

Get a free chapter of my book Get Your Fats Straight + my weekly newsletter and learn which fats to eat (and which to avoid) to reduce sugar cravings and improve energy significantly!

We send no more than one email per week. You will never be spammed or your email sold, ever.
Loading

Reader Interactions

Comments (141)

  1. Kate @ Modern Alternative Mama

    Sep 13, 2011 at 11:20 am

    This is very interesting. My husband and I generally don’t consume caffeine (chocolate here and there, but no coffee or anything daily), but I suspect he has major adrenal issues. His back is always out, especially lower back, and the chiropractors don’t know why. He’s been seeing chiropractors for years and an accupuncturist/nutritionist for almost two years now, and we’ve seen a lot of progress this year, but still not quite right. We’ve been focusing on rest, FCLO, high quality sea salt, etc. for awhile but it takes time to heal.

    Also, salt is related to blood pressure, in that if you don’t have enough, your blood pressure can be dangerously low. I don’t know that the reverse (too much = high blood pressure) is true at all.

    Reply
    • Cassandra

      Sep 13, 2011 at 11:31 am

      My understanding was that too much salt causes edema around the heart, which squeezes it and raises blood pressure.

    • Elizabeth Jaconelli

      Sep 13, 2011 at 1:14 pm

      Not all salts are the same. Dr. Brownstein says it’s very difficult to heal the adrenals without plenty of unprocessed sea salt.

  2. Stephanie Sorensen via Facebook

    Sep 13, 2011 at 11:17 am

    I don’t drink it for the energy…I drink it with cream in it for the taste. I love it! But I have been drinking it every day for a while now, and I know it is one of my two major vices (sugar/chocolate is the other) that are hard habits to break! I may try giving up caffeine on the weekdays and just enjoying a cup with my breakfast on the weekends. I don’t know if I can give it up completely.

    Reply
  3. Jennifer Sara Jansky via Facebook

    Sep 13, 2011 at 11:13 am

    Wow, an article that says coffee is bad for you. That is amazing. Seems everywhere I look there are articles saying why you should drink it. I have never been a coffee drinker, smells good but taste awful.

    Reply
  4. Melissa Yorgey Heath via Facebook

    Sep 13, 2011 at 11:11 am

    I’d love to quit and see the effect, but the addiction is strong. 🙂

    Reply
  5. AnnMarie Michaels via Facebook

    Sep 13, 2011 at 11:08 am

    Quitting coffee was the best thing I ever did!

    Reply
  6. Lee-ann M Harder via Facebook

    Sep 13, 2011 at 11:07 am

    I have noticed my dark circles under my eyes minimize when I am not drinking the Joe – I sleep better too. If only I could inhale the fumes and get the same energy I sometimes find in a cup of Joe. :))) I truly love the smell more than the taste……..

    Reply
  7. HealthyHomeEconomist (@HealthyHomeEcon) (@HealthyHomeEcon) (@HealthyHomeEcon) (@HealthyHomeEcon) (@HealthyHomeEcon)

    Sep 13, 2011 at 10:57 am

    Is Caffeine Causing Your Back Pain? – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/HKcyuvt

    Reply
  8. Karen

    Sep 13, 2011 at 10:44 am

    Thanks for a great post. I have been treated for lower back pain for about 4 years with regular chiropractic adjustments. I altered my diet about 1 year ago and my chiropractor started me on adrenal support supplements about 6 months ago. My lower back has been holding its adjustments well for the past 4 months. I didn’t know why until your post today.

    Karen

    Reply
  9. Renee N.

    Sep 13, 2011 at 10:18 am

    Hi Sarah,

    Thank you for another wonderful post. I know I have weakened adrenal glands. I did the flashlight test about a year ago and was floored at the inability for my pupils to remain constricted (my husband as well). I also get very lightheaded upon standing or sitting up from a laying position.

    I have been on the fence about quitting caffeine (16 oz. every morning). I saw something about caffeine as a cancer preventive, though I admit I know very little about that claim. Are you familiar with that?

    Renee

    Reply
    • Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist

      Sep 13, 2011 at 11:00 am

      I have seen the info on coffee as a preventative but to me the negatives of drinking coffee far outweigh any purported benefit. If I drank even 1/2 cup of coffee a day, my health would be in serious trouble. Caffeine absolutely KILLS my adrenals and I would have debilitating back pain.

  10. jill

    Sep 13, 2011 at 10:18 am

    HI Sarah,
    As a chiropractor I can second that. In my experience, the long term effects of sub clinical adrenal insufficiency can affect all areas of a person’s health. There is a very accurate test for adrenal gland function. It is a saliva test for cortisol, one of the hormones secreted by the adrenal glands. Additionally the test shows the cortisol rhythm in a 24 hour period so that one can see if cortisol is too high or too low and at what time of day. It is simple, cheap and most alternative practitioners perform it. Once test results are in, very specific supplements can be recommended for specific times of the day. While I would certainly counsel patients on dietary changes to support the adrenals (sea salt and vitamin C), sometimes supplemental support is needed to facilitate healing. Great post!

    Reply
    • Renee N.

      Sep 13, 2011 at 10:19 am

      Thank you for sharing this, Jill. =]

    • Melissa H.

      Sep 13, 2011 at 11:07 am

      I agree w/Jill. 24 hour saliva tests are considered the gold standard for really diagnosing adrenal issues because there is a such a cortisol fluctuation in our bodies naturally throughout the day. I agree with dietary and lifestyle changes to assist the body in healing and building back a reserve in the adrenals. There are some people in which this is not enough and supplements are necessary to assist in that healing. I was one of those people and I am very thankful I had them. 🙂

    • Cassandra

      Sep 13, 2011 at 11:28 am

      I wouldn’t call that cheap. The one I was given to do was $130.

    • M1ssDiagnosis

      Sep 13, 2011 at 11:51 am

      Thank you for sharing about the saliva cortisol test. Most doctors will insist that a blood test or even 24-hour urine collection will suffice. The truth is, I suffered from adrenal dysfunction and low cortisol for YEARS because I didn’t do the proper test. Another thing you can do is to take your body temperatures with a standard “mercury” thermometer for 5 days. Take it 3 hours after you awake, then repeat in 3 hours, and again in 3. Be sure to take them at the same time each day. Average your 3 daily temps and then compare them over 5 days. If the daily average fluctuates more than .2-.3 degrees, you have an adrenal problem. Other things that can cause adrenal dysfunction are undiagnosed (using useless TSH test or “thyroid panel”) or improperly treated (with T4-only synthetic medications like synthroid and levoxyl) thyroid disease, low iron or ferritin levels, and low aldosterone levels. These things should all be tested if you have an adrenal problem.

Newer Comments »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Sidebar

Mother Nature’s Medicine Cabinet

5 Secrets to a Strong Immune System

Loading

The Healthy Home Economist

Since 2002, Sarah has been a Health and Nutrition Educator dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. Read More

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Check Out My Books

Mother Nature’s Medicine Cabinet

5 Secrets to a Strong Immune System

Loading

Contact the Healthy Home Economist. The information on this website has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease. By accessing or using this website, you agree to abide by the Terms of Service, Full Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Affiliate Disclosure, and Comment Policy.

Copyright © 2009–2025 · The Healthy Home Economist · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc.